Citroen C3 Aircross SUV
New from £20,915 / £272 p/m
Is the Citroen C3 Aircross SUV a good car?
Read our expert review
Words by: Mark Nichol
"It’s easy to get lost down a car classification rabbit hole these days. The array of modern car types is truly discombobulating. SUVs pretending to be sportscars. Tiny runabouts masquerading as SUVs. And who knows what this thing is supposed to be? So here’s the latest head-spinner, the new Citroen C3 Aircross: a small SUV crossover based on a b-segment supermini and with seven seats. Yep. Here's a car that’s as easy to park as a Ford Focus but has enough room for a family of seven. Ish. It’s a square of Dairy Milk longer than a Focus, but for a fee (of about £800) you can have two additional seats folded into the boot. Granted, watching a human trying to actually access these seats is like watching an SNL skit. But no matter, the seats exist. And they’re just one of the features that make the C3 Aircross a very easy-to-recommend small family car. It looks great, it’s well-specified as standard, it’s reasonably priced, and to drive it’s more relaxing than being left alone for a day with Netflix and an unlimited supply of Twiglets. Oh, and there's a fully electric one, too – one of the cheapest new EVs on sale, no less. Albeit that one is five-seat only."
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Running costs for a Citroen C3 Aircross
Aside from the electric one there are two engine options with a C3 Aircross: a basic 1.2 petrol with a manual gearbox and an automatic-only hybrid version that can do a bit of electric driving at low speed; Citroen doesn’t quote an electric-only range for the hybrid, which is telling, but they do say that it “allows 100 per cent of electric driving for almost 50 per cent of urban use”. We can’t verify those percentages, but we did find that the hybrid is good for a real-life 50mpg, which isn’t bad for a spacious SUV with a petrol engine and an automatic gearbox. Knock 10mpg off that figure with the basic petrol model, although you can get into that version for around £20,000. It’s a heck of a lot of car for that money.
Reliability of a Citroen C3 Aircross
Citroens have a reputation for being mechanically and electrically patchy and it's difficult to argue with that. In 2023, the outgoing C3 Aircross came 22nd in a What Car? owner survey about small SUV reliability. Out of 22. Ouch. Citroen tends to place mid-table overall for reliability as a manufacturer in this type of survey, too. That said, we expect this C3 Aircross to be okay, mainly because Citroen is now part of the Stellantis conglomerate of brands – more than a dozen of them, including Vauxhall, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, DS and Jeep. This Aircross is built using parts shared across all these brands, with an enormous amount of development resource poured into the mechanicals and software. It will almost certainly be an improvement over the outgoing C3 Aircross.
Safety for a Citroen C3 Aircross
Just in case you view the C3 Aircross as merely a little car dressed up as an SUV, here’s what Citroen has to say: “A genuine SUV, it offers protection, robustness, easy access and a feeling of safety, along with assertive…” and then there are some meaningless adjectives about the styling. That statement is partly true, because although you will FEEL like you’re in an SUV on account of being perched up high, the C3 is still a small car with a short bonnet, so you’ll never feel quite as unassailable as you would in a bigger SUV crossover type thing, like a Kia Sportage or whatever. And Euro NCAP is yet to test this version of the C3 Aircross, albeit the last one got a maximum five-star rating, which bodes well. Standard safety stuff is as you’d expect from a modern car, much of it mandated by safety laws now anyways. It’s got sensors all over the place, inside and out, and they’ll tell you when you’re about to hit something, or steer out of lane, or need a break, or are spending too much time looking at the touchscreen. And this is quite likely because, as usual in a Citroen, the touchscreen isn't that intuitive. It is better than the screens in the Citroens of yore, though. 'Yore' meaning a couple of years ago.
How comfortable is the Citroen C3 Aircross
You’ll hear Citroen banging on about the car’s ‘Advanced Comfort’ suspension, and saying “magic carpet effect” with zero irony. In fairness to the company, the car is exceptionally comfortable. It glides across the road in soft, pillowy fashion, treating your backside in much the same way that… and we don’t say this lightly… a Range Rover would. It's obviously not a Range Rover – it’s nowhere near as quiet or generally luxurious, if that needs saying – but it’s genuinely refreshing to drive something small and cheap that shoots for proper comfort rather than hard-edged “sportiness”. Even the seats themselves are flat and soft and relaxing. It follows that the C3 Aircross is about as dynamic as Oasis’s rhythm guitarist. It’s the very opposite of ‘fun to drive’, mainly because the body rolls quite a lot and the steering is lighter than a Televangelist’s grasp of science. All that said, it’s a bit better than the C3 Aircross used to be – a bit less clumsy and roly-poly. The only reason we’ve not given the Aircross a five score here is because, as ever with a Citroen, anyone over six-foot tall will find the ‘outstretched arms, folded up legs’ driving position sub-optimal.
Features of the Citroen C3 Aircross
While it’s great that Citroen has given this a seven-seat option, the rearmost seats aren’t really suitable for... anyone, basically. They massively hamper boot space, too, both in volume and general usability terms. The five-door version's 460-litre boot capacity is reduced by more than a quarter with the extra seats, and while in most seven-seaters the rear seats fold down to leave a raised, flat floor in the boot, these ones don’t. Instead, you get a big board to place over the top of them. A board that’s too big to keep in the car when the seats are up. So you just have to leave it in your kitchen or garden or whatever. You can't keep it in what's left of the boot, because what's left is a 40-litre space. You'll have bags for life bigger than that. Citroen has also pushed the middle row of chairs forward in the seven-seater, meaning it has less rear leg space. Basically, while this is probably THE most practical and flexible small SUV on the market, you can’t use it as a day-to-day family wagon for all five of your kids. The Dacia Jogger does that sort of thing better. Or, obviously, a full-sized seven-seat SUV. But that'll be at least twice the price. Thankfully the spec sheet is much more generous than the leg space in the boot. Two trim levels, called Plus and Max, with the former providing air con, alloys, touchscreen, CarPlay, Android, automatic wipers. That said, we’d encourage you to bump to Max if you can, because the two-tone roof makes the car look much better, it’ll heat your bum and your hands, you can charge your phone wirelessly, and you’ll be told if there’s something in your blind spot. (It’s actually a bit vexing that an important safety feature like blind spot monitoring is limited to a top-spec car, but there you go.)
Power for a Citroen C3 Aircross
Unless you’re thinking about an electric C3 Aircross (and we recommend you do, because it’s a very good value EV), your engine choice basically comes down to whether you want an automatic gearbox or not. The hybrid comes with one, the basic 1.0-litre petrol does not. There’s negligible difference between the two in performance or refinement terms, and any advantage the hybrid gives up in fuel economy (about 5mpg on paper, probably close to 10mpg in real life) is negated by the additional cost of the thing. We actually like Citroen’s 1.0-litre engine (which is utilised in both), because it’s pretty quiet at low speed, quick enough to do the job (albeit with seven people in the car you should avoid going uphill) and is nice and smooth for a small three-cylinder petrol unit. We’d take the hybrid though, because the automatic gearbox is much better suited to the nature of the car – it makes for an easier, more stress-free experience. And Citroen manual gearboxes are always... meh.
Lease deals
These deals are based on terms of 8,000 miles, for a 36 month lease with a 6 months initial payment.
£352.21
Monthly payment
£2,113.25
Initial payment
- 5 seats
- 5 doors
- SUV
- Hybrid
- Automatic
- 1.2 litres
£341.88
Monthly payment
£2,051.30
Initial payment
- 5 seats
- 5 doors
- SUV
- Petrol
- Manual
- 1.2 litres
£353.81
Monthly payment
£2,122.88
Initial payment
- 5 seats
- 5 doors
- SUV
- Petrol
- Manual
- 1.2 litres
£380.37
Monthly payment
£2,282.23
Initial payment
- 5 seats
- 5 doors
- SUV
- Petrol
- Manual
- 1.2 litres
Standard equipment
Expect the following equipment on your Citroen C3 Aircross SUV. This may vary between trim levels.
- 1 Litre Bottle Storage in Front and Rear Door Pockets
- 2 Position Boot Floor
- 2-3 - 1-3 Split Folding Rear Bench
- Air Vents - 2 Side and 2 Central on Dashboard
- Ambient Interior Lighting
- Anchoring Rings on Boot - x4
- Automatic Air Conditioning
- Bag Support Hook in Boot
- Central Storage with 2 Cup Holders
- Day-Night Switchable Interior Rear View Mirror
- Drivers Seat Height Adjustment
- Drivers and Passengers Sunvisor with Courtesy Mirror
- Fixed Boot Light
- Front Head Restraint with Height Adjustment
- Front Seats Adjustable with Forward-Back Slide and Adjustable Backrest
- Glove Box - Closed
- Grey Decor on Dashboard
- Grey Decor on Front Doors
- Height and Reach Adjustable Steering Wheel
- LED Front Lighting Panel with Map Reading Lights
- LED Rear Lighting Panel with Map Reading Lights
- Map Pockets in Back of Driver and Front Passenger Seats with Additional Pocket for Smartphone Storage
- Matt Black Gear Knob with Gloss Black and Chrome Insert
- Padded Armrests in Front and Rear Doors with Happy Tags Labels
- Parcel Shelf
- Steering Wheel - Leather Effect with Gloss Black and Chrome Elements and Integrated Audio Cruise Control and Speed Limit Controls
- Three Rear Seats with Head Restraints
- Visibility Pack
- 1 USB-C Connection - Data and Charging - On Dashboard
- 12V Socket On Console
- 2 x USB-C Fast Charge in Row 2
- Citroen Connect Box with SOS Emergency Call and Citroen Assistance
- Connected Services
- DAB Radio - 6 Loudspeakers - 10.25in Capacitive Touchscreen - Wireless Mirror Screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto - Bluetooth
- 17in Alloy Wheels - Aragonite - Diamond Cut Bi-Tone
- Acoustic Windscreen
- Black Roof Bars
- Black Wheel Arch Extensions
- Body Colour Front and Rear Bumpers
- Dark Tinted - Rear Side and Tailgate Windows
- Electric - Heated - Electrically Folding Exterior Mirrors
- Electric Front Power Windows with Auto Up and Down
- Electric Power Windows - Rear - Auto Down
- Gloss Black B and C Pillar Finish
- Gloss Black Exterior Door Handles
- Gloss Black Rear View Mirror Caps
- Heated Rear Window
- Interior Door Handles - Chrome Effect
- Rear Spoiler
- Turn Indicators Integrated in to Rear View Mirrors -Bulbs
- ABS - Anti-Lock Braking System
- Airbags - Driver
- Airbags - Front Side and Curtain Front and Rear
- Anti-Theft Alarm
- Automatic Activation of Hazard Warning Lights in Case of Severe Deceleration
- Automatic Door and Boot Locking when in Motion with Automatic Unlocking in case of Impact
- Child Locks on Rear Doors
- Driver and Front Passenger Seatbelts with Pyrotechnic Pretensioners and Force Limiters
- ESP - Electronic Stability Programme with Anti-Skid System
- Front Passenger Airbag - Can be Deactivated
- Front and Rear Skid Plates in Grey
- Hill Start Assist
- ISOFIX Mountings on Outer Rear Seats with Top Tether and Labels Indicating Fixing Points
- Manual Parking Brake
- Monotone Horn
- Remote Central Locking with Deadlocks
- Safety Pack
- Seatbelt Unfastened on the Move Audible and Visual Warning for All Seats
- Three Row 2 Three-Point Seatbelts
- Active Lane Departure Warning System
- Citroen Head-Up Display - Key Driver Information Projected on to Upper Dashboard
- Cruise Control with Speed Limiter
- Gear Shift Indicator
- Multifunction Trip Computer
- Outside Temperature Indicator
- Rear Parking Sensors
- Reversing Camera
- Tyre Pressure Monitoring System
- Automatic Headlights with High Beam Assist
- LED Daytime Running Lights
- LED Intelligent Beam Headlights with Electric Levelling and Automatic High Beam Switching
- Citroen Advanced Comfort Suspension with Progressive Hydraulic Cushions
- Electric Power Steering (EPS)
Other vehicles in the C3 Aircross family
C3 Hatchback
Great value for money
Signature Citroën comfort
Full of character
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