Citroen C3 Turbo Petrol Road Test Review - Interior, Exterior, Performance, Mileage

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Citroen C3 - Exterior Review

The highlight of C3's frontal design is its split LED daytime running lights (DRLs). One part of the DRLs merges into the upper extension of its chrome logo and the other in the lower extension. Just below the upper DRL, there is a bulb-type turn indicator and its headlamps are halogen reflector type. The C3 turbo comes with a Vibe pack, which includes fog lamps on the lower plastic cladding that is quite thick and it has a silver extension, which gives it a bulky look.

Moving to the side, there is cladding all around. The C3’s ORVMs do not have turn indicators, and all its variants come with flap-type door handles, which don't give it an upmarket feel. The C3 comes with 15-inch steel wheels with full wheel covers and it also has roof rails.

The design at the rear is basic yet pleasing. There is thick plastic cladding at the rear with a black skid plate-like cutout, and just above it are two parking sensors. There is no rear wiper or defogger on the C3's windscreen, but there is a parking camera just above the licence plate. Its tail lamps and rear turn indicators are also bulb-type, so while the design is pleasing, it doesn't look modern.

Opening the boot reveals the 315 litres of space, which can easily accommodate two large bags and four people's weekend luggage. The rear seat is foldable and you can completely remove the seatback to increase the cargo volume and have a flat storage base. The boot has two luggage hooks and under the floor, there is a 15-inch spare tyre, with space around it to keep a puncture repair kit. There is also a parcel tray in the boot.

So that was all about the exterior of the C3. Its design is pleasing, but it doesn't look modern because of many outdated design elements. Let's move on and take a look at its interior

Citroen C3 - Interior Front Review

The cabin of the C3 is predominantly black, but its door pockets, pillars and roof are in ivory colour. The dashboard is made of hard plastic everywhere, but its quality feels better compared to cars in this price range. There is a dark grey trim on the dashboard, which is present on both the passenger and driver side, and there are large air-con vents with glossy black and chrome detailing at the extreme ends of this trim. These cabin colour accents depend on the exterior colour combination you choose. Due to the large air-con vents, layered dashboard design, and 10.24-inch touchscreen, it feels like we’re sitting in a much bigger car.

There is a storage space on its dashboard where you can keep small items such as pens. Talking about storage space, the glovebox can take up a water bottle along with the owner's manual and booklets. There is also storage in the front doors. You can keep something small like a car perfume under the handbrake in its centre tunnel. There’s a deep storage bin in front of the gear lever along with a place to keep a phone on top of it, and 2 cupholders in front of the gear lever.

There is a USB port, 12V power outlet and aircon controls in the centre console. The quality of these controls is acceptable for the C3’s segment, but compared to quality at some other places in this car, these and the middle air-con vents feel made to a price. It is worth mentioning here that the design of its gear lever is smart, and it feels great to hold.

Now, coming to the 10.24-inch touchscreen, its touch sensitivity is good and it easily pairs with my iPhone without the need for a cable. There are controls on the steering wheel to manage the audio system, and it is worth mentioning that the steering wheel also feels good in terms of touch and feel. There is an option for tilt adjustment and there is a small digital MID that works as the instrument cluster. It displays the readout for speed, tripmeter, fuel efficiency, and distance-to-empty, and this is one of those things in this cabin that feels outdated and made to a price.

On the right side of the steering wheel, on the dashboard, there are controls for fog lamps and window lock, and there are backlit front power window switches on the driver's side. There is no specific button to centrally lock all doors, so you have to do it from here only. What we missed more than this was power-adjustable mirrors. Even in the top variants, outside mirrors are only manually adjustable. Adjusting the passenger-side outside mirror is inconvenient for the driver because of the width of the car.

The C3 has a big inside mirror, but there is no option for day/night adjustment in it. Thankfully, this is an easy upgrade from the aftermarket. For the driver, there’s height adjustment and you sit in an upright position in this car and can also see the bulge of the bonnet, giving you an SUV-like feel. The seat's bolstering good and cushioning is firm. With the front seat set to my liking, let's move to its rear.

Citroen C3 - Back Seat (Rear) Interior Review

The rear doors of the C3 are not very wide, but the ingress and egress in the back seat is comfortable because of the high bench seat and ground clearance. The doors also feel heavy when you shut them.

Inside, when seated with the front seat adjusted for a 5-feet 8-inch driver, there is enough leg and knee space, and there is also space to slide your feet under the front seats. The headroom is also sufficient, and overall, there is a sense of spaciousness in the cabin.

In terms of space, only two adults can sit comfortably in the rear seat of the C3, with a child in between. There is also a transmission tunnel, so legroom for three passengers is limited. However, the rear seat's base is flat and cushioning is supportive. The bolstering of the rear seat is also firm, similar to the front seats.

The rear seat has integrated headrests that are usable for my height, but they are not very supportive. They may be more useful for shorter passengers. The centre tunnel console in the rear has 2 USB charging ports, a storage space for a phone, and backlit rear power windows, which I found inconvenient to use because of their odd placement. There are also bottle holders in both rear doors and back pockets in both front seats. However, the cabin lacks features such as a cabin light, door-mounted power windows, adjustable rear headrests, rear armrest, and rear AC vents for the rear passengers.

Overall, there are many must-have and useful good-to-have features missing in the C3's cabin. Despite the absence of many features, the design and material quality of the cabin give it an upmarket car like. This is the highlight of the cabin. Let's move on and drive it now.

Citroen C3 - Engine Performance And Drive

We drove the C3 turbo, which comes with a 1.2L turbo petrol engine producing a maximum power of 110PS and peak torque of 190Nm. Its output, including power:weight and torque:weight ratios, is better than its rivals and this car feels agile. To put things into perspective, we tested its 0-100kmph acceleration time, and it did the sprint in under 10 seconds, which is quick considering this car's price and segment. However, outright performance and low-speed drivability aren’t the highlight of this engine. We found that the engine struggles to crawl in single-digit speeds in the 2nd gear. This forces you to shift between 1st and 2nd gears in slow, crawling city traffic. Hyundai and Kia’s 1.0L turbo petrol engine does this much better as it even allows you to take off from 0kmph in 2nd gear itself with minimal clutch slipping.

What is impressive about the Citroen C3 is its in-gear acceleration. We drove it in both city and highway conditions and we feel that its engine eagerly picks up speed, even when driven calmly at low revs. Unfortunately, there is no tachometer in this car, so we cannot give you the exact rev count where the engine feels lively, but we can tell you that there are no dead zones in this turbo-petrol engine. This means that if you press the accelerator in any gear, whether at low or high RPMs, you will get acceleration and the feel of that acceleration is comparable to a small diesel engine's peak torque acceleration.

We expected this because on paper, Citroen claim that the peak torque zone of this engine starts at just 1750rpm, which is appropriate for a turbo-petrol engine. In short, it's an enjoyable engine. This performance has some impact on its efficiency because in the last few days that we drove this car in mixed city and highway conditions, it gave us an efficiency of 15.5kmpl. With calm highway cruising and a mix of driving in some city traffic, it showed us up to 18kmpl on the MID.

The gear throws are short and the gear shift feel is good, but we found its clutch heavy - so much so that it will be bothersome in stop-and-go traffic. As far as the driving part of the C3 turbo is concerned, I think that the heavy clutch is the only thing that we did not like. This transmission is otherwise a 6-speed unit and the car cruises effortlessly at high speeds and it feels like you're driving a bigger car. I wish it came with an automatic transmission.

Anyway, the reason for the big car or heavy car feel in the C3 is not just its powerful engine, it's also the ride. When we say that it rides like a big car, it means that when you drive it on bad roads, you won't feel the suspension noise or a lot of up-down movement in its cabin. You will feel like you're driving a car with big tyres and not on the 15-inch wheels that it comes with. It's not so comfortable that you won't feel anything on a bad road, but the way it goes over bad roads, you'll feel like you're driving an SUV from one or two segments higher. You will not feel the need to slow down, so in that way, it's very comfortable. If you pair this ride with its turbo-petrol engine, 6 gear ratios and a clutch that you would want to use occasionally, these attributes together make it a very confident small car for highways.

In terms of braking, we think it could be sharper, but it still feels adequate for the C3's size and performance. I also like the steering setup on this car, it's speed-sensitive and feels quite light at slow speeds and weighs up well as you pick up pace. So that was all about how the C3 drives. Let's now look at its prices, and we will also tell you which variant of this car is worth buying.

The prices of the Citroen C3 now start at Rs 5.98 lakh. It is available with a 1.2L normal petrol engine in the Live and Feel variants and they cost Rs 5.98 lakh and Rs 7.05 lakh, respectively. The turbo-petrol engine is only available in the Feel variant with Vibe pack and it costs Rs 8.25 lakh (ex-showroom). The turbo petrol engine costs Rs 1.05 lakh more than its non-turbo version.

Based on the equipment available with this car, according to us, the non-turbo variant's feel variant offers the best balance of price and features, while upgrading to the turbo-petrol engine is expensive. Let's move on to the verdict of this review.

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Also Read: Citroen C3 Petrol Variants Explained - Which One To Buy?

Citroen C3 Turbo Petrol Review - Verdict

As a package, the biggest miss in the C3 is the lack of very basic features like:

• Day/night inside mirror
• Foldable remote key
• Flap-type door handles
• Power mirrors
• Rear wiper
• Rear defogger
• Rear cabin lights
• Adjustable rear headrests

I personally feel that in today's time and at the price of the C3 turbo, these are almost no-compromise basic features. Especially considering the fact that if you buy any car, you will use it with its feature set for at least the next 4 to 5 years.

The good part about the C3 is that even without these features, it does not feel cheap because the cabin's perceptible quality is good. The performance of the C3's turbo-petrol engine and its ride are also appreciable, but this engine is expensive compared to its normal petrol engine. So if you buy it, you will compromise on value for its emotional appeal.

Given how the C3's powertrain performs and the way this car rides, in our opinion, it is suitable for those buyers who do not want to stretch their budget for big SUVs and mostly travel on inter-state or inter-city highways. You will appreciate its engine and comfort on long drives and you have to deal less with the heavy clutch.

Also Read: Citroen eC3 Expected Vs Actual Price Analysis - Where We Went Wrong

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