Citroen C4 Picasso - Better By Design : SMOOTH OPERATOR

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A trip to France showed our long term Citroen Piccasso in a favourable light. Steve Walker reports.

We hit the outskirts of Paris and it became clear something was amiss. Back on home turf, the Citroen C4 Picasso's satellite navigation system might have been expected to display some local knowledge and pull-out an ingenious short-cut or two. Instead, it was guiding us directly into the teeth of the perfect storm that is the French capital's notorious rush hour. Some scrolling around and zooming in on the dash-mounted display screen revealed the true horror of a demented route that appeared to take in the Champs Elyse and pass directly beneath the Eiffel tower. This was going to scupper our schedule something rotten. It was time to break out the road atlas, disable the computer and take evasive action.

It's amazing how some journeys look perfectly manageable on a map. Journeys like the brief squirt from the Calais ferry terminal to the farmhouse we'd rented in the Pyrenean foothills south of Toulouse. In reality, a missed ferry (kindly arranged by PandO Ferries; www.poferries.com) and the small matter of gay Paris being inconveniently located slap bang in our path were complicating matters and the trip was beginning to seem like every one of its 650+ miles. The map book was studied, the worst of the Paris traffic was avoided and before too long the C4 Picasso was ploughing down the sparsely populated autoroutes in the desired southerly direction. With the satellite navigation switched off and in disgrace following its attempted Parisian sightseeing tour, the car settled into its native habitat perfectly. In the UK the C4 Picasso can feel bouncy over our appalling road surfaces but it glided over the well-tended French tarmac with the 1.6-litre HDI diesel engine murmuring away in the background. With the roomy leather seats of our Exclusive model to sit in and a handy armrest to prop a weary elbow on, the Citroen was revealing itself as an outstanding motorway car.

"â€¦for long motorway journeys, there's very little that's better at this price"

The 110bhp 1.6-litre diesel engine will sit on its cruise control at 85mph very happily on French autoroutes, returning nearly 45mpg even at that velocity. If you're not a fan of cruise control, and many aren't, there's also a handy manual speed limiter function that will prevent you inadvertently creeping over the posted limit. With a maximum speed of 125mph, the C4 Picasso had plenty left to give, so when driving it without the cruise or the limiter switched on, it was easy to accidentally creep up towards the three figure mark on empty, featureless autoroute sections. The positive opinion of the Picasso was shared by all four occupants as legroom in the rear of our five-seater model was very generous. There's plenty of storage space in the car as well and our Exclusive model seemed to have had every conceivable option levered into it. As well as the sat nav, there was the optional hi-fi pack, metallic paint, big alloy wheels, leather heated seats and front parking sensors. Most of these options are unabashed luxuries but if you're shopping for a C4 Picasso, I'd strongly recommend the parking sensors. The front of the car disappears from view beyond the steeply raked windscreen and even the tallest drivers won't be able to see the extremities while manoeuvring in tight spots. The journey south was completed without any more undue drama and the C4 Picasso was presented with the slightly different test of a week on the mountain roads of the Pyrenees. The ESG automatic gearbox works fine when driven in a relaxed fashion in automatic mode but try to press on a bit up the steep inclines and tight bends that characterise the roads in the area and it can get confused. To avoid the auto `box changing down at inopportune moments, the manual paddle shifters can be selected and these give far more control. The other aspect of the C4 that takes a little getting used to is the brakes which are very much all or nothing. Trying to reduce speed and stop smoothly in the Citroen is quite an art, especially at low speeds where the merest tickle of the substantial brake peddle brings everything to an abrupt halt. The C4 Picasso was not the most engaging car to hurry along a mountain road with its soft ride and tendency to lean in corners but the memory of how it had excelled on the long straights of the journey down meant that most indiscretions could be easily forgiven. The column mounted gear selector is sometimes awkward to use when manoeuvring at low speeds and the central display isn't ideally located for checking your speed but there were plenty of other aspects of the car that worked beautifully. We even managed to use the boot light that doubles as a detachable torch on one particularly dark night - a feature that I had previously written-off as a useless gimmick. On the return leg, the Citroen C4 Picasso took to the motorways with the same composure it has shown on the way down and rounded off a trip that had shown the car in an extremely favourable light. As an all-round family vehicle, the Picasso is a real winner and for long motorway journeys, there's very little that's better at this price.

Facts At A Glance
CAR: Citroen C4 Picasso range
PRICES: £13,995-£22,195 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUPS: 6-9
CO2 EMISSIONS: 150-190g/km
PERFORMANCE: [2.0HDi 138] 12.5s 0-60mph / 121mph top speed
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [2.0HDi 138] 35.8 (urban), 55.4 (extra urban) 46.3mpg (combined)
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: ABS with EBD, ESP, 7 airbags, 3-point seat belts.
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: length/Width/Height 4470/1830/1680mm