Citroen C4 Picasso HDi 2007 Review

Road Test

Hear the name Citroen and most will immediately think quirky, innovative -- and, perhaps, flawed. The French firm's C4 Picasso, with its HDi turbodiesel engine certainly fits the first two adjectives, but we're pleased to say, not the last.

For a family needing up to seven seats, the Picasso is an admirable contender for the award of best car in the driveway. It is different from what you might expect, but the differences work.

The Picasso absolutely leads the field in the gadgetry stakes; this is a vehicle for Gen-X/Gen-Y technophiles rather than more conservative drivers who covet more conventional vehicles, such as the Ford Territory.

Firstly, there's the ability to change the screen colours for the large LCD instrument read-out. Then there's the speed limiter fitted in addition to a conventional cruise control system. The Picasso's automatic parking brake is electrically actuated and will release when the shifter is moved from 'Park' to a forward gear or reverse and the accelerator pedal is prodded.

Outboard rear seat passengers have their own air conditioning controls in the B pillars and can also raise individual sun shades on the windows. Up front, the sunvisors are on their own sliding extensions which retract from the front to the rear of the roof lining to afford more light through the huge windscreen.

All good stuff, but our jury's out on the centrally located instrument read-out -- at least the speedo is large enough to read easily without taking the eyes away from the road for too long.

And while they're less innovative these days, features that are nice to have in this vehicle include the fold-down picnic trays in the seat backs, the four-zone climate control system, the side window sunshades for the middle row seat, the cooled storage bin below the dash and the secondary rear vision mirror which can be adjusted to watch the kids in the middle and back seats.

For the price, the Picasso is nothing if not well equipped. Interior fittings feature chrome embellishments. The transmission selection lever is notable for being rather dainty, compared with the clunky old sticks doing double duty as column shifters in some peoplemovers. For those looking for something to do with their hands, the Picasso also comes with paddle shifters either side of the steering column.

On the subject of the steering column, the Picasso has a fixed hub -- like the standard C4 models -- with multi-function controls around it and the steering wheel rim revolving around the whole lot. Thus it all begins to be a bit crowded around the column and until you're completely familiar with the operation of the levers and stalks, you may get windscreen wipers when you wanted reverse gear.

The paddle shifters themselves border on pointless in a vehicle like this. Kickdown works effectively enough for rapid acceleration and won't leave you in manual mode for an extended period the way the paddles do.

Their only advantage is in selecting a higher gear for greasy conditions, but that's rarely a problem in Australia, although we did experience a loss of traction on wet grass in a carpark, with the vehicle facing uphill. With more finesse than usual and use of the footbrake and left foot, it was possible to regain traction and gently move forward without bogging.

Manually selecting second gear using the shifter probably would have achieved the same effect. It's worth noting that most other front-wheel drive cars would have experienced the same sort of problem, but might not have extricated themselves as easily. The combination of front-wheel drive, the torque from the turbodiesel and the dampening effect of the torque converter assisted the Picasso's traction.

Speaking of carparks, the reverse parking sensors are very good, but they don't take into account the need to open the tailgate once the vehicle is parked. It's possible to park within less than 30cm of an obstruction and then find that the tailgate cannot be raised because the Picasso is too close to the wall or whatever obstruction behind it.

This is one occasion when Citroen might have learned something from the Territory, with its separately opening rear window.

It makes for an interesting comparison; the Picasso and the Ford. The two companies have very different approaches to the same design problems.

Picasso's turning circle is wide and only just improves on the larger Territory. Honda's Odyssey undercuts the Picasso's turning circle by about half a metre. This is so, despite the Citroen having a shorter wheelbase than either the Ford or the Honda. Here's where the Territory gains from being RWD.

If you can live with the larger turning circle, the Picasso's steering is quite adept, offering reasonable weight and feel for a peoplemover. It's more enjoyable to drive than some cars with more dynamic pretensions.

The ride is very soft, but well damped. There's some squirm from the suspension and this is noticeable in the movement of the body on the suspension over billiard table-smooth roads. Other than that, roadholding is up to par.

Since we're discussing vehicle dynamics, the Picasso's performance is brisk and the 2.0-litre diesel engine is refined and torquey, but does shout "I'm a diesel" once you use all the available throttle.

The Picasso's auto transmission seems to be a huge leap forward over previous Citroen offerings. At open road speeds it's very composed and the plethora of intermediate gears will allow you respectable acceleration for overtaking or joining freeway traffic. Once at speed, it will keep up or stay ahead of other cars on the road and handle bends with aplomb. On the freeway, it shrinks around you like a high-riding tourer.

The Picasso is also user-friendly around town. With the huge windscreen, it feels like driving a truck, but its external dimensions aren’t daunting at all.

For a vehicle based on the small/mid-sized C4 platform, the Picasso also feels huge inside. There's plenty of head and leg room, but rather like Honda's Odyssey, it's all at a civilised, sedan-style ride height, so kids can easily step up into the vehicle.

The seats are comfortable and finding a good driving position is quite easy (though the driver's footrest is a little too high from the floor). The third-row seat is just about the easiest and most intuitive fixture of its kind we've ever seen. Snaps into place easily and only takes marginally longer to work out how to stow it -- without needing to resort to the manual.

At this point, a couple of driving aids specified for the Picasso are worth a mention.

The speed limiter is a handy device, but it is also its own persuasive argument against mandatory governors. As the Picasso approaches the pre-set ceiling speed, power drops away and you find yourself depressing the accelerator more to extract that last miniscule Newton-metre's worth of performance.

Imagine if, instead of driving up to the 60km/h speed limit on a dual carriageway arterial road, you were attempting to overtake a vehicle travelling at 93km/h on a 100km/h-limited country road. You'd soon decide against it, if you survived the first attempt.

That's not to take anything away from the Picasso's system, which works well and fortunately, is easily adjusted up or down for different speed zones. It can be readily disabled or enabled by scrolling a knob on the left side of the steering wheel hub.

The other system, which has also been mentioned already, is the automatic parking brake. It will engage when 'Park' is selected and disengage once the accelerator is depressed with a forward or reverse gear selected.

The auto function can be disabled, if desired, but why would anyone want to do that? That's particularly the case with the switch for the parking brake under the instrumental binnacle and not all that accessible from the driver's seat.

It begs the question, how easy are hill starts if the hill is too steep for the stalled torque converter to hold the vehicle? This was an issue that never presented itself during the test, but a lot of drivers will probably get into the habit of left-foot braking in the Picasso.

One issue, which can't be tested but should be considered before buying is the plethora of electronics and LCD displays. How will they hold up after several Australian summers?

So that's the Picasso for you. Were we impressed? Yes. We'd pick niggly little things like the distracting reflections from all the light sources in the huge expanses of glass, the invisible front end during parking manoeuvres, the turbocharger whine and the occasional doziness of said turbocharger at low revs -- but otherwise, nothing much you'd hold against the Picasso if you were contemplating buying it.

It is clearly a case of technology making life easier.

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