2008 Citroen C4 Picasso Road Test Review

Driving position and forward view is like sitting at the front of the Starship Enterprise. Citroen calls it “panoramic”, and it is beyond eye-catching. Few cars command such unobstructed visibility and such an expanse of glass – in front, to the corners and above. (Yes, above. The sunvisors slide back to expose the curve of the windscreen into the roof. It’s fabulous at the wheel. )

The dash appears to stretch away and in front, almost to the nose of the car. It’s as big and deep as a park bench. (One day you’ll open the door and find a wino sleeping there.)

But here’s another thing. While the dash has clever stowage boxes up top (big enough to hold an old Stones LP record) and a side compartment that, in some models, holds a six-stacker CD, it is a patchwork of angles, nooks and little plastic corners. There is also a covered cool-box (for the Semillon Blanc) in the console, right about where you might have expected to find the gear-shift.

You can’t help but feel there are too many parts to it; too many bits to break or bend in the sun, or get loose and rattle. And the controls are not where you might expect them – centralised into the centre console – but spread to the corners of the dash. They’re easy enough to use, but finding them is so counter intuitive you’re forever fumbling about.

Sometimes simplicity in form and function is best. (But then, maybe that’s not the Gallic way... maybe – in cars – it’s the quirks that create the personality.)

Less quirky, and definitely one of the more surprising strong points, is the way the Picasso goes about the matter of driving. It soaks up kilometres as effortlessly as Citroens of old. It is impressively quiet: traffic noise, cabin ‘boom’, wind and road roar, and the rude intrusions of the hoi-polloi are all held beyond the glass.

Thanks in part to the Picasso’s ‘acoustic windscreen’, panel sound-damping and hydraulic mounts on the rear axle bushes, mechanical noise is also banished. For interior refinement, it’s more like driving an expensive luxury saloon than a ‘square box’ family bus.

Adding to the appeal in the top-of-the-line model is the willing, free-spinning 2.0-litre HDI diesel engine. With 100kW and 320Nm of torque at just 2000rpm courtesy of Citroen’s latest-generation injection system and variable-geometry turbocharger, and mated to the excellent six-speed automatic gearbox, it shuffles things along very nicely.