Citroën C3 Aircross long-term test

The Car Citroën C3 Aircross Hybrid 145hp automatic Run by: Tom Goodban, videographer

Why it’s here To see if Citroën's smallest SUV can be a videographers workhorse, combining practicality with efficiency

Needs to Ferry camera kit and crew to filming locations around the country whilst being efficient

Mileage 1732 List price £26,930 Price as tested £27,970 Official economy 53.3mpg Test economy 47.6mpg Options fitted Polar White paint (£275), 7 seats (£765)

18 April 2026 - Bonjour Citroën

In 2004 I went to France for a long weekend on a family holiday. We landed at the airport and made our way to grab our hire car, a Citroën C3. We covered many happy miles around France. Fast forward many years and I got my first full time job as a videographer at Citroën's parent company, Stellantis, and along with it, my first ever company car. You guessed it, a Citroën C3. So when the time came to select my next company car here at What Car?, I thought what better way to rekindle my affinity with the French brand than by testing the SUV equivalent of the C3, the aptly named C3 Aircross. 

While are many other options available in the small SUV class, including the Dacia Duster, Renault Captur and Vauxhall Frontera, I wanted to add seven-seats for carrying extra passengers, and the C3 Aircross is one of the few options to offer this. Plus, while it's closely related to the aforementioned Frontera under the skin, I prefer the fabric touches to the interior of the C3 Aircross compared with the Vauxhall, which feels a bit more plasticy. 

There are two trim levels available with the C3 Aircross, Plus and Max, and I opted for the latter for a few extras that will make a difference for me and my needs. Firstly, it comes with the Winter Pack, which offers me a heated windscreen, heated steering wheel and heated front seats. I’m often up and out quite early for video shoots, so these features mean I can get myself warmed up and ready for a day of filming. 

Charging my phone is extremely important on filming days, because it contains scripts, production plans and I can even use it to control cameras. Max trim gives me wireless phone charging which takes the stress out of needing to faff around with a cable when on a busy shoot. There are multiple USB-C ports around the car for charging up my other devices, though. There's one up front which I actually managed to charge a laptop on, one in the rear seats and even one in the third row.          

Going for seven seats cost me £765. I often have to carry multiple film crew members and presenters around on shoots so having the option to raise the third row to expand the amount of passengers I can carry is a real benefit. Although early trips have revealed that space back there is at something of a premium, so the shortest passengers in any group will be relegated to the third row.

As you might expect, going for additional seats has compromised boot space a tad. The official boot capacity is listed as 330 litres with the 3rd row folded down. That isn’t a great size with the amount of camera equipment I often have to carry with me, so it’ll be interesting to see how I get on with it or whether it's an option I'll regret going for. For comparison, the five seat C3 Aircross offers 460 litres of space, which is more than you'll find in most other small SUVs. With all the seats folded down the C3 Aircross gives me 1470 litres of space, which is plenty, but that of course means I can only carry a front passenger.

 Another optional extra I decided on was the paint colour. The C3 Aircross comes as standard in Monte Carlo blue and there are five other paint options available at an extra cost. I wasn’t too impressed with the standard colour, so I’ve swapped for the Polar White which costs an extra £275. I think the contrast with the Two-tone roof in Perla Nera Black, which comes as standard on the Max trim, is a great look and stands out in the What Car? car park.

Having already covered almost 2000 miles behind the wheel of my C3 Aircross, I’m pleased with how well myself and the car have been getting along. It’s been fairly efficient so far, returning upwards of 47mpg, and the boot has had no trouble accommodating all of my camera gear. Although this will be pushed to the limits when I take the C3 Aircross on a filming trip which requires an even longer kit list than usual soon.

I am hoping that over the next few months, the C3 Aircross can provide me with the kind of fond memories I'll enjoy looking back on in the future, just like the ones from my France holiday in 2004.

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