The car market can be a confusing place. Despite the plethora of vehicles on offer, it’s often hard to choose the exact one that’s right for you and your family’s every need.
Take me for instance. I need a nippier car for the city than the bulkier SUVs that seem to pervade the market – but then also value extra space for longer journeys that take you away from home for extended trips.
What car delivers you the best of both worlds then?
Citroen thankfully has the perfect answer in the new C4 – it is a reinvented hatchback that could arguably be described as being a bit like a mini-SUV.
Forced this year to holiday in the UK during the pandemic, we enjoyed a camping trip to Cornwall this summer – and opted for the C4 as our weapon of choice. It proved the right decision on several fronts, which made our vacation all that little more enjoyable.
Thanks to its generous, muscular shape, crucially the C4 had plenty of space to get everything in we needed for two weeks away.
But when we arrived, unpacked and set about exploring – searching out the best sights and beaches, often changing plans at the last minute to divert elsewhere – we really started to appreciate how versatile the car is.
The compact C4 is the perfect size for tackling narrow lanes and easing past oncoming traffic or getting in somewhere where a larger SUV would struggle.
First of all I should stress the car feels elegant to drive. You may have seen the recent adverts featuring the Gogglebox cast applauding the sexy curves on the latest cars in the Citroen fleet.
They are not exaggerating.
The C4’s high, sculpted bonnet makes you feel from the off like you are getting into a car that means business and is going to get you places.
There’s a certain feeling you get driving a Citroen on the road that you are driving something slightly ‘different from the others’ and that’s just that little better than everything else. Inside it’s comfy and roomy, just how cars should be, but weirdly where how so many fail.
I especially appreciated how easy to use all the built-in gizmos like the (often confusing, but not in this case) active cruise control and speed limiting technology is. A click of a button and you are in no danger of exceeding the speed limit as you wind through uncharted territory.
Another very handy gadget is the overhead reversing camera (often a very pricey add on in more expensive vehicles) that were an utter godsend when it came to negotiating into a narrow parking space with ease (often such a stress is seaside town car parks, but not here).
Indeed, there were a lot of little touches everywhere inside the C4 that made that extra difference. I didn’t care so much for the unusual iPad holder in the front passenger seat (although some would value being able to watch a film on a long journey) but I did like the iPhone charging pad that topped up my battery without the need for cumbersome wires. They really are a superb addition to any car.
That said, needing to be in and out of the car so often as you are on holiday, I missed having a boot close button that I would try to get as an extra if I bought one - but its generous space (380 litres) is to die for.
And if you are like me and get excited about things like a hidden flap under the boot space that let you get a flat camping table packed away inside, then this could well be the car for you.
And there are plenty of other things, that you wouldn’t think of asking for, which you do get as standard – like a voice on the satnav telling you that you had been driving for 2.5hrs and you need a break, and there’s this service station coming up…
What didn’t I like? Well, there’s this weird strap across the rear window (that I’m sure is probably there for a reasonable structural or safety reason rather than simply being designed to look good) which partially obscures visibility out of the rear view mirror, but that was about it.
The coffee cup holder could be a little bigger, but I just mention that to stress, there really is very little more you could want or need.
There’s a staggering 31 combinations of exterior made up of seven body colours and five colour packs to choose from with the C4 – meaning you are unlikely to often see another car quite yours on the road.
Prices start at £20,020 for the choices of 1.2L petrol (the version I drove) or 1.5L diesel models with either an 8-speed automatic or 6-speed manual gearboxes – and of course a 100% electric model which, on the basis of its sister’s performance, is worth investigating (starting at £29,180, range 217 miles).
Most of all though, I really valued how easy the C4 is to drive. Like many new cars nowadays, you can adjust the settings so the onboard computer will notice if the vehicle in front slows down faster than you can often spot and adjusts your speed accordingly.
With the Citroen it just seemed so much easier to control this at the flick of a switch from the steering wheel.
It’s no exaggeration that on the long journey home from Cornwall, the car almost drove itself back to London. We arrived back feeling more refreshed than we have done on that trek in the past, which made the C4 a true winner.
