Test Drive: The new Citroen C3 Aircross
After the Renault 4, we continue on our endeavour to drive the most recent launches on the French market. This time I have the pleasure of test driving the new Citroen C3 Aircross 2nd generation. Although new to Europe, this design has already been used for its Indian and Brazilian namesakes. Of course, the vehicle has been adapted to Europe’s safety and pollution norms, and is manufactured in Stellantis’ plant in Trnava, Slovakia.
The design of the new C3 Aircross makes an abrupt change on the first generation: it length goes from 4.16m to 4.39m, and its appearance is much more rectangular and now firmly camped in the SUV arena, the most striking feature to me being its flat bonnet, clearly visible from the driver’s seat. In fact, the Aircross re-uses many design elements from the smaller C3, such as the rectangular head- and tail-lights with 3 separate shapes.
Inside, the dashboard is replicated from the C3, but was new to me as this is the first Citroen I ever test drive. The interior is stylish, with nicely arranged fabric covering most parts. The air vents are somewhat imposing on each side of the dash. The drive to keep prices low can be seen with some hard plastics towards the bottom of the dash but all in all it’s a pleasing setup. First thing that surprises when sitting down is the instrument panel, which is located just under the windshield as a head up display. It works well as it clearly indicates the most important items while driving (see third picture above).
On this Plus variant, the dash also includes a 10.25″ infotainment screen. It is absent on the Joy entry level variant, only offering a smartphone support. The screen only offers basic functions such as radio and Apple CarPlay but no GPS. The C3 Aircross starts with a real key, even for the electric variants, a little anachronistic but in line with the tight pricing as we’ll see below. The car I had was a 6-speed manual. Immediately the speeding indicator loudly makes itself known, but can be deactivated with a small button on the left of the dash (see last picture above).
The drive is relatively smooth but lacks dynamism. Citroen has certainly put its focus on comfort, with hydraulic suspension on all variants. The fuel consumption was indicating 7.8l/100km at the time of the drive, what we’d expect for this type of vehicle which is quite light (1,398 kg). Safety equipment includes automatic headlights and windshield wipers, rearview camera, automated emergency braking, but the cruise control is not adaptive. The C3 Aircross offers a large 460 litres of boot space, and up to 1,600 litres when second row seats are folded down. This is less than the Duster, its main competitor as we’ll see below. Note the warranty is a whopping 8 years or 160,000 km.
The C3 Aircross is available in petrol, mild hybrid and EV. I drove the smallest engine, a 3 cylinder, 100 ch 1.2 Turbo petrol. There are three levels of finish: the low-end You, then Plus and Max. I drove the Plus variant, which is sold for a very attractive 22,874€ in France. The main competitor for this vehicle is the Dacia Duster, priced at similar levels and length at 4.34m. In fact, the base C3 Aircross You is 19,700€, 290€ less than the base Duster. The C3 Aircross can however be offered as a 7-seater, something the Duster – or even the Bigster – don’t do. Note the EV variant, the e-C3 Aircross, starts at 27,400€, brought down to 23,400€ with the maximum EV subsidy amount (4,000€). You won’t find a cheaper electric SUV on the market. As a result, wait times for delivery have already ballooned to 4-5 months.
All in all, the main attraction of the Citroen C3 Aircross is its price, so tight it competes head-to-head with the Dacia Duster which used to be unparalleled. This is a real change of positioning for Citroen. I didn’t drive the You base model but this Plus variant does the job of a comfortable drive with all the basic functions one would expect. It’s the price to pay for… the low price. Not super exciting, but not disappointing either.
