Citroen C4 Picasso Exclusive 2015 Review

Citroen has sold the C4 Picasso in Australia since 2007, but this latest model to wear the name is not what we've come to expect from the French marque.

In previous years the C4 Picasso for Australia has been a people mover – capable of seating seven. This new model merely seats five. The role of the seven-seater continues, but that model is now marketed here as the Grand C4 Picasso.

The five-seater, which shall be referred to henceforth as the C4 Picasso, has been introduced to Australia just months after the launch of BMW's 2 Series Active Tourer, and barely a month prior to the local arrival of an updated Benz B-Class.

Available locally in just the one variant, the C4 Picasso Exclusive comes well equipped, but priced less than $3000 below the most affordable BMW Active Tourer, the 218i. And at that price the Citroen actually costs $90 more than the base-grade Benz rival, the B 180. A six-year warranty only goes so far when an unknown new product is pitted against two formidable brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz. So the Citroen had better be good then.

Fortunately, it is.

The Picasso is a very capable mix of the functional with the aesthetic, while also raising the ante in the safety stakes. As a '-2 people mover', the Picasso is very nuclear family oriented – for any generation. Citroen does expect the C4 Picasso to sell to standard Aussie families and empty nesters who need to cart grandkids or the bowls club friends around.

Entering and leaving the vehicle is made all the better for the car's high hip point, but the loading floor in the boot is nice and low for smaller drivers. I found the front seats to be softly-cushioned, but not as supportive under the thighs as they should be. This is a point of distinction between the Citroen and the BMW 218i Active Tourer. The BMW's seats are certainly firmer – and this is where Citroen may actually win buyers in the showroom.

In the rear, the Picasso seems to lack the legroom of the BMW. I also found the seats in the Citroen to be slightly short in the squab; headrests will need to be raised immediately for seats occupied by older teenagers or adults. Fitted with a full-length glass roof as standard, the Picasso also lacks the BMW's headroom in the rear, even when the BMW is also fitted with a sunroof. Face-level vents in the rear of the Citroen are located in the B pillars near the door hinges.

Other than the lack of support in the front seats, the driving position was commendable. The exceptionally good field of vision all around almost rendered redundant the 360-degree vision camera set-up fitted as standard. At the wheel the C4 Picasso is hard to pick from the larger Grand Picasso.

Materials and features are, if not identical, very close to it. This makes the front-seat positions of the Picasso somewhat more 'organic' in ambience than the much more car-like presentation of the BMW Active Tourer's dash. The BMW literally feels harder, 'edgier' and structured, whereas the Citroen is softer and more rounded.

As with the seven-seat Citroen, the Picasso's infotainment displays were easy on the eyes and simple to use (flicking through screens or operating the lower seven-inch touch screen by hand). The 12-inch display above is mounted centrally, which is bound to be a bugbear for people who hate looking left to see the speedo. At least, just like the Grand Picasso, the speedo is in the right side of the display, so the sweep of the eyes from road to display and back again is not as broad.

A wand mounted above the steering column and jutting to the right is the means by which gears are selected. It's easy to operate and is complemented by fixed shift paddles either side of the column. Some controls will take a little familiarity to learn the location and method of operation. The start button is high on the dash, left of the wheel, the parking brake switch is low on the centre fascia.

As a compact passenger-carrying vehicle that will likely see out most of its days in urban centres with heavy traffic flow and tight parking, the C4 Picasso offers Park Assist. To its credit, the Picasso's self-parking system is a determined cuss. If you try parking without enough free space available for the turning circle, it will make multi-point turns to get there for you. Not all such systems do.

Citroen claims the C4 Picasso can park itself in a space just 40cm longer (20cm front and 20 more at the rear) than the car's length. And the system is relatively easily and quickly actuated – just press a button on the spoke of the wheel and select the preferred manoeuvre from the seven-inch infotainment touch screen. So you shouldn't have to endure some impatient clown behind honking the horn while waiting for the Picasso to park itself. The Citroen system will also park in different directions (parallel and perpendicular), which not all systems provide.

Especially in light of its purchase price, the Citroen's NVH and refinement represent a step beyond the BMW 218i Active Tourer. The Euro 6-compliant 1.6-litre turbo engine never labours the way the three-cylinder engine in the BMW does. In essence, the Citroen powerplant – which is ironically shared with BMW's MINI models – places the Picasso in a niche not covered by the Active Tourer. It's as refined as the 228i AT, but without that (larger-displacement) engine's testosterone-fuelled power delivery and torque steer.

The Picasso delivers its power responsively and smoothly from low revs, but does feel like it starts to run out of puff higher in the rev range. Fuel consumption for the media drive program finished up at 9.0L/100km, according to the trip computer, including an extended run through congested Sydney traffic on the way to the airport.

Coupled to the engine is a six-speed automatic transmission of Aisin design. It generally worked well, but there was the occasional conflict with the car's auto-stop system, the transmission keeping torque from the engine supplied to the drive wheels when auto-stop killed the engine. No chance of soft-stopping then, as the car lurched to a halt.

And in heavy traffic, as I found for myself, allowing the Citroen to coast to a halt uphill without applying brakes inevitably killed the engine without the hill-hold facility enabled. As a consequence the car would roll backwards briefly until the driver got the foot on the brake pedal. These are not deal-breaking flaws at purchase time; they are simply traits that owners will quickly learn to tolerate.

Ride quality is very composed and well controlled over lumpy bitumen, but the Picasso's cornering ability is not in the same league as that of the 2 Series Active Tourer, which is much more the driver's choice – for family members who are too young to give up on life just yet.

But that makes the Citroen a car just that little different in character from the BMW, and thus likely to find its own niche in the market. What sets the Citroen apart from the BMW is competitive pricing, refinement (versus the entry-level Active Tourer) and comfort in some areas. Where the BMW pulls ahead again is in its driving dynamics and its rear-seat spaciousness, to name two points that need to be considered before making any purchase decision. There's no clear winner in this comparison, and it's just about to be further complicated by Mercedes-Benz bringing out its updated B-Class. Stay tuned for that too.

For the moment, Citroen should achieve its modest sales projections (although the importer, Sime Darby, is not revealing what those projections are). It's actually less certain that BMW will achieve its respective targets for the Active Tourer, good car though it is. I would suggest Citroen will find a higher percentage of buyers for the Picasso from its traditional sales base than BMW will manage for the Active Tourer.