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First Drive: Citroën C4 Picasso

By / 11 years ago / Road Tests / No Comments

Sector: MPV Price: From £17,500 (est) Fuel: 74.3–44.8mpg CO2: 98–145g/km

There are really only three or four things you need in an MPV: wipe clean surfaces, easy access to the rear seats, a big boot and long range.

So for the designers of the new C4 Picasso, it must have been hard to come up with something new, having pretty much aced all of those attributes with the previous incarnations. Instead then, with this generation, Citroën has laden it with all sorts of technology, perhaps in a bid to make the lives of the adults trapped inside more bearable.

It comes with a fully-digital dual screen driving interface, with 7-inch touchpad and 12-inch panoramic HD screen, places for apps such as weather forecasting and finding the nearest fuel station, spots on the screen to post your own pictures, active seatbelts, lights and cruise control, and it can park itself. Then you can change the graphics of the dials, have a panoramic sunroof and massaging seats. No wonder Citroën calls it The Technospace.

Truth is, almost all of this stuff has been seen already on other cars. But much of it has not made it into the distinctly unglamorous world of the MPV: perhaps Citroën is trying to create a little home from home for the modern family. If it is, you might need to read the manual first, because such is the plethora of menus, buttons and screens that it takes a while to navigate your way around it.

On the more prosaic matter of storage of people, this C4 Picasso is pretty good. There’s a lovely airy feel to the cabin, the side windows are low enough to allow occupants a view out and lots of legroom to grow into as well. It also has the biggest boot in class at 537-litres, although the sliding rear seats aren’t the easiest to tumble flat, as they require some awkward tugging at webbing to elicit any response. For such a modern car elsewhere, it’s a bit old school.

The diesel engine line-up is strong, with the e-HDi 115 emitting 104g/km CO2 with the six-speed clutchless gearbox and 105g/km with the manual, and the e-HDi 90 Airdream engine, mated to the new six-speed clutchless gearbox, emitting just 98g/km with fuel economy of 74mpg. All these figures are helped by it being 140kg lighter than its predecessor due to a new platform and the use of aluminium and composites.

There’s also a 155bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine, but the diesels will take up the vast majority of sales, and fleet buyers, including Motability, will account for more than half of all sales. For this five seat models, that’s expected to be around 6,000 units in the UK annually, with next year’s seven seat version selling twice that number. Prices have yet to be announced, but they should start from about £17,500.

The C4 Picasso is wedded to its role as a comfortable, spacious, quiet people carrier and with the 115 diesel we drove it does just that. The engine has just enough power to drag it along, but is refined and if you have 17-inch wheels, rides decently enough too. On 18 it patters too much. But through a corner – forget it. It rolls and wallows and the steering is light and uninformative. And it’s better for it. Better to be good at its main task than compromised in two jobs.

Verdict:

Despite all the talk of fancy new technology, the C4 Picasso is actually better at providing spacious, efficient, good value motoring to groups of people.

Watch the latest C4 Picasso video here.

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Steve Moody

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