Citroen C4 Hatchback test drive since 2004 hatchback

Sweet couple

Three -door Citroen C4 in two forms
 
Literally two numbers ago, in the material about the double debut of Citroen C4 in Russia (AI No. 3, 2005), I promised to return to this model again. Firstly, there is a reason - three -door versions that the manufacturer calls the compartment entered the market, although by classical standards these are hatchbacks. Secondly, at the first acquaintance because of the strongest snowfall, I could not really test the car on the road. Now - a completely different matter: Moscow is frosty, they did not promise strong precipitation, there are relatively few cars on the roads, and at my disposal two C4 - in the VTR trim levels and the flagship VTS.
 
The funny thing is that this time was not without the vagaries of the weather, which turned the entire shooting of a 180-horsepower coupe into many white points against the background of a barely noticeable car. So on these two pages I presented a standard car with a 1.6-liter engine, and I will tell you about the differences in the sports version of Citroen C4. First of all, I escaped at Citroen C4 VTR from Moscow. Nature is almost untouched by dachas: the forest, the lake under the side, lacks only its own house on the edge of the edge with a smoke -winged barn and a melted bathhouse in the neighborhood. However, the type of these structures would definitely ruin the winter landscape, so that I do not live here, there is an advantage. And what path leads here from the city! Turning from a wide highway, you get almost to a rally additional. A narrow ribbon of even asphalt wriggles along the river and sometimes presents the driver not the simplest tasks like turns with a change in curvature or almost real springboard. However, in the fact that no one lives here, I doubted from the very beginning - the road looked too carefully cleaned, it was often often the secondary paths with installed signs are prohibited.
 
Joy for two
 
All this romance interested me exclusively in minutes of stops for photo shoots. When I was driving, it was, believe me, not before. I tested C4 in the most rigid mode. He accelerated, squeezing out of the engine all the possibilities, intensively tended to the turns, in the well -viewed areas he let the car into light drifts. And, imagine, on the suburban path for all the time of the tests I came across only a couple of oncoming cars. In general, a driver's paradise.
 
Did Citroen share my joy? It seemed to me that - yes. Even despite the fact that here I was driving a standard C4 equipped with a 1.6-liter engine developing 110 hp. In addition to a certain dynamic potential, this also means standard suspension, standard transmission, standard chairs. In general, the ordinary, in fact, a car. But he must also note, is trained in the correct behavior at speed and in corners. Yes, there are some nuances that slightly cooled my ardor, but I will talk about them a little later, but for now
 
Acceleration. It cannot be characterized by a phrase from a place - in a quarry, but the language does not turn slow. Let’s say so - acceleration is a good, deeply pressing body in the back of the seat (according to the traditions of the French automotive, they are much softer and more comfortable than all competitors from Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, Japan, etc.). In temporary terms, acceleration up to 100 km/h takes 10.6 s. In principle, I suspect that C4 in this performance could reduce this figure at least for a second or two, but the motor is slightly clamped for the sake of environmental requirements.
 
The behavior on the line did not cause a single complaint. The car holds well for the asphalt, and at high speed it makes an amazingly little noise. And the point here is not only in the general aerodynamics of the body. What is usually a source of parasitic sounds at high speed? Mirrors. In C4, they have an intricate form, remotely resembling a drop of water. And the air goes around them, practically without creating twisting, that is, the main cause of noise. At the same time, there are no complaints about visibility. True, I had a ripening to the intra -axial mirror, or rather, to the design of the trunk door. It consists of two glasses - the usual vertical and horizontal, which is a continuation of the roof. At the site of their joint is a plastic bar, at the same time serving a small spoiler. And it is she who blocks the view. This, of course, is not criminal, but not too convenient. But I will return to the noise. The second main source of noise in the car is an uneven bottom on which the details of the exhaust system and the fuel highway are strengthened. In C4, all this is covered with plastic casings that make the bottom of the machine almost flat and, accordingly, quiet.
 
The settings of the steering personally did not please me too much. The electric power is tuned in such a way as not to strain the driver with excessive sharp reactions to the beam turns. However, at high speed, I lacked information content in the near -Stolium zone. In other words, turning the steering wheel slightly in order to smoothly change the lane, I did not always realize which the wheels were turned on which degrees. With large angles of turning the steering wheel, such a feeling does not arise.
 
The behavior in corners is perhaps the most delicious of what is in this machine. S4 suspensions (in front - like MacPherson, behind - half -dependent on ancient, but exceptionally reliable and durable Thorsions) are very skillfully configured, so that the car does not scare the car or breakdown in the turns, if it was on the roadshassi road, it seemed quite assembled in The measure of sports. Just so much as in normal conditions not to annoy the shaking.
 
Here, perhaps, I have to talk about some complaints that are actually entirely subjective. Firstly, the shape of the backs of the seats is not in the best way for passing turns in an active style - I would like to more difficult to pump the rollers of lateral support. Secondly, the transmission mechanism is clearly not designed for shock work: manipulating a lever requires unnecessary, from my point of view, efforts, moreover, the lever itself is somewhat crashed. Thirdly, the force on the steering wheel during intense turns seemed a little artificial. As a slightly played performance by the young actor on the stage: he seemed to be in the role, but you do not feel that he was completely surrendered to her. Finally, the full -time French tires, which I personally would replace at the first opportunity with Japanese or North European ones. All these nit -picking instantly disappear as soon as you stop imitating the rally, just starting to go quickly, or
 
Pereshev in C4 VTS
 
The flagship C4 is good in everything, with the exception that during the shooting he glued bad weather. Find out this version equipped with a 2.0-liter 180-horsepower engine is quite simple. It is enough to look, for example, at the trunk door on which a black carbon fiber spoiler rises or on wheels with a picket fence of spokes, shod in low-profile 17-inch tires, or on the thresholds that are dressed in aerodynamic skirts and decorated with large letters of VTS.
 
There are differences inside. These are steel -colored plastic panels, shining with chromium tanks of the gearbox, a luxurious radio tape recorder based on JBL components, sports seats with pronounced side support, pedal without rubber linings. In general, C4 VTS equipped with all the standard equipment for such a car, emphasizing its sporting nature.
 
But this is not the main thing. The most interesting detail of the machine is the engine that gives C4 completely different, compared with standard versions, temperament. True, I have to admit that here it was not without the environmental spoon of tar, due to which the car accelerates to 100 km/h only 8.3 s. A bit too much, I must admit, for such a potential. But with acceleration in motion there is no problem. It is enough to add the transmission lower, and VTS shoots forward, as if launched from a catapult.
 
VTS behavior on the road is more sharp. Here, the gear ratio on the steering wheel is reduced, there are more rigid shock absorbers, increased brake discs. All this equipment is necessary for constant control over the machine, which strives to break out from under the driver. In turns, such a C4 is much more stable and until the last tries to maintain a clutch with the road. But reckoning is a more sharp departure in the skid of the front. Only driver’s experience will help to stabilize the car in such a situation and partly - the ESP standard system. The fact is that electronics helps neat drivers, but those who neglect the laws of physics will not save. However, you should still not be afraid of demolition - it arises in completely wild situations.
 
The final reckoning for sports temperament and perky controllability of VTS is the price of a car that begins at $ 34,500. Agree, a good reason to think about what is more expensive in this life
 
Text: Sergey Ilyinsky
 

Source: Newspaper "Automobile Izvestia" [No. 5 (73), 2005]