Citroen C4 (2024 -) review

Citroen has (wisely) decided to price the C4 very keenly. The starting price is less than you’ll pay for a mid-spec Vauxhall Corsa , weirdly. Although it’s worth pointing out the residual values of the C4 aren’t great, which will negatively impact your monthly payment if you’re financing your C4, as you likely are. Still, a lot of car for the money, especially the electric one, which is less than... a basic electric Corsa, weirdly. There are, meanwhile, three fuel-burning options, all of them automatic, and all of them broadly similar in performance and efficiency terms. The plain 129 horsepower petrol turns around 45-50mpg on paper, while the mild hybrids (one of them 99 horsepower, the other a whopping 134) both return 50-60mpg. They’re not ‘proper’ hybrids, by the way, they’re mild hybrids, which means you don’t get any electric-only driving. Any C4 will be in a low-to-mid insurance group too. It’s all very reasonable. No more, no less.

The previous generation Citroen C4s had a quite dreadful reputation for reliability but Citroen is forging a much better reputation these days. It was the seventh most reliable manufacturer in a 2024 consumer magazine survey. And in the same survey, this C4 was the company’s best-performing model while any major issues the C4 had will have been ironed out for this facelifted model. The electric one in particular should fare okay, what with electric motors being FAR less complicated pieces of equipment than internal combustion motors.

The safety dudes at Euro NCAP crash-tested the C4 in 2021 and gave it four stars, which at a glance is a little disappointing – most cars in this class get five-star scores these days. Look a little deeper into the results, though, and there’s not too much to worry about. Its adult and child occupant protection scores were good, with its overall score reduced because of a relatively poor ‘vulnerable road users’ score. The C4 doesn’t have as many airbags as it could, though. And only top-spec cars get blind spot monitoring and adaptive cruise control, as well as the ‘Safety Pack Plus, which includes advanced cyclist detection, speed limit detection and “extended” traffic sign recognition, whatever that is. Withholding safety kit for more expensive versions might strike you as a little strange.

Given that comfort is the C4’s main schtick (aside from generally being a bit weird) it might seem unusual that this isn’t a five-star score. For most people, it will feel like a five-star comfort experience. But we’ve knocked a star off because Citroen, for whatever reason, simply cannot engineer a driving position to suit all body shapes into its cars. Basically, if you’re tall or long-legged, the pedals will be too close or the steering wheel too far away. You’ll never get both things in just the right place. Here’s an idea, Citroen. Get a Volkswagen or a BMW, figure out the ratios for the steering wheel, pedal and seat placement, and just copy those. Nobody will know. Anyway, all this is a real shame because the actual ride quality of the C4 is exceptional. As are the seats themselves. And they combine to make this thing feel unlike any other mid-level hatchback. Try to drive it quickly around a corner and the whole thing becomes soggier and spongier than the coral reef, but at all other times (which is probably 95 per cent of the time), this is a supremely comfy thing to be in. And it’s spacious, front and back.

This feels like a big car, as family hatchbacks go, which is odd because it’s actually a little shorter than a Ford Focus. It’s probably because the design of its backside means the rear screen is shallow and, therefore, rear visibility sucks. The bonnet feels long too, so all-in-all it's not the easiest thing to park. The 380-litre boot is about average too, almost identical to the capacity you get in a Volkswagen Golf. The C4 does feel well-equipped from the off. Base specification, called YOU! (it's not clear why they’re shouting it, mind), comes with 18-inch two-tone alloys, a 10-inch touchscreen, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, automatic windscreen wipers, LED lights, rear parking sensors and dual-zone climate control. Oof. So, you might ask, why bother with PLUS or MAX spec? Well, aside from MAX’s extra safety, you’ll get ever-fancier parking assistance as you move up the range, fancier side mirrors too (they're heated), a bigger digital instrument cluster, nicer interior lighting and, in a top spec car, bum-warming front seats. But for our money, because a C4 never really feels like a fancy car, we wouldn’t bother moving on up from YOU! But, to paraphrase Heather Smalls, nothing can stop you. Also, as a side note, the (standard) touch-screen is laggy and frustrating, but that’s just how Citroen rolls.

There are three fairly nondescript engine options for the non-electric C4, each offering decent fuel efficiency and an automatic gearbox as standard, but not much by way of excitement. Citroen has done a decent job of making what is a very small engine (1.2-litre with just three cylinders) perform smoothly and quietly, though. The basic non-hybrid Puretech 100 (denoting its horsepower) comes with an eight-speed automatic, decent pace (0-62mph in 9.4 seconds) and the promise of up to 50mpg. The hybrids (which add a small electric motor to improve efficiency) increase cost and complexity without being that much more efficient. Both the 99 horsepower and 134 horsepower versions offer the same 50-60mpg on paper. Save your money and go basic, we say. This is a car for slow, floaty progress and that fact doesn’t change or necessarily improve with greater spend.