The French automotive industry has always been known for doing things differently than others. Renault and Peugeot have been pursuing "special" ways of designing their cars for years now, while Citroen has been at the forefront of French automotive technology and quirky design since forever.
Except for the 1990s, when they were still recovering from a bankruptcy that had happened almost two decades earlier, Citroen have always had one of the weirdest and funkiest car lineups, even among other French car manufacturers.
The trust put in Donato Coco and Jean-Pierre Ploué really paid off in the early 2000s, when Citroen really returned to its roots, at least in terms of design. Now in charge of design at Group Lotus, Donato Coco was mainly "at fault" for Citroen's retro/modern design resurrection.
The first retro motif seen on modern Citroens was Coco's C3, which was launched in 2002. Looking like a modern interpretation of the 2CV, the C3 spawned a whole range of related models, all of them with a design like nothing else on the road.
The C3's second generation is to offer even more platform versions, with one of them being launched even before the actual C3. We are talking about the C3 Picasso, which is currently the smallest
MPV in the Citroen range. Kind of like a bigger brother of the "regular" C3, but a smaller brother to the C4 Picasso, the C3 Picasso is one cuddly little car.
It was launched at the 2008 Paris Auto Show, almost a year before the second generation of the non-Picasso C3 was revealed. We got the chance to drive a 1.6-liter VTi version of the car, equipped with the "Exclusive" trim level, which is pretty much the top-specced variant. Read on to find out what impressions it has left on us.
Even though the only retro touch on the C3 Picasso is the fact that it reminds you more of a van instead of a car, the Citroen design lineage is clearly visible from almost every angle. For a round(ish) box on wheels, the front is rather expressive, with the L-shaped headlights somewhat reminiscent of its C4 bigger brother.
The addition of dark-painted plastic bits and a bit of plastic "chrome" is actually tasteful and doesn't look kitschy at all on a car this small. As we mentioned earlier, our C3 was equipped with the "Exclusive" trim level, which, apart from the black-painted inserts in the bumpers and on other parts of the car also added the 17-inch "Clover" wheels.
The effect given by the "Exclusive" package is that of a mildly "tuned" car, and it does take quite a lot away from the van-look you might experience while glancing at it from the distance. The side view is a bit less impressive than the front, so if it wasn't for the "Clover" wheels it would have probably looked downright ugly.
Getting to the rear is where its look gets really weird. The exterior design bits from the "Exclusive" package can't really help the utilitarian look of the back, while the rounded "locomotive from the 1930s" taillights don't make it exactly appealing.
The humongous side windows are great for visibility, but they also give an odd design effect on such a tall and narrow vehicle. All in all, the only part where everyone agrees about the C3 Picasso's design is the fact that it's unique and it doesn't try to copy anything overall. The opinions about its beauty or ugliness are obviously mixed, which kind of makes this a "love it or hate it" car. Therefore, we can't give it good marks, nor bad ones.
Since the exterior had such a funky design, we were expecting the same Citroen design lunacy in the interior as well. As we jumped inside for the first time, that became clearer as day. Citroen interior designers have once again formed a tight team with the engineers, and the results are more than reassuring.
First of all, except for the lack of a hub-less steering wheel (which we kind of missed, as a matter of fact), everything inside is clearly Citroen. The center-mounted tachometer, the part-leather/part-velour seats upholstery, the cream and silver colors seen everywhere you look and the soft feel of the dashboard - all these details contribute to a very "French" feeling from the first moment you step inside.
As you would expect, despite having a very city-like exterior size, the C3 Picasso has an absolutely gigantic interior volume, especially when thinking vertically. It's probably one of the very few rare examples when marketing doesn't actually lie about the car it's trying to sell, since Citroen nicknames the C3 Picasso the "spacebox".
As far as ergonomics go, everything is close to perfect. For example, since the tachometer and other important displays are moved in a more central position, there isn't a single position of the height AND depth adjustable steering wheel that would obstruct the driver's view of the instruments. Also, despite our original fears (as in the C4 Coupe we tested earlier), the center-mounted dash is very easy to follow, since it's not exactly "central" in the Picasso.
The areas where designers and engineers clearly co-worked are the numerous storage areas and the flexibility of almost all the seats in the car. For example, the front passenger's seat can fold forward in order to increase the available interior length when at least one of the rear seats is also folded. That way, you can carry a surfboard or even a small piano with the legs removed, compromising just half of the available passenger space.
The rear seats can be slid forward and backwards independently, in order to either increase rear passenger legroom or the already large luggage compartment. Speaking of the luggage area, by using the aforementioned technique, the trunk volume can grow from 385 liters (13.6 cubic feet) to 500 liters (17.7 cubic feet), and then to a staggering 1506 liters (53.2 cubic feet) by folding the rear seats flat using a 60:40 percentage.
What we didn't like was the fact that seating so high also has its disadvantages. For example, the handbrake lever can only be used if you have orangutan hands, while the driver's seat-mounted hand support can semi-obstruct you from shifting into second gear. Other than that, the Citroen C3 Picasso has a quite likable and ergonomic interior.
Our test car was fitted with the four-cylinder gasoline engine born out of the BMW-PSA Peugeot Citroen short-term marriage. With a displacement of 1.6-liters but without the direct injection featured on its bigger brothers, the rather small mill is not exactly a best friend of in-city fuel consumption, even on a car as light as the C3 Picasso.
During our five day test drive, the best fuel consumption figures we achieved in the city were 10.5 liters per 100 kilometers (US 22.4 mpg), while the average numbers encountered in heavy traffic and a heavier right foot were in the range of 12.5-13 liters per 100 kilometers (US 18.1-18.8 mpg). This isn't exactly a high fuel consumption compared to the official figures, which are 9.4 liters per 100 km (US 25 mpg), but it's too much for a car as small and as light as this.
As far as the better in-city features go, our test car's greatest one was probably the overall visibility. First of all, the driver's position is as high as in a compact van or even a small
SUV, so you are able to see farther in the distance. Second of all, the overall windowed area is enormous compared to the car's size, while the rear view mirrors were more than adequately sized.
For the more family-oriented drivers, there's even a smaller interior rearview mirror to check on the children poking their eyes out on the rear seat.
If the great overall visibility wasn't enough, our test car was also fitted with parking sensors in the rear. We obviously found them a bit unnecessary, mostly by considering the other parking "aids" the car was fitted with. The high seating position is also a consequence of the mildly-high ground clearance, which is helpful when running over a speed bump while having a "too optimistic" speed.
The suspension has a pretty long travel and it's quite comfy on paved roads, but the 17-inch "Clover" wheels with low tire side-walls make the car have a bit of a jumpy feeling over potholes or speed bumps. Overall, the Citroen C3 Picasso is one of the few family MPVs that feels right at home in the city doing short shopping errands or driving the kids to school.
After perceiving the spunkiness of what seemed like a rather sporty mini-MPV in the city, the open road clearly changed our impressions. The engine, while having a decent amount of power - 120 horsepower and 160 Nm (118 lb ft) of torque from 1.6-liters of displacement - can really struggle to keep the acceleration going full speed without the driver recurring to much higher rpm.
Even though the car looks like a slightly polished shoebox, the aerodynamics aren't half bad, with a Cd of only 0.31. In other words, the main fault for the rather poor performance at higher speeds can only be found in the five-speed manual gearbox, whose fourth and fifth gears are very long and fuel consumption-friendly.
Although the 10.9 seconds required to go from naught to 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) aren't exactly a lot for a car that weighs 1365 kilograms (3,000 pounds), the feel you get when trying to pass someone at highway speeds is not very encouraging and it almost always requires you to switch to fourth gear.
As far as the high speed sound levels, with so many windowed areas around you wouldn't expect a lot of peace and quiet, would you? Neither did we, but, though they are a bit on the high side, the overall sound levels are quite acceptable, mainly thanks to the unexpectedly good aerodynamics.
The real surprise came after switching off the cruise control and trying the car on some serpentine roads. Even though the rear suspension is not a multilink or something and it has a rather long travel, the C3 Picasso can really hold its own in the curves, especially when comparing it with other MPVs of this size.
Of course, after "thrashing" it through the curves, the open road fuel consumption rose from the "highway with cruise control on" 5.8 liters per 100 km (US 40.6 mpg) to almost 9 liters per 100 km (US 26.1 mpg). All in all, the Citroen C3 Picasso had a decent performance outside the busy city, although we wouldn't exactly recommend it for very long trips given the rather upright position of the rear seats.