So I have now acquired a Citroen C3 2015, imported from the UK by a dealer specializing in such imports. 152 Irish registration - was a 65 UK reg. Just 21k miles on the clock. It's a 1.2 82bhp, and the invoice lists the SELECTION trim. It has alloy wheels and that big windscreen extension overhead. It does not have a touch screen.
I traded in a 2010 Kia Picanto. This is the second car in the family; I don't driveon the motorway too much so it needs to be a petrol; and I like my car small. But as I have to drive somewhat more now, the cramped inside of the Picanto was no longer acceptable; I wanted something really comfortable. While I was a faithful KIA user for the last 9 years and the first car in the family is a diesel KIA Cee'd (my wife drives on the motorway much more), the Rio is just not comfortable for me, while the Venga is a big too big and way too expensive in used low-mileage state (possibly because it was discontinued). So, testing new waters!
So far (a couple of days), the good:
- COMFORT! The best driving position I ever had in a B-class car. Only the Venga is comparable - and I think that the back support in the Citroen C3 is better than that in the Venga; also, the Citroen is more flexible on driving position, so my wife (who is much shorter) can probably be comfortable in it too - while she did not like the Venga very much. Another highlight of the Citroen is that the head rest is not tilted forward as much as in many other cars, making for a far more comfortable upper back/shoulder/neck position.
- Very good boot space for the dimensions of the car (though coming at the cost of leg room in the rear seat behind the driver, but the seat remains usable for a child).
- The car feels nice on most roads, including motorways. The Picanto used to feel like I'm really pushing it at 120+ kph (75+ mph). The C3 is much more refined.
- Cruise control is a very nice experience.
The "so-so":
- Economy, at least by the trip computer (I did not do the "fill to the brim, measure distance travelled, fill to the brim again" thing yet). The economy is nothing to write home about, after driving 100 miles on a mix of motorways and country roads I got 7.3 l/100 km on the trip computer (38.7 mpg, but I did switch to l/100 km because I am more confortable with this - Ireland uses kilometres, and I buy petrol by the litre). There seems to be a 40mpg+ sweet spot if driving 80-100 kph (50-60 mph) on cruise control, but motorway and city style driving are pretty "hungry". The Picanto had the same situation in motorway driving but was more economical in city driving (as expected from a city car, I guess).
- Quite a bit of noise - not sure if it's road or engine noise.
- The dynamic is what one would expect from a somewhat-biggish car with a 1.2 litre engine. If the road is tilted up in any way or if I'm speeding up for the motorway, it's outright sluggish. To be fair, so was the Picanto, and at least the C3 remains refined while being sluggish.
- The suspension feels really bumpy on unpaved roads (as you can notice on the photo, I drove one today - geting to an archery field in the forest) and when going over ramps. Perhaps the Picanto was even more bumpy but somehow the Citroen C3 is more "weird". (The Cee'd is really gentle in these circumstances).
The bad:
- The high clutch biting point! In fact, I found this site by googling "Citroen C3 high clutch biting point". I was somewhat afraid they sold me a car with a bad clutch, but I can;t see anything wrong so far. When I push the accelerator down in any gear, including when going uphill, the odometer and speedometer rise in perfect harmony (sometimes very slowly, but together every time). An attempt to move off from a full stop in fourth gear stalled the car. Gearing down at road speed leads to immediate high revs. So, for all one can see, it's a good clutch, just the Citroen C3 type. But it's still rather hard to control, especially when one needs to engage it part of the way to move very slowly (happens during reversing and tricky parking). I already had the burning smell once when negotiating a space in a parking lot. I hope I'll learn to control it and not burn it.
- The sun visors hanging off the moveable blind (which can cover the extended windscreen) are nearly useless for me. They do not stick close enough to the windscreen and so go too low, blocking the view of the road from my normal driving position. I have to push my head forward and down to be able to drive. To mitigate this, I am planning to stick shaded film to the top part of the windscreen, covering the areas that a proper sun visor would cover. But to avoid seeing an ugly "band" when the extended windscreen is actually open, I'll probably just cover all of the extension with the tilted film to - making it somewhat less "airy-feeling" when there is no direct sunlight, but hopefully allowing me to drive in most cases of direct sunlight without needing the sun visors.
