Used Citroen C3 Aircross Review (2017-2024)
Citroen C3 Aircross cars for sale
3.0
Expert review
Pros
Quirky looks stand out from the crowd
Comfortable ride
Spacious cabin
Cons
Cheaper models lack some safety kit
Won't appeal to someone looking for a sporty drive
Infotainment is fiddly and slow to respond
The CarGurus verdict
If your budget will only stretch to the lower-spec versions of the Citroen C3 Aircross, then we reckon rivals make more sense. The only time this car becomes a smart buy is if you can afford to choose the top-spec Shine Plus model. That way, you get the extra bits that turn it from a car that’s all style and no substance into a smart little family chariot.
In this guise, it becomes one of the most versatile small SUVs around, not to mention one of the most comfortable. In any form, the C3 Aircross is spacious and benefits from a good range of engines, even if its infotainment system and cheap interior plastics let the side down.
What is the Citroen C3 Aircross?
The Citroen C3 Aircross is a compact SUV that was on sale between 2017 and 2024, and served as a rival to popular cars such as the Nissan Juke, Hyundai Kona, Kia Stonic, Skoda Kamiq, and Volkswagen T-Cross (this segment is also sometimes referred to as crossovers). It’s a car with absolutely no delusions of, or aspirations to, sportiness of any kind. Instead, it sets out to combine personality with an emphasis on comfort, and the sort of versatility that should make it incredibly family-friendly.
The C3 Aircross was offered with a range of petrol and diesel engines, and stood out for its very practical nature and comfort-oriented approach. It was replace in 2025 by an all-new model that, as well as being offered with seven seats, also comes with the option of electric power. To find out more, read our full Citroen C3 Aircross review.
How practical is it?
The window ledges are low, and the windows are big, which means the C3 Aircross feels bright and airy inside. There’s plenty of headroom and elbow room, and top models come with big, squishy ‘Advanced Comfort’ seats taken from the larger C5 Aircross that are, as the name suggests, very comfortable.
You can have a sliding rear seat in the back, which allows you to increase boot space at the expense of rear passenger leg room, just as you could with the Aircross’s MPV predecessor, the Citroen C3 Picasso. Here, though, the seat splits in two, which can be really useful if, for example, you want to carry one passenger in the back, but slide the rest of the seat forward to create more room in the boot. However, this feature only comes as standard on the most expensive version of the C3 Aircross, and lesser models have to make do with a conventional rear bench.
The boot is 410 litres as standard, and models fitted with the sliding bench can accommodate up to 520 litres with the rear seats in place. It’s deep and square, too, so it’s a useful shape whenever you need to carry bigger, bulkier items, all of which makes this a versatile family car. It can take up to 1,289 litres with all the rear seats folded down.
What's it like to drive?
The C3 Aircross isn’t the most exciting thing in the world to drive. The steering is vague, and the suspension soft, but there’s plenty of grip and it doesn’t lean over quite as much as you might expect during tight corners, so it stays relatively composed if you enter a bend more quickly than you meant to.
It is designed to offer a smooth ride and, by and large, it does. It can be a bit fidgety around town, and really big potholes elicit a bit of a thump, but it settles to a comfortable lope at speed and feels at home on the motorway.
The C3 Aircross is available with a choice of two petrol engines: one with 108bhp, which comes with a six-speed manual gearbox, and one with 128bhp, which has an automatic transmission. There’s also a 108bhp diesel engine if you prefer, though we reckon the petrols are better to drive.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
The dashboard and centre console are stylish, with lots of funky little touches, and you get a big swathe of upholstery across the face of it. That also distracts your attention from the cheap plastics, which are most noticeable on the door panels.
Citroen has gone big on cosmetic personalisation with the C3 Aircross. There are four colour packs available with the Shine ad Shine Plus trim levels that change the appearance of the front skid plate, the door mirrors, and the rear lights, while the roof can be ordered in black or white, in addition to the standard body colour. There are also two interior colour themes, in addition to the standard finish, known as Metropolitan Graphite and Hype Grey.
The infotainment system is the Citroen’s Achille’s Heel. The touchscreen is slow to respond and fiddly to use, and you have to use it to access the climate control system, which is buried in a submenu, and isn’t easily accessible from the home screen, so it’s doubly irritating.
Citroen C3 Aircross running costs
The Citroen C3 Aircross is generally economical to run, with the 1.2-litre PureTech petrol engines achieving 45-55mpg in real-world conditions. The diesel 1.5-litre BlueHDi offers even better economy at 55-65mpg. Insurance is also reasonable, and while road tax varies by model year and emissions the C3 Aircross generally sits in affordable bands for post-2017 vehicles.
Maintenance costs are moderate, with service intervals around 12 months or 12,500 miles. Parts are reasonably priced, and consumables like tyres are affordable. Some earlier models have experienced electrical issues, which could add unexpected costs. Citroens don't tend to hold their value brilliantly well. This means you might be able to pick up a good deal on a used example relative to something like a Toyota or Volkswagen, but keep it mind that it'll continue depreciating more steeply than those cars once you've bought it.
Citroen C3 Aircross reliability
The Puretech petrol engine used in the C3 Aircross does not have a stellar reputation for reliability, so it's important to look for an example that's been well maintained, and is also worth considering an aftermarket or extended warranty. In various What Car? Reliability Surveys, the C3 Aircross has also been shown to suffer from a range of electrical and mechanical problems. All that said, Citroen as a brand fared well in the 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey, placing 10th out of the 30 brands included. That’s a better result than Peugeot, Hyundai and Mazda, to name a few, but Citroen still finished below Honda, Toyota and Vauxhall.
Buyers got a three-year warranty as standard with the C3 Aircross, and that was capped at 60,000 miles. However, buyers who ordered their car online, rather than at a dealer, had the warranty topped up to five years or 100,000 miles. These models could be worth seeking out on the used market.
- When the Citroen C3 Aircross came out in 2017, it was available in three forms: Touch, Feel and Flair. Touch was the cheapest and rather basic, while Feel and Flair added more equipment and made more sense. A few different special editions were added throughout the car’s life, one of which – the C-Series –stayed on to form the entry-level model in 2020, just before the car’s facelift in 2021. The result is that the C3 Aircross now comes in either C-Series, Shine or Shine Plus versions, all three of which get more toys than the previous three trim levels, including Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, air conditioning, and LED headlights as standard across the range.
- That said, we’re slightly disappointed that Citroen chose not to offer automatic emergency braking (AEB) as standard on every version of the C3 Aircross. This system brakes for you if it senses an accident, and it really works – it’s been proven to cut crashes by as much as 38%. So it’s a real shame that it isn’t even available as an option on the entry-level model, especially as most of the C3 Aircross’s competitors have AEB as standard.
- One thing you can get on the C3 Aircross that you can’t on most SUVs of this size is a feature called Grip Control. This optional extra allows you to set up the car to find the most traction on mud, gravel, and snow. It’s not quite as effective as a proper four-wheel drive system, but it is useful if you occasionally need to do some light off-roading in the occasional wet field.
- The best all-rounder: the majority of C3 Aircross buyers went for the 108bhp three-cylinder turbo petrol engine (badged Puretech 110). Look for one of these in top-spec Shine Plus form, which is our favourite version. You get all the best bits of the C3 Aircross, including the sliding rear bench and supremely comfortable front seats, plus the bigger touchscreen system and smarter alloy wheels. The little turbocharged engine is punchier than its figures suggest, which makes it very useful for overtaking.
- If you want an automatic instead: simply choose the same model, but with the 128bhp petrol engine, which comes with an automatic gearbox as standard. It isn’t the slickest unit in the world, it still shifts reasonably smoothly.
- The best fuel economy: both petrol models are pretty efficient, but if you need the ultimate in fuel economy, the BlueHDI diesel is the one to go for. If you have a high annual mileage and do lots of long-distance trips each year, then its official WLTP test fuel consumption figure of 67.mpg is a big draw.
