Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer review

Category: MPV

A great seven-seat MPV with a clever interior and plenty of space. Sadly, the ride isn't very good

Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer front
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer front
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer rear
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer interior
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer infotainment
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer side
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer front seats
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer rear seats
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer front
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer rear
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer interior
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer infotainment
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer side
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer front seats
  • Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer rear seats
Grand C4 Spacetourer
Star rating

Introduction

What Car? says...

If you need a seven-seat car but don’t want something that looks like a box with four wheels and some windows, what do you do? Some – including Citroën, no doubt – would suggest the answer is the spacious but funky Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer.

This MPV certainly ticks plenty of family-friendly boxes thanks to some clever design features. For a start, it can be a five-seater with a boot big enough for mountains of baby gear plus your pet dog, but if you empty the luggage space you have another option...

When you lift up the boot floor, you'll find some hidden seats that pop up to turn the Grand C4 SpaceTourer into a seven-seat people carrier. And unlike in some rival MPVs, you won't have to beg adults to sit in those back two seats – they're big enough for grown-ups as well as kids (as long as the middle-seat passengers move forwards a little).

A people carrier needs to be more than just big to stand out from the crowd, of course. It also needs to have powerful but efficient engines that can haul around a full car without costing a fortune to run.

In this review, we'll be letting you know whether the Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer's power options – one petrol, one diesel – deliver decent performance and economy.

We'll also let you known how good the interior quality is, how much it will cost to buy and run, and how it compares with the best MPVs. The rivals you might be considering include the Ford GalaxyDacia Jogger, Seat Alhambra and Volkswagen Touran.

By the way, we also have full separate reviews of other MPVs and people carriers in the Citroën range, including the five-seat C4 SpaceTourer, the nine-seat SpaceTourer and the electric nine-seater the ë-SpaceTourer.   

Once you've decided which make and model is right for you, make sure you get it for the lowest price by using our free What Car? New Car Buying service. It has plenty of the best new Citroën deals.

Overview

The Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer is practical and decently equipped, but rivals are better to drive and offer better value.

  • Spacious and practical interior
  • Excellent visibility
  • Most versions very well equipped
  • Unsettled ride at low speeds
  • Fiddly touchscreen system
  • Optional EAT6 semi-automatic gearbox is decidedly jerky

Performance & drive

What it’s like to drive, and how quiet it is

Engine, 0-60mph and gearbox

The Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer's 129bhp 1.5-litre diesel engine (badged BlueHDi 130) is easily up to the job of hauling around seven people and a boot full of luggage.

The only other option is a 128bhp 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol engine (badged PureTech 130). You might think that a small petrol engine like that would struggle in a big MPV but it's a surprisingly flexible performer that's actually quicker than the diesel.

Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer image
Skip the showroom and find out more online

The engines in a Volkswagen Touran are far punchier, though.

Suspension and ride comfort

The Grand C4 SpaceTourer’s supple suspension deals with big bumps pretty well, so you won’t wince every time you encounter a speed bump.

Unfortunately, patchy, eroded surfaces unsettle the car a little too easily, especially at low speeds. That means a trip through town isn’t as comfortable as it might be. The body tends to bounce up and down a fair amount along undulating country roads.

The Dacia Jogger is soft-riding, but a little better controlled than the Grand C4 SpaceTourer, while the Touran is the class leader for ride comfort.

Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer rear

Handling

The light steering makes easy work of parking and low-speed manoeuvres. However, it’s also rather numb, so it doesn’t inspire confidence on faster roads.

The Grand C4 SpaceTourer sways around quite a bit through tight twists and turns, so you’re always aware of its rather large size, but it never lurches around uncontrollably, and there’s a reasonable amount of grip, so you always feel in control of the car – just don’t expect to have much fun.

The rival Ford S-Max and Touran are more enjoyable to steer along winding B-roads.

Noise and vibration

The BlueHDi 130 diesel engine is fairly smooth and quiet for a diesel, but the PureTech 130 petrol is quieter.

The manual gearbox has a notchy, imprecise shift, while the eight-speed automatic gearbox swaps cogs smoothly but is quite slow to respond when you ask for a sudden getaway. In fact, it can feel downright ponderous in some situations.

Overall refinement is otherwise good, though. Wind and road noise are well suppressed, making the Grand C4 SpaceTourer a relatively relaxing motorway cruiser in the MPV class.

Interior

The interior layout, fit and finish

Driving position and dashboard

There’s plenty of seat and steering wheel adjustment to help you get comfy in the Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer. Lumbar support is an optional extra, but when you add it you get a massaging function as well. That's a luxurious rarity in the MPV class.

The dashboard layout is slightly odd, though. There’s no driver display directly in front of the steering wheel, instead you need to look at a big digital screen which is recessed into the top of the dashboard showing things like your speed and sat-nav directions. Below this, the 7.0in touchscreen infotainment system can make life difficult because even adjusting the temperature means switching to a specific air-con menu and jabbing at the display with your finger. That’s not easy to do while you’re driving.

The gear selector takes a bit of getting used to because rather than being a dial or a lever down on the centre console, it’s a stalk jutting out from the top of the steering column.

Visibility, parking sensors and cameras

The Grand C4 SpaceTourer has just about the best visibility of any MPV. The windscreen stretches up and over the driver and passenger’s heads, the split front pillars don’t obscure your forward view too badly and there’s a broad expanse of glass all round.

All models get front and rear parking sensors, as well as a reversing camera to make parking such a big car that bit easier.

Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer interior

Sat nav and infotainment

The standard 7.0in, dash-mounted touchscreen is difficult to operate on the move because it has so few physical buttons. On top of that, the array of menus and sub menus can be quite confusing, and there’s often a long pause between pressing the display and the system responding.

You can use the steering-wheel controls to perform certain functions, but the sheer number of buttons and knobs adds yet another layer of confusion.

DAB radio, Bluetooth and a USB socket come as standard on all versions and there are 12v sockets strewn around the interior.

Quality

The Grand C4 SpaceTourer has a relatively smart-looking interior with a decent blend of materials and textures that make it feel like more than just a family transport workhorse.

The dashboard is dense and soft to the touch, while most of the buttons and knobs operate with a positive and well-damped action.

True, there’s the odd flimsy-feeling switch, but you’ll have to search hard to find any sharp edges or cheap-feeling plastics – even in the rear. Overall, the Grand C4 SpaceTourer is classier inside than the Ford S-Max, but not as premium-feeling as the Volkswagen Touran.

Passenger & boot space

How it copes with people and clutter

Front space

Even seriously tall drivers will have no issues with head or leg room in the Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer, and the bright and airy interior gives the impression that there’s even more space than there actually is.

The wide door pockets are easily big enough for large bottles of water and you’ll find a couple more stowage areas on the centre console – one between the front seats and another beneath the touchscreen. Both have lids, so they're great for keeping valuables out of sight. However, it’s a pity that the glovebox isn’t bigger and what space there is inside it is a rather awkward shape.

The front doors open wide and, because the seats are high, it’s easy for those with limited mobility to enter or exit the vehicle easily.

Rear space

There are three individual seats in the second row, each of which is surrounded by enough leg, head and shoulder room to allow a six-footer to get comfortable. The flat floor is another bonus, because it means the person sitting in the middle doesn’t have to straddle a tunnel.

If you want to fit adults in the Grand C4 SpaceTourer's third row, those in the middle row will have to slide their seats forward, at which point everyone will feel a little cramped. However, as long as it's kids sitting in the back of the car, there’s enough space for seven people, although the Volkswagen Touran and Dacia Jogger are more accommodating.

It’s a shame there isn’t a bit more stowage space in the rear. The door bins are tiny, and you won’t fit much in the nets on the backs of the front seats. Flair models come with handy cubbies in the floor, along with foldable picnic tables on the front seatbacks.

Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer

Seat folding and flexibility

The three second-row seats in the Grand C4 SpaceTourer recline, and slide back and forth independently of one another. There's a tag you can pull to make them fold down and slide forwards, giving surprisingly good access to the third row.

The second and third rows can also be folded flat. Pulling the rearmost seats back up again is easy to do with a single hand – you simply tug a cord. However, the second and third rows in a Touran are even lighter and easier to move into your desired position. The Jogger can’t stow away its third-row seats flat into the boot floor, but they can be removed entirely.

As a reasonably priced optional extra, the front passenger seat can be folded flat by pulling on a lever, meaning you can carry seriously long items. Planks of timber, or even a reasonable-sized ladder, will fit.

Boot space

With all seven seats in use, there’s still enough space for a couple of small bags in the Grand C4 SpaceTourer's boot (although not a lot else). If you want to carry seven people and all their baggage, you’ll need an altogether larger MPV, such as the Ford Galaxy.

With the two rearmost seats stowed away in the floor, you get a huge boot that’s long enough to take most pushchairs lengthways. The load bay is flat, with no annoying steps or ridges to impede loading and unloading. If you need even more space, dropping the middle row of seats creates a vast load bay that’ll hold nearly 2200 litres – more than enough space for a trip to the tip. For comparison, the Touran has an even bigger boot with the middle seats upright and the back-row seats folded down.

The Grand C4 SpaceTourer's boot opening is low enough to make loading heavy items relatively easy, plus there’s no boot lip, so you can slide your luggage straight in and out. You get a powered tailgate, lashing points, a rear parcel shelf and a retractable load cover.

Buying & owning

Everyday costs, plus how reliable and safe it is

Costs, insurance groups, MPG and CO2

The Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer undercuts equivalent versions of the Ford S-Max, but a Volkswagen Touran is better all round and available for similar money, while the Dacia Jogger is cheaper.

Resale values aren’t very impressive, but the Grand C4 SpaceTourer won’t depreciate as quickly as other big Citroëns.

Equipment, options and extras

There are just two trim levels to choose from for the Grand C4 SpaceTourer: Sense and Shine.

Sense is well equipped, but going for Shine adds extra safety features as well as retractable blinds for the rear windows, a powered tailgate, a sunroof and Xenon headlights.

Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer infotainment

Reliability

Citroen as a brand finished a respectable 11th out of 30 car makers in the 2021 What Car? Reliability Survey.

The Grand C4 SpaceTourer comes with a three-year warranty that, impressively, has no mileage limit in years one and two. In the third year, it's a dealer warranty where mileage limit is restricted to 60,000 miles (over the three years), so it’s less generous than it first appears. That said, it’s typical of most rivals’ cover.

Safety and security

Six airbags are fitted as standard on the Grand C4 SpaceTourer, including curtain airbags for front passengers and those in the middle row. People in the third row don't get airbags, though.

The model hasn’t been crash-tested by Euro NCAP but the regular five-seater it's based on – the Citroën C4 SpaceTourer – was tested when it was still known as the C4 Picasso. It scored lower marks for adult occupant protection than the S-Max and Touran. It did outscore the S-Max for keeping small children safe in an accident, although again the Touran proved even better at this. The thing to note, though, is that the C4 SpaceTourer's safety rating is now so old that is has expired.

Range-topping Shine models have blind-spot monitoring (which is optional on entry-level Sense), and lane-departure warning as well as cruise control.