Driven: Citroen DS3
Forget the 1950s - here's Citroen's 'anti-retro' Mini rival
Nice car and road, shame about the weather
Now Citroen wants a piece of the same sub-supermini, super-fashionable pie, but it's not going to follow the retro route. Except that Citroen has chosen to call its new offering DS3, bringing thoughts of the classic 1950s DS series to mind. And the jazzy press conference video package that the world's motoring press are plonked in front of uses video clips of John Lennon and Marilyn Monroe to emphasise the modernity of the DS3. It's all a bit confusing.
The DS3 also has the requisite plethora of customisable interior and exterior options (including some striking roof graphic options, the 'zebra' being our favourite), which Citroen calls 'co-design', so another 'lifestyle' box is ticked there.
The DS3 looks right, then, but it's going to take more than that to convince fashion-conscious buyers that the newcomer from Citroen has sufficient brand kudos. More important in something that has pretensions towards hot hatchdom, there's also the small matter of handling - Citroen isn't particularly known these days for its snappy-handling hatches and the DS3 is going to have to bring its 'A' game to take on the dynamically sparkling Mini.
But with the C5, and C4 and C3 Picasso, Citroen interiors have become immeasurably more stylish and high quality. The DS3 continues with the trend with an attractive, well-trimmed and easy-to-use cabin (although the built-in button-only sat-nav isn't the easiest piece of kit to get on with). The DS3's cabin probably isn't quite up with a Mini's in terms of quality, but it easily outclasses a Fiat 500's interior. Still, with the top-end DSport version we tested coming in at £15,900, the DS3's cabin ought to be classy.
It's also clear that the 1.6-litre turbocharged THP 150 motor (which, confusingly, pumps out 154bhp, not 150) is strong enough to give the little DS3 quite a respectable turn of speed. The DS3 certainly feels well up for the challenge of attacking the manic Parisian morning traffic.
But although the DS3 is a car that, should you chuck it at a twisty road, will leave a grin on your face for quite a while, don't expect it to deliver true hot hatch thrills - in this launch guise at least. There's a reasonably neutral balance to the handling, but although the tail will wag if you lift off mid-corner, there's not much in the way of adjustability. And a 0-60mph time of 7.3secs and a top speed of 134mph are respectable enough figures, but there's a slight springiness to the pedals, a deadness to the steering and a slightly too-long gearchange that conspire to keep the driver ever so slightly distanced from the action.
In those areas, the DS3 scores very well, but we'll have to wait for the hotter version of the DS3 that's rumoured for next year to see if Citroen's newest baby can make the leap from swift, chic city car to pukka baby hot hatch.
Well done Citroen.I'm pleased. They could have produced some gooey retro-styled horror plastered in half-arsed DS styling cues, claimed it was some kind of 'rebirth', and, irony of ironies, to 'compete' with its German rivals, given it a rock-hard ride.
Instead, they recognise that the construction of a Deesse is a philosophy rather than a 'brand', one of refinement, quality and avant-garde French style.
A worthy successor to the DS Le Dandy 'city GT car':
Can't wait for the DS5 saloon now, especially if the DS range embodies this kind of avant-garde refinement and the design sketch looks like this:
Again, well done Citroen. I want one!
Citroen have been clearly influenced by the Fiat 500 and MINI, with the two tone paint, big retro dials, coloured dash, loads of chrome and the endless list of fashionable custom options.
That aside I thinks a pretty cool car, but its not 'anti-retro'.
A retro GS would hardly have been retro and still looked futuristic compared to the modern average lardbucket.
Admittedly I would have thought they'd release the DS5 saloon first, but I'm not disappointed by what I read.
What's the point of going to the expense of tooling up for an entirely different body and interior for a separate model line when it's all improvements that should be on the existing vehicles?
It's all stuff they could have done within the standard Citroen badge and model structure without contradicting its existing brand values if you ask me.
They're too focused on the Citroen brand being cheap motoring. Peugeot should be doing that job, seeing as they can't make a decent driver's car anymore.
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