Car review: Citroen DS three DSport

Cool, collected and competent: these are the words that neatly sum up the 3-door Citroen DS 3 DSport, writes auto reviewer Tim Barnes-Clay.

The DS 3 supplying from the French automobile maker has often looked achieved – but Citroen’s moved things up a notch.

Fresh, subtle, state-of-the-art headlights now make the automobile stand out even much more.

Citroen has combined light-emitting diode (LED) and piercing Xenon headlights with clearer indicators.

New lights and improved efficiency

These offer exceptional lighting efficiency and supply exceptional visibility at evening.

At the rear, the DS 3 has a distinctive 3D-impact LED light set up, with a chrome finished DS logo in a black embossed pattern setting.

These new lights imply efficiency has been improved simply because energy consumption is up to 75% reduce than the lights used in older DS 3 models.

This may possibly not seem much, but it counts towards the French automaker’s green efforts – and it equals savings.

Enhanced colour choices

For instance, the LEDs last up to 20 times longer than halogen lights, with an impressive standard lifetime of 20,000 hours.

To additional improve the allure of the DS 3, and to ensure it remains desirable, Citroen has also introduced a range of personalisation possibilities.

The DS 3’s colour alternatives have been enhanced, with the addition of Pearl White and Belle-Ile Blue to make it look even funkier.

On leading of that, the car gains visually striking 17″ alloy wheels.

Performance and comfort

But this mini motor is significantly much more than a auto with pretty lights, vibrant colours and flashy wheels: it strikes a best balance amongst functionality and comfort.

The most current engine, fitted to my DS 3 DSport test auto – the Blue HDi 120 – boasts up to 78mpg and emits just 94g/km of CO2. This indicates the automobile is low-cost to run.

On the practical side, you may feel little automobiles – or superminis, like the DS 3, are not any great.

You’d be wrong because the Citroen has one particular the biggest boots in its class and 5 “true” seats.

Automatic braking technique assists avoid low-speed crashes

It also now possesses new characteristics to boost the city driving expertise.

My car was fitted with Active City Brake. This is an automatic braking system that assists to avert low-speed crashes.

This is achieved thanks to a radar mounted at the leading of the windscreen, which identifies slow moving or stationary automobiles on the road ahead.

If the vehicle is driving at speeds reduce than 20mph, the sensor activates the brakes to stay away from a prospective collision.

Very good-looking, little and safe

Day-to-day manoeuvres are created simpler too, with the addition of a reversing camera on the DS 3.

This is an alternative, but I very suggest it. If you do add it to your Citroen, it automatically hyperlinks to the navigation system for ease of use.

The DS 3 DSport, fitted with a Blue HD 120 engine, will do -62mph in 10.4 seconds and maxes out at 118mph.

Those figures don’t look rapidly on paper, but the automobile feels swift and has arrow-like steering precision.

So, if you want a excellent hunting, tiny, secure motor with a decent boot, perky performance and low running costs – then the DS 3 is a good bet, as long as you don’t mind a 3-door automobile.

Pros & cons

• Emissions √


• Practicality √


• Looks √


• Economy √


• Security √


• Only 3 doors X

Quick details

• Max speed: 118 mph


• -62 mph: 8.4 secs


• Combined mpg: 78.5


• Engine: 1598cc 4 cylinder 16 valve Diesel


• Max. energy (bhp): 120 at 3500 rpm


• Max. torque (lb.ft): 210 at 1750 rpm


• CO2: 94 g/km


• Cost: £20,165 on the road

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Car review: Citroen DS three DSport

So Funky, So French: Wild Citroën C4 Cactus Airflow 2L Uses Compressed-Air (!) Hybrid Powertrain to Accomplish 118 mpg

How does 1 polish a cactus? Eliminate the needles, of course. That’s what Citroën has done with its funky-French C4 Cactus crossover to create the Airflow 2L notion, which tends to make its aerodynamic, in-the-succulent debut at the 2014 Paris auto show next week.

Citroën shaved this Cactus for one particular cause: Fuel economy. In an automotive sense, a car’s “needles” are its a variety of drag-inducing physique pieces. Thus, Citroën streamlined the Cactus’s aerodynamics with spats around the wheel arches, a entirely sealed underbody, a rear bumper diffuser, and dynamic wind deflectors behind the rear quarter windows. Other active aerodynamic components contain 3 variable intake slats in the front bumper and shutters on the wheels that shut in accordance with rotational forces (the shutters close far more the faster the wheels turn). As is notion-automobile vogue these days, the Airflow does with out standard door mirrors, cutting drag and leaving drivers to rely solely on video feeds from every side.

All of this aero operate, combined with the Airflow’s skinny BMW i3–style “tall and narrow” 19-inch wheels, improves the C4′s aerodynamics by a claimed 20 percent. Helpfully, Citroën painted all of the Airflow 2L concept’s aero addenda a vibrant orange color to make them less difficult to pick out against the car’s white physique. Further assisting fuel economy is the C4 Cactus Airflow’s 220-pound diet relative to the standard Cactus it weighs a claimed 1907 pounds. Credit goes to the concept’s composite floor panels, suspension springs, doors, roof, liftgate, rear seats, side panels, doors, and fenders. Higher-strength steel was used in the door sills and front passenger kick panels, and aluminum replaces the typical Cactus’s far more conventional alchemy in crucial structural regions. Citroën’s obsessive quest for weight shaving incorporated thinning the tubing employed in the exhaust and replacing the panoramic roof glass with thin polycarbonate. Ultimately, the Airbumps—Airbumps!—on the side have been rendered in lightweight carbon fiber.

With much less drag to deal with, the Cactus’s offered 3-cylinder “PureTech” gasoline engine would probably be lots fuel efficient when installed in the Airflow idea, but Citroën gave it a various kind of increase in the type of its bizarrely cool air-powered hybrid system. Making use of a pair of pressurized air tanks and a hydraulic pump/motor that feeds energy to a planetary transmission mounted in between it and the gas engine, Citroën gets the rewards of a hybrid with no a heavy battery. (Head right here for a full breakdown of how Citroën’s method performs.)

The goal in all of this Airflowing, lightweighting, and air-pressurizing is hinted at in the “2L” portion of the Citroën’s name. In Europe, the efficient-vehicle holy grail is the so-named “one-liter car” it represents any automobile capable of traveling 25 km (62 miles) on a single liter of fuel. The Volkswagen XL1 resulted from the VW Group’s efforts toward such a automobile, for instance. The C4 Cactus, no matter how several aero bits are blown its way, merely can’;t match the XL1′s potential to reduce via the air, and is therefore a 2-liter auto. Nonetheless, 2 liters of fuel utilized per 25 km translates to practically 118 mpg. Not poor, yet the ideal element is how the Airflow manages to maintain the C4 Cactus’s stylish appears and desirability.

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So Funky, So French: Wild Citroën C4 Cactus Airflow 2L Uses Compressed-Air (!) Hybrid Powertrain to Accomplish 118 mpg