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-   -   Citroen C3 Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/253025-citroen-c3-review-3.html)

No tachometer, not even manually adjustable IRVM, no electric adjustment for ORVM, no alloy wheels, no rear wash/wiper, non-adjustable rear headrests. This reminds me of my A segment Kwid from 2016.

Today the competition is cut-throat, specially in the budget sub-10 lakh ex-showroom segments. People whine when the cars don't have sunroof & AT. Here Citroën plans to sell a car without even a manually adjustable day/night IRVM. :Frustrati

I really hope Citroën prices it competitively. Sirish Chandran was disappointed with the bodyroll though. 1.2 turbo petrol ought to be so much fun on the highways.:D

I want to like this car, I really do. I really liked the C3 Aircross episode on The Grand Tour and was excited to see the car was making it's way to India when I saw spy shots and photos of the test mules. The 1.2L Turbo Petrol cranking out 115hp was supposed to be the cherry on top but there are a few things missing that I'm okay with and few I'm not.

The lack of defogger, rear wiper, reversing camera and climate control, electrically adjustable ORVM's and lack of even a manual dimming IRVM and lack of standard alloy wheels makes me wonder what were they even thinking. I personally don't mind the lack of a manual but it will hurt sales.

And who was genius that thought "we're putting in a 1.2L Turbo Petrol into this car with the best power figures in it's segment. You know what the car doesn't need? A tachometer!"

I'm not mad, just disappointed.

Thank you for the nice detailed review!

While Citroen does not have the brand awareness and a very slim dealer network, they have brought out a product that is distinct from the rest. And do well in important things like power and comfort.

I happened to see them on Goa roads two days ago, and they look better in the flesh than in pictures. On paper, if you had asked me about orange inserts I would have never snubbed my nose, but they do looked nicer than I expected.

Overall this looks promising, and all depends on the price and service/spares. If you are looking for a pocket rocket second car, this would fit nicely. I have some of the missing features in my Honda Brio like the rear defogger, electrically folding ORVMs and IRVM dimmer, but I don't remember using them much since the car is used mostly for short city runs. C3 could be a great replacement for it.

Citroen C3- a car whose thunder was stolen by Tata Punch a year ago lol:

The car looks decent. C3 does miss out on several must have's. However, I hope the customization packages are priced sensibly. A comprehensive extended warranty offer is a must at launch. I do recall MG Motors going over and above to assuage the concerns of prospective buyers by offering a comprehensive service package.

Overall, looking at the features (or lack of it!), size and other aspects I am hoping for a 5L-5.5L OTR price (Delhi) for the "top end" variant.

But with 20 dealerships they will start off with urban areas and this is where the gameplan seems upside down. Why not launch the top variants first!

Load them well, price them competitively (not saying lower or higher) and then launch so the city folks find it acceptable. Only good engine/gearbox/suspension combo has few takers these days - the numbers won't help Citroen.

The C3 seems to get its fundamentals right - suspension, a good turbo-petrol engine. Its elder sibling, the C5, also had more than its fair share of solid engineering attributes at launch.

However, both the C5 (previously) and the C3 (now) are entering segments where there is immense competition.

Quite a few folks on television talked about the magic carpet ride of the C5. But sadly, that didn't fill up the Citroen coffers. Almost every other review blamed it on the poor spec-to-price configuration vs the competition.

Goes without saying, for the C3 to be successful in the Tata Punch category, Citroen ought to lace it up with more features and price it ultra-competitively. Else, history will repeat itself again, perhaps much more quickly.

As things stand today, from the 2 below images:-





...my vote goes to the Punch for now.

I don't think this will be possible as even the base variant of Tata Punch is around 6 lakh OTR Delhi . If we are optimistic then the pricing can be in the zone of maybe 6.5 Lakh OTR for the base variant and around 8 OTR for the top end Variant with the NA Engine .

I believe Citroen will price it on the higher side to establish themselves as a premium brand .

Excellent review, as always. My gut feeling is they will launch base model at 4.99 Lakhs (Ex showroom) for NA version and 6.49 for Turbo model. It looks really funky and lot of young people are going to like it. Hope they will come with some more features soon.

I cannot oppose your vote for sure. But I guess I can point out that you are looking at the Altroz's interior, and voting for the Punch lol:

To me, Citroen is making the mistake of not giving the options. Give a full-fledged top variant, people who can afford it would go for it, and people who are on a budget are still going to look at these budget spec models. Why limit the options?

I really do not think that many buyers love the idea of letting dealers fiddle with their brand new car for accessories fitment. Kwid for example has an accessory alloy wheel, but not many chose it. And if I wanted an aftermarket alloy wheel, why would I restrict myself to the Citroen showroom? :Frustrati

Automatic is the biggest miss here. Without AT, it does not even enter the consideration set of many who are looking for a second city-friendly car. The first car customer or the only-car household will generally be risk averse. They are not even going to think outside Suzuki, Hyundai, and Tata unless there is a big price advantage. The target should have been the second-car segment. And AT is a critical aspect there.

I hope that they shock everyone by pricing it well. Other than that I don't see this selling very well. However, looking forward to seeing the EV version of C3. Now that will be interesting if they can price it around 10lac.

I was looking for a city runner , one look at the instrument cluster and my heart just sank. I hope they price it sensibly to get some success . I feel 'cheap' doesn't sell well in India now as well as they did earlier.

An excellent review. It looks like a good car with fundamentals right, but let down by inexplicable omission of features. Electric ORVMs, day/night IRVM, tachometer missing in this era? That is straight from Alto segment.


No sir, it is very much Punch interior

Customary T-BhP crispness and detail on the anvil.
My first reaction and impression
a. The sheer number of omissions + no-auto leaves enough space for three genuine variants.
b. Citroen has managed to do the more difficult bit (engine, gb, rq) but surprisingly misses out on the easier ones (features). So if they are serious enough about India ops we can expect these variants within a year. As of now, the top variant should not be over 8.5 otr.
c. I am curious about the crash tests. The report suggests a good heft to the doors and bonnets. A score of 4 or more looks very much possible.
d. From the pictures, I could assume that the looks of the car grow gradually for people like me who find it a bit more “in-your-face” at the outset. From the pictures, I will like to try out the grey highlights over the orange. This is a bit too loud for me.
e. How Citroen reaches out (a meagre 17 dealership now) and manages ASS. Reaching the scale of Renault (518 dealerships) will be the first big target and I don’t see that happening in a year for sure.
In conclusion, C3 makes more sense for people looking to have an addition to their fleet. For the majority of 1 car households, C3 will remain a second option at least for now. Unlike variants that miss out on engine-gb combo, the omissions in C3 are deal breakers for many. Citroen will look to add those three variants ASAP + price it correctly failing which C3 will sink without a trace. To be honest, we need more C3 with that engine-gb-rq combo and hope to see the true top-end soon.
Cheers