Citroen C3 Aircross review

Both the Seat Arona and Kia Stonic offer trim levels that undercut the C3 Aircross on price, but Citroën partially makes up for this with a higher level of standard equipment. What’s more, for those signing up to a PCP finance agreement, as the majority of small SUV buyers choose to do, the C3 Aircross looks decent value for money. 

However, it won’t hold onto its value as well as many rivals do, while official CO2 emissions and fuel economy are good rather than exceptional. In our real-world True MPG tests, the Puretech 110 averaged 43.5mpg, whereas the Arona 1.0 TSI 95 managed 45.5mpg.

Choosing a trim level is pretty simple, because there are only three: Feel, Origins and Flair.

We’d go for Feel, which packs most of the kit that most people will need, including the touchscreen infotainment system mentioned earlier, air conditioning and cruise control. However, we’d definitely recommend adding Active Safety Braking (Citroën’s term for AEB), the optional City Pack for its rear parking sensors and that sliding rear seat bench.

Origins trim brings mainly cosmetic upgrades that mark the Citroën brand’s centenary, while range-topping Flair adds more sophisticated climate control, rain-sensing wipers and keyless entry and start, plus a few personalisation options that you have to fork out extra for on the cheaper trims. However, both of these trim levels push up the price considerably.

The C3 Aircross has yet to feature in the What Car? Reliability Survey, but Citroën didn’t do brilliantly in 2019 overall, finishing well down the pack in 22nd place out of 31 brands in the manufacturer league table. Kia, Hyundai and Seat all performed rather better.

You get a two-year manufacturer’s warranty with no mileage limit, plus a further one-year dealer warranty with a 60,000-mile cap. That’s roughly the same level of cover as is provided by Seat on the Arona, but Kia gives you a seven-year warranty on the Stonic.

As we mentioned at the beginning, it’s disappointing that only range-topping Flair models come with automatic emergency braking (AEB) as standard. This important safety aid is standard on the majority of rival small SUVs.

More positively, Euro NCAP awarded the C3 Aircross five stars for safety, and all models come with lane departure warning, a driver fatigue detection system and traffic sign recognition, so you’ll have no excuse if you get an SP30 in the post.

All trim levels come with an alarm and an engine immobiliser as standard, plus there are Isofix mountings for child seats on the outer rear seats.

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