Ten Second Review

For many these days, a small car can no longer be, well, just a small car. If growing families are to consider modern miniature transport, it must be a good deal more versatile. A good deal like Citroen's C3 Picasso in fact.

Background

If you want an MPV, talk to Citroen. At least, that would be a good place to start. The French brand has a bewildering array of the things, from utilitarian van-based models like the second generation Berlingo Multispace, built to withstand the attentions of the most destructive brood. To big, plush seven seaters like the C4 Grand Picasso or the even bigger C8, with interiors that contort into more positions than a Romanian gymnast. What the brand didn't have for many years was an MPV based on a supermini. Something like this C3 Picasso. You'd be forgiven for not knowing that such things exist, or if you did, wondering how such a concept might be possible within the restricted dimensions of such a small package. The answer is that such cars might not be able to carry any more people than a conventional Fiesta-sized supermini but they can seat five people far more comfortably and offer them considerably greater levels of versatility. Cars like Nissan's Note and Renault's Modus have been doing pretty well in this growing sector in recent years, selling significantly below the kind of money you'd need to pay for a Focus family hatchback-sized small MPV like Citroen's 5-seat C4 Picasso. The C3 Picasso neatly plugs that gap in the French maker's line-up.

Driving Experience

With this kind of car, the driving experience is likely to be unremarkable but the travelling experience can often feel rather unique. So it proves with the C3 Picasso. Yes, the steering's a little light before higher speeds firm it up, the long-throw gearbox isn't the slickest you'll ever use and of course it rolls a little on really tight corners but that isn't what you remember after driving this Citroen. No, what sticks in your mind are the things that are really important in this class of car: stuff that makes it a pleasure to drive while you're engaged in the boring things of life - nipping down the shops or picking the kids up from school. Let me give you a few examples on this. Apart from perhaps the digital speedometer, the first thing that you'll probably notice behind the wheel is the exceptionally light and airy cabin, courtesy of one of the largest glazed areas in the segment, with up to up to four and a half square metres of glass used around the side and the top of the car if you opt for the panoramic glass roof. Then there's the high-set seating position, with its excellent range of steering and seat-height adjustment, which gives you a commanding view of the road. And the three-part panoramic windscreen with its slim pillars which makes urban driving much easier courtesy of an unusually wide side vision angle of 29.5 - easily best in the segment. Manoeuvrability and a tight turning circle are also a boon around town, while the car's vertical rear end makes parking easy. The soft suspension soaks up poor road surfaces in proper Citroen style too, which can make you feel rather smug as you watch other road users crash from one pothole to another. The range is mainly built around 95bhp 1.4 or 120bhp 1.6-litre petrol units or a 1.6-litre diesel, offered with either 90 or 110bhp. If you're going to be carrying much or doing the odd longer journey, we'd probably avoid the entry-level petrol 1.4 but otherwise, the engines are a willing bunch, with the entry-level diesel feeling much more flexible than a rest to sixty time of 14.7s would suggest. Refinement at higher speeds could be a little better, thanks a little wind noise around the windscreen and, on petrol models, to the lack of a 6-speed gearbox, but most of the time it's fine and certainly far better than the bigger Berlingo Multispace model that Citroen will sell you for similar money.

Design and Build

MPVs need lots of interior space which necessitates boxy exterior dimensions. There isn't really any getting away from this but an astute designer can disguise the fact that his car is the shape of a garden shed. On the C3 Picasso, this trick has been achieved with some style. Yes, it's a box, but the rounded edges and circular detailing successfully draw attention away from that fact. More importantly, it's hard to think of a better car than this one to sum up the 'small on the outside/big on the inside' philosophy that so many compact car buyers are looking for. In outside dimensions, it's only slightly longer than an ordinary supermini and shorter than some rivals (so can fit into the tightest parking space). However, with over 1.7 metres of width, it boasts a broader cabin than any of them. Here's a car that makes the most of every millimetre of its bulk and incorporates everything Citroen has learned over the years about MPV versatility. Slip into the back and you'll enjoy a 1.66m-long cabin - one of the longest in its class and a rival for a number of MPVs in the segment above. Which means that with the front seat adjusted for a six-footer to drive, there's still plenty of legroom behind. At the same time, there's more headroom than anyone bar the ludicrously tall would ever need: it's all enough to make an equivalently-sized supermini feel ridiculously cramped. And there's more. In addition, to increase either boot volume or rear legroom, the split-folding rear seats individually slide back and forth independently. Elbow room is class-leading and knee room is also plentiful, even with the rear bench moved right forward. There's even a quality feeling to the fit and finish, thanks to plenty of soft-touch plastics. And storage capacity? Well, if the 385-litre boot isn't big enough, just slide the rear seat forward to increase it to 500 litres (more than you'll get from an executive saloon like BMW's 5 Series), keeping all your passenger space. If you don't need that and still want more luggage room, the back seat can be folded away with one easy hand movement to give you an entirely flat 1506-litre loading area, 150-litres more than a direct rival like Renault's Grand Modus can offer. You can even further extend your load length - to over 2.41m - by folding the back of the front passenger seat completely down, allowing you to take long items like surf boards and bicycles. There's also a removable boot floor which can be positioned at two different levels, at or below the floorline. Plus cubbyholes and storage spots are everywhere, on plusher models even at the rear passengers' feet. And there are the usual careful touches like the glovebox on air conditioned models that keeps chocolate or drinks cool. We'd also allow a few extra hundred to tick the boxes for options like aircraft-style trays that can be installed in the rear with reading lights and cup holders. Oh and the special extra child rear-view child mirror that lets you keep an eye on the fights and tantrums in the back without turning round.

Market and Model

List prices suggest that you'll probably pay somewhere in the £13,000 to £17,000 bracket for your C3 Picasso. That's around £500 more than the C3 Citroen supermini that this car is based on. So let's see how that stacks up as a value proposition. Direct rivals include the equivalently priced but less versatile Renault Grand Modus but you'll need to find a premium of just over £1,500 to own this Citroen over the car that leads this segment in the UK, Nissan's Note. But if it makes a strong case for itself amongst other compact MPVs, this car's proposition is of course totally compelling when you start stacking it up against conventional superminis, unless a Lewis Hamilton-style driving experience really is high on your list of small car priorities. Whether you go for 1.4 or 1.6-litre petrol C3 Picasso models or either of the 1.6-litre HDi diesels, compare your choice to an equivalently specified and powered mainstream supermini like Ford's Fiesta or Vauxhall's Corsa and before discounts, you're looking at paying around £500 less for a much more versatile car. As for this Citroen's kit list, well it runs to front electric windows, power mirrors, central locking, ABS brakes and a CD player but unfortunately, you have to graduate up to plusher models for side airbags and the potentially life-saving ESP stability control system that can get you out of trouble on slippery surfaces or if you enter a corner too fast.

Cost of Ownership

You won't need to take out a second mortgage to run a C3 Picasso, especially if you opt for one of the HDi models, both of which should see you the right side of 50mpg on a regular basis. CO2 emissions for both are 119g/km and 130g/km respectively, a figure which falls to just under 160g/km if you opt for a petrol version. Insurance groupings are between 3 and 5 and there's a three year/60,000 mile warranty. Residual values should be stronger than any small Citroen in living memory: you'll certainly do much better than you would have done if you'd bought a conventional C3 supermini.

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