Road test: A look at the great value of the Citroen C4

Road test: A look at the great value of the Citroen C4

If you have looked at the price of most new cars you’ll have gathered they aren’t cheap, even small hatchbacks are not necessarily in the affordable bracket. However, value for money can be had from mainstream manufacturers if you are looking for a family car.

Citroen’s new C4 provided an enjoyable week’s motoring and with prices starting from a smidgen over €24,498 (£21,000) it represents incredibly good value for your motoring money. There are petrol and diesel engines, manual or automatic gears and even full electric power.

Standard equipment across the board includes 18” wheels, LED lights, Apple Car Play and Android Auto, Bluetooth, height adjustable front seats, automatic dual zone air conditioning, rear parking sensors, auto lights and wipers and heated and powered door mirrors.

My test model was the mid-table Shine version with prices from a still very reasonable €28,011 (£24,010), bringing a significant ramp up in the standard equipment stakes. Petrol power for the range comes from a 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder turbocharged unit in two power outputs, 129hp and 153hp. In my case the 129hp engine mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox.

The first thing that strikes you about the Citroen is refinement, even under hard acceleration, when 3-cylinders generally sound like an over excited lawnmower, the Citroen is remarkably quiet. It has a feeling of quality, not something that has always been a hallmark of Citroen’s past.

A nice slick gearchange and well-chosen ratios means the C4 bowls along with little extra effort required from the driver, and it’s a comfortable place to be seated. It’s no hot hatch and you certainly won’t want to be hustling it along twisty roads, even though the famously comfortable Citroen suspension produces less body roll than you might imagine.

It’s a very modern looking car with swooping lines, especially to the rear, but access and egress remains comfortable and most who saw my test car loved the looks. This is a car aimed at the family in my view, and it does a great job of providing practical, well -equipped transport at an affordable price. As with sister manufacturer Peugeot the quality has come on in leaps and bounds over the last few years, yet you do get a distinctly different car to any Peugeot stablemates.

I loved the C4, it has distinct echoes of Citroen’s quirky past but in a very useable, modern form in a great value for money package.

Facts at a Glance

• Model: Citroen C4 Shine
• Engine: 1.2-litre turbocharged 3-cylinder petrol developing 129 hp
• Gears: 6-speed manual
• Performance: 0-100 kph (62 mph) Petrol 8.9 secs
• Maximum Speed Petrol 209 kph (130 mph)
• Economy: Petrol 5.1 l/100km (54.7 mpg) WLTP
• Emissions: 135 g/km WLTP

Model tested was UK-specification and equipment levels and prices may vary in other markets.