Citroen C4 Review (2020-present)
Citroen C4 cars for sale
3.0
Expert review
Pros
The C4 offers something genuinely different to most hatchback rivals
Affordable to buy and run
Plenty of room for the whole family
Cons
The likes of the Skoda Octavia have more luggage space
The infotainment system is fiddly
Finance costs could be more competitive
The CarGurus verdict
The Citroen C4 is a decent hatchback that ticks all the common-sense boxes of value, practicality, efficiency, and comfort, and throws in a dash of quirky flair that few of its alternatives offer. That said, it’s not the best car in its class to drive, the infotainment system is fiddly, and the finance costs could be more competitive so there’s plenty of room for improvement.
Ultimately, it’s one of those ‘middle of the pack’ cars that does nothing much wrong, but nothing exceptionally well, either. We’d pick a Skoda Octavia over the Citroen C4, or a Kia e-Niro or Volkswagen ID.3 over the e-C4, but if you can find a good deal or if you really love the way the Citroen looks, then it’s a very competent and peculiarly charming family car.
The Citroen C4 is a stylish contender in the family hatchback class. It’s offered with a 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol engine in two power outputs, a 1.5-litre diesel, and a pure electric powertrain with a range of up to 217 miles from a 50kWh lithium-ion battery. It takes on everything from the Volkswagen Golf, the Ford Focus, the Toyota C-HR and the Vauxhall Crossland, through to the Nissan Leaf, the Kia e-Niro, the Volkswagen ID.3 and the Peugeot e-2008, the Peugeot being the only other car to offer the same petrol, diesel and electric powertrain line-up in one model.
The styling is the result of a desire to offer something of an SUV feel to a car that retains the merits of a conventional hatchback, in much the same way as the Citroen C4 Cactus crossover did before it. However, the new C4 has more of a sloping roofline at the back, which gives it a sleek, coupe-like appearance. The busy styling is divisive, and it echoes the popular first-generation Nissan Juke, so there’s every chance that plenty of people will love the bold looks, even if they appear a bit confused to many eyes.
Comfort is an ongoing theme. Citroen wants to return to its roots by prioritising comfort and original design, and the C4’s neat cabin does both of those things. The driving position is fine, with a squidgy if supportive seat and enough adjustment to accommodate most drivers, even if some may wish the seat dropped a little lower and the steering wheel had a broader range of vertical movement. We like that Citroen has included some straightforward climate control buttons underneath the big, landscape touchscreen. In-screen climate controls – such as those you find in rivals and within Citroen’s own range – might make for a sleek, minimalist dashboard, but they are a faff to use compared to the simple, user-friendly rotary knobs on the Citroen’s fascia.
The C4 lives up to its comfort ambitions on the move, too. The loosely sprung ride means the body heaves and dips a lot, but it also means the C4 sponges up scruffy road surfaces with nonchalant ease. The electric e-C4 is a little heavier and, predictably, feels firmer and lumpier over broken Tarmac, but it’s still one of the more comfortable EVs and very settled on a motorway run.
There isn’t a bad engine (or motor) in the C4 range, either. Even the 1.5-litre diesel is quiet and more than punchy enough, but the petrol is cheaper to buy and more fun to drive, while the pure electric Citroen e-C4 is the best of the lot to drive, courtesy of its seamless acceleration and superior refinement.
Nobody’s likely to expect sparkling agility from the C4 (which is front-wheel drive) but it handles with reasonable deftness. There’s plenty of grip and it’s easy to place on the road, even in fast corners. The peculiar, squared-off steering wheel is a bit odd and doesn’t lend itself to big direction changes, while the throttle and brake pedal responses are both short on precision, but ultimately, the Citroen is appealingly comfortable for drivers and passengers alike.
The 10-inch touchscreen infotainment screen is standard on every C4, and includes Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Tom-Tom satnav, Bluetooth, a digital radio and voice control. The graphics and screen response times are a way behind what you’ll enjoy in the Skoda Octavia, the Volkswagen Golf or the Kia e-Niro, and the menu layouts are frustrating since some obvious controls – screen dimming, for instance – are virtually impossible to find.
It’s far from class-best infotainment, but it has all the features you’re likely to want and, thanks to the straightforward ‘home’ shortcut button, it’s easier to use than Peugeot’s still more unfathomable version of the same system. With familiarity, and especially with use of the phone integration apps, the Citroen’s is a perfectly inoffensive system to live with.
The Citroen C4 is well priced, and represents better value for money than many of its rivals in most forms, mainly due to the generous equipment levels. The downside is that finance costs aren’t as competitive as the list prices or equipment levels, likely due to the C4’s residual values. In short, the lower the resale price, the higher the monthly rental, and this has historically been one of Citroen’s weaker areas.
We haven’t spent enough time in the petrol and diesel C4s to give accurate real-world economy results, but with an official figure of 61.4 mpg, we’d expect the real-world diesel to manage more 50 mpg fairly easily, while the petrol will likely average around 40 - 45 mpg in varied driving. This is all very competitive with the Citroen C4’s many rivals, although some might think it’s a shame that there isn’t a plug-in hybrid variant.
The pure electric e-C4 is the solitary plug-in offering and, as we’d mentioned, you should assume a 100-mile real-world range in a worst-case winter driving scenario (all EVs are less efficient in cold weather and at higher speeds), but up to 200 miles in summer.
A full charge in the e-C4 will cost less than £7 from a home wallbox, assuming a fairly average electricity tariff of 14p/kWh. Lots of utility providers offer rates of half this or less if you charge overnight, so you can save a lot of money by using the timed charging parameters in the C4’s touchscreen or associated phone app. Even if you don’t use off-peak tariffs, and if you’re getting a realistic average range of, say, 160 miles, you’ll be paying just over 4p per mile to run the e-C4. The petrol and diesel models will cost in the region of 10-12p per mile.
Insurance groups and servicing costs are all very competitive, and the Citroen is generally affordable on both purchase and running costs.
The Citroen e-C4 is too new to have useful reliability data available, and it sits on a new platform with many new parts. However, the combustion engines are well known from various Peugeot and Citroen models and have a decent reputation for reliability, while Citroen came a middling 11th out of 30 brands included in the 2021 What Car? reliability survey for cars up to five years old.
The manufacturer’s normal warranty is three years and 60,000 miles, which is very much the industry standard, but it offers a five-year, 100,000-mile warranty to those who buy its cars online. The latter is better than the warranties offered by rivals such as Volkswagen, Skoda, and Seat, but not quite as good as some of the industry’s best warranties from the likes of Hyundai and Kia. The battery in the e-C4 is covered for eight-years and 100,000-miles.
- The pure electric e-C4 has an official range of 217 miles but, in our experience, it’s more likely to offer between 110 and 200 miles, depending on whether it’s a wintery motorway run or a summer potter on slower roads. It’ll take less than eight hours for a full battery charge from a normal 7kW home wallbox, while the 50kW rapid chargers commonly found at UK motorway service stations will deliver 100 miles of range in around 45 minutes to an hour. The Citroen’s peak rapid charging rate of 100kW means that the increasingly numerous ultra-rapid chargers that peak at 150kW or more will deliver the same 100-mile top-up in around 25 minutes. That’s all very much on par with the e-C4’s electric rivals. The Citroen has Type 2 and CCS sockets, which are the European standard and compatible with most public chargers.
- If you want a manual Citroen C4, you currently have to go for the 128bhp 1.2 PureTech petrol model – the cheapest in the range when paired with its standard six-speed manual gearbox. An eight-speed automatic transmission is an option with this engine, but it impacts economy, bringing it down from an official 52.3 mpg down to 48.7 mpg. The same eight-speed auto’ is standard on the diesel (a lower powered, manual diesel version is expected to join the range later) or the electric Citroen e-C4 is direct drive, so you drive it just the same way as an automatic car even though it technically has no gearbox at all.
- The C4 is well equipped in any guise. Three trim levels are available, and even the cheapest ‘Sense Plus’ model gets LED headlights, 18-inch alloy wheels, that aforementioned 10-inch infotainment system, dual-zone climate control, cruise control, a rear parking camera, a head-up display and even a nifty pull-out tablet stand in the dash for the front passenger’s iPad. Shine trim adds adaptive cruise control, tinted rear windows, keyless entry and more. Top-spec Shine Plus brings part-leather seats, an upgraded sound system, electric driver’s seat adjustment and wireless phone charging.
- If you want to keep purchase costs down, the entry level 1.2 PureTech 130 Sense model is the one to go for. It has plenty of comfort and convenience features, and the only thing you might miss is keyless entry, which comes with the mid-spec Shine trim level. The six-speed manual gearbox could have a more positive shift, but generally this is a comfortable, well-equipped, and good value family hatch that doesn’t feel basic.
- If you’re a high-mileage driver looking for the best possible running costs, the 1.5 BlueHDi diesel is likely your best bet. Again, Sense is the most affordable, but Shine trim is worth paying for if you value features such as adaptive cruise control and traffic sign recognition, and the eight-speed automatic gearbox is smooth enough to deliver easygoing progress. The public charging infrastructure isn’t yet good enough to conveniently support routine high mileage use in the e-C4. However, the real-world range on the e-C4 is more than enough for anyone with a home charger who covers less than 100 miles every day. If you fall into that category, fuel costs will be much lower on the e-C4 than the BlueHDi.
- Company car users should absolutely opt for the electric Citroen e-C4. Benefit-in-kind rates are comically low on EVs at present, so you’ll save thousands on company car tax and thousands more on fuel. If your lifestyle doesn’t support a pure electric car, look to the petrol 1.2 130 PureTech, because its lower list price and increasing BiK penalties on diesel cars make it cheaper than the diesel C4 as a fleet car. Alternatively, check out plug-in hybrid alternatives, such as the Skoda Octavia iV and the Seat Leon e-Hybrid, which have much lower company car tax costs, the benefit of short-distance pure electric running and efficient petrol engines for peace of mind on longer runs.
- If you’re after a school run car, the plug-in Citroen e-C4 is the best option. Routine low mileage driving that’s typical of school runs and local commuting – often done by the second vehicle in a household – is perfect for EVs. However, the e-C4 is a lot more expensive to buy than the petrol 1.2 PureTech, and if the up-front costs are too much, then the 1.2 PureTech 130 is a quiet, safe, comfortable and practical family car.
