SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Many of the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

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Three’s a charmer: 2020 Citroën C3 1.2T Shine

Breaking with tradition

Exterior pics by Motorpress

Interior by author

Posted: February 2, 2020

 
The numbers
Prices: Feel @ R249 900, Shine @ R299 900
Engine: 1199 cc, three-cylinder, DOHC 12-valve
Specs and performance: See text
Real life fuel consumption (Shine turbo): About 8.2 l/100 km
Tank: 45 litres
Luggage: 300 – 922 litres
Spare: 185/65R15 on steel rim
Ground clearance: 162 mm
Turning circle: 10.9 metres
Warranty, service plan and roadside assistance: 5 years / 100 000 km

Triviality: C3 originally meant Chassis Number 3; a long-wheelbase version of C2, or Chassis Number 2, upon which the 5CV was built.

For André Citroën, doing things as everyone else did, was unthinkable. During the 1920s, when the French government encouraged motor manufacturers to build new cyclecars, Citroën elected to take on the giants, Renault and Peugeot, instead.
 
Breaking with tradition, he promoted his first car, the 5CV (cinq Chevaux Vapeur or five horsepower), to women. Ahead of its competitors, it had a differential and an electric starter, making it more user-friendly for lady drivers. All its advertising material showed the car being driven by young women.
                                                                       A parade of original Citroen C3s

Citroën further aligned itself with mass motoring by offering the car on credit, a new method for the time, thanks to a consumer-finance company founded by the man himself. After slow beginnings in 1922 it accounted, by 1924, for nearly half of Citroen's sales, making it Europe’s first “popular” automobile.

Fast-forward to now: C3s are little hatchbacks while C3- and C5 Aircross models are small-to-medium SUVs. We presently have two versions of C3 in SA: Entry-level Feel offers a 1200 cc, naturally aspirated, engine developing 60 kilowatts at 5750 rpm and 118 Nm at a low 2750 revs.

Standard equipment includes a five-speed manual gearbox, 16-inch alloy wheels with 205/55R16 tyres, six airbags, folding electric mirrors, ABS brakes with all the usual handling aids, automatic locking, tyre pressure monitoring, cruise control with limiter, automatic air conditioner, electric front windows with one-touch, seven-inch touchscreen with phone mirroring, onboard computer and fabric seats. Zero to 100 km/h comes up in 13.2 seconds and top speed is 169 km/h.

Upper level Shine ups the ante with six-speed automatic transmission and turbocharging. Go-power increases to 81 kW at 5500 rpm and 205 Nm at 1500. Zero to 100 km/h takes 9.4 seconds and top speed is 194 km/h. Extra kit consists of stop-and-start, 17” alloys with 205/50R17 rubberware, automatic headlamps with welcome and follow-me, fog lights in front, rear parking sensors, powered widows at the rear, and Airbump door protectors. There is no satnav. Your fancy phone does that.
 
Both versions come in three colours; Polar White, Platinum Grey and Soft Sand. Roof colours are black or red, with the red theme continuing inside; highlights on the dash, stitching on steering wheel and seats, an accent strip on the front chairs and retro leather pull straps for the front doors. So, if you're shy about being noticed, we suggest you find a report on some little grey Volkswagen or teeny white Toyota instead.

Our test car was a turbocharged Shine automatic. It’s wide and spacious in front with loads of headroom; the steering wheel adjusts for height and reach; manual controllers fine-tune the seats just as you want them; the driver’s chair offers elevation control (naturally) and the gearbox, PSA’s Efficient Automatic Transmission (EAT), does everything you need it to.

It’s always in the right gear for prevailing circumstances, doesn’t hunt or get confused, shows you which ratio is in use and never upshifts unnecessarily on downhills. A further nicety is that, with Sport mode selected, it doesn’t simply gear down a notch to pretend that something is happening inside. The mode really does make the throttle more responsive and holds lower gears for longer, as it should; but few cars do.

The little turbomotor pulls strongly, developing 95 percent of its maximum torque between 1300 and 3100 revs, so top gear roll-on from 120 km/h (2500 rpm) is easy. The overall feeling is that C3 is solid, willing, quiet and comfortable with its suspension shrugging off all but the harshest bumps.

The boot is neat and almost square although its lip is high (80 cm) and the well is deep (22 cm), so you might consider keeping your luggage light. An internal lamp, two pull-down handles and a bag hook add to convenience. The 60:40 split seatbacks fold by means of pads accessible from behind, but leave a step.
 
Headroom is fine for tall backseat riders but knee- and foot space is limited. Even though the new C3 is 55 mm longer than previous editions, it’s still a smidgeon short of four metres; we told you it’s small.

Summary: C3 is a little contentious, styling-wise, but offers a satisfying alternative for empty nesters, better-heeled students or young families. All Citroën asks is that they be adventurous and free-thinking.

Test unit from Citroën SA press fleet

We drove one of the previous edition cars in late-2013

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads or goat tracks as well. As a result, my test cars do occasionally get dirty. It's all part of the reviewing process.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material.

If ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. There are no advertisers and no “editorial policy” rules. I add bylines to acknowledge sponsored launch functions and the manufacturers or dealerships that provide the test vehicles.  And, as quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so you can see I do actually exist.

Comments or questions?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you completely disagree with what I say? If you want advice or have a genuine concern, I will be happy to hear from you. All I ask is that you write something in the subject line so I know which vehicle you're talking about.