I went to have a look at a DS3 on behalf of a friend, thought I give you chaps a quick update.
From the outside, IMO it looks fabulous:
(Note - the photo above was not the car I drove, just something I found on the net.)
It does appear to be rather colour dependant, but I do seriously rate it. Far more forward looking than say the retro styles of the Mini or 500.
So, off to a good start, which continued when I first sat in it. The centre console and front dash are all finished extremely nicely.
Unfortunately, you then realised that Citroen have taken pareto analysis a little too far, but applying it to their interior designs. Whilst the obvious bits do look very nice, as soon as you look elsewhere, it all goes down the chutes. e.g. the glovebox really does appear to be made from recycled Kelloggs cornflake give away toy plastic. The same is also true on the door cards and pulls. Frankly the inconsistency of the interior is even more depressing than just having a consistenly cheap interior as it comes across as just cynical.
The engine in the one I tried was a 1.6, i.e. the same unit as used in the Mini.
The better news is that it was pretty good to drive. The steering is direct (if light). It doesn't have quite the precision feel of say a Civic, but it's massively better than say a Fiat 500 and is overall probably on par with a Focus. The ride stuggles with the fairly short wheelbase. Doesn't bobble around as much as a Mini, but it's clearly more impacted than any good size saloon. At least it's not crashy, so it's fairly easy to get on with.
So overall, fairly good. The inconsistencies in interior quality annoyed me, but at least it drove fairly well, unlike say the Fiat 500. Unfortunately, IMO it's still well outclassed by the Mini, which I still love and think really does have something special about it.
What was interesting whilst in the dealer was seeing how Citroen have not only introduced the DS3, but also updated the C3. The old C3 was full of the most awful fitting interior I think I've ever come across. Fisher price toys seem to be better made. The new one is now just a rebodied DS3, but with 3 doors. So suffers from the same inconsistency on interior quality, but is a big step up on the old one. Problem is that the C3 is also far from cheap. Good luck to Citroen trying to sell any without some massive discounts.
From the outside, IMO it looks fabulous:
(Note - the photo above was not the car I drove, just something I found on the net.)
It does appear to be rather colour dependant, but I do seriously rate it. Far more forward looking than say the retro styles of the Mini or 500.
So, off to a good start, which continued when I first sat in it. The centre console and front dash are all finished extremely nicely.
Unfortunately, you then realised that Citroen have taken pareto analysis a little too far, but applying it to their interior designs. Whilst the obvious bits do look very nice, as soon as you look elsewhere, it all goes down the chutes. e.g. the glovebox really does appear to be made from recycled Kelloggs cornflake give away toy plastic. The same is also true on the door cards and pulls. Frankly the inconsistency of the interior is even more depressing than just having a consistenly cheap interior as it comes across as just cynical.
The engine in the one I tried was a 1.6, i.e. the same unit as used in the Mini.
The better news is that it was pretty good to drive. The steering is direct (if light). It doesn't have quite the precision feel of say a Civic, but it's massively better than say a Fiat 500 and is overall probably on par with a Focus. The ride stuggles with the fairly short wheelbase. Doesn't bobble around as much as a Mini, but it's clearly more impacted than any good size saloon. At least it's not crashy, so it's fairly easy to get on with.
So overall, fairly good. The inconsistencies in interior quality annoyed me, but at least it drove fairly well, unlike say the Fiat 500. Unfortunately, IMO it's still well outclassed by the Mini, which I still love and think really does have something special about it.
What was interesting whilst in the dealer was seeing how Citroen have not only introduced the DS3, but also updated the C3. The old C3 was full of the most awful fitting interior I think I've ever come across. Fisher price toys seem to be better made. The new one is now just a rebodied DS3, but with 3 doors. So suffers from the same inconsistency on interior quality, but is a big step up on the old one. Problem is that the C3 is also far from cheap. Good luck to Citroen trying to sell any without some massive discounts.
