Autumn 2013
Picasso
grows to
maturity
any premium brand can boast. Comfort has always been a
Citroen hallmark, but now it comes in classy ambience too.
It needs to be noted that my
review car was the Exclusive
grade, which adds that extra large
information screen and a reversing
camera as well as navigation and
larger alloys.
PSA Group are producing some
of the most refined and efficient
engines in the business, both
petrol and diesel. In the review
car it was the excellent 1.6 diesel
outputting 115hp. A slinky 6-speed
gearbox helped to make it as
comfortable in town traffic as on
the long journey. My sense that
it was a very quiet powertrain was echoed by a colleague
when I mentioned it to him some days afterwards, so it
wasn't just me.
Most of all though, the composed and comfortable drive is
a credit to the new platform developed by Peugeot-Citroen,
the C4 Picasso being the first car in Ireland to use it.
This is underpinning which can easily challenge those in the
Golf and Focus for capability, and I'm betting that we'll see a
lot of very happy owners in these and more sporty offerings
from Peugeot-Citroen in coming years.
The next generation C4, on the same platform as the car
I've just been writing about, will be chasing with gusto both
VW and Ford's competitor equivalents.
Such a scenario is always interesting.
Leaving back the new Citroen C4 Picasso after
a recent spell with it, I was very certain that I
had driven one of the best new family cars on
the market.
That's a big thing to lay on a car. Especially
on an MPV, which genre has been parked in
the worthy but dull space in recent years.
Citroen has brought a whole lot of good stuff
together here. First, the shape and style, at last
with a full aesthetic balance, especially around
the front end. But also at the back, where the
rear quarters have a distinctly, and very nice, hatchback style
without compromising interior space.
In that interior, there's more room even though the overall
car looks more compact than its predecessor. That's thanks
in part to a longer wheelbase, and at least a perception of
more shoulder and headroom. Actually, it's more than a
perception. Look at the three individual rear seats, all of them
the same full size and each movable independently.
Then there's the boot. Showing how the crossovers
that have stolen MPV sales can have compromising
shortcomings, especially in cargo capacity. There's
substantially more luggage litres here than in Nissan's
Qashqai, for instance.
But it's where the driver is — arguably the most important
spot in the space for an owner — that there's the most
progress.
Although 21st century in concept,
there's nothing gimmicky in its
execution. Without doubt, the
best use of bright and colourful
information screens in the game.
And a large separate touchscreen
that acknowledges the iPad as
driver in much of our lives today.
I could cheerfully do without the
'goldfish bowl' windscreen. I'm not
at all sure why we need to look out
for airplanes while driving on roads,
so for almost all of my time with the
car I kept the visor sliders forward. It
was still a very ample and adequate
screen for visibility needs.
The interior finish is top class, with
quality materials and fit as good as
Brian Byr