Citroen C3 test drive since 2002 hatchback

French hemisphere

People are asymmetric. Just by virtue of its nature. Whether we, for example, have a radial symmetry in needlery, and stop our development at the level of some unpleasant lancelets, axial. Fortunately, homo sapiens is more difficult.
 
Even our brain, with all the external symmetry, is great heterogeneous from hemisphere to hemisphere. As scientists say, its left half is responsible for rationalism, right for feelings and creativity. So they live together, but somehow separately. So, in any case, scientists say.


The fact that a somewhat unusual population of sapiens settled in France is certainly pleasing. It is pleasing simply because the French, as, perhaps, no one else, manages to make friends the unbelievable: beauty with convenience, and grace with rationalism.
 

As a result of the consensus of the hemispheres of the heads, the hemisphere of the French, car Citroen C3. The car is so simple in shape that it is even somehow incomprehensible that its target audience finds it. Yes, yes, I’m about all these girls, girls, aunts and grandmothers, who only burst with their hands at the sight of a sort of beauty-mines about four wheels. And the eyes do the same-and-th! ..
 

What can I say, a semicircle is so simple that you even wonder how no one has come up with the time of VW Kafer and Citroen 2CV thought of using this geometric straightforwardness? No, there was, of course, New Beetle, but it turned out to be rather profanity. Therefore, he did not gain fame in Europe. Is it C3!


The semicircle is not only simple, but also aesthetically. The imagination immediately finds a lot of analogies: from the rising (or setting in the mood) sun to completely some kind of anatomical details that directly refer us to the work of the classics of the Renaissance.
 
A semicircle is not only aesthetically aesthetically pleasing, but also practical. Here, for example, you leave the house in the morning and find that a neat snowdrift, winter, has risen on the site of the C3 left under the windows, as always suddenly. Instead of fighting with this winter fairy tale by means of a chance, you can just accept it! Put a lump on top (slightly smaller of Citroen), on it one more (very small) and, adding carrot-angle accessories, leave the kids rejoice to the thaw!
 

I admit, I rode without much enthusiasm to meet with a modified Citroen three -lash. Yes, in our photos updated C3. Do not believe? Take a closer look. The new enlightened (so now wears) head and tail optics, other bumpers. Moreover, in the front air intake, reminiscent of PEUGEOT rather than Citroen. What else? Still inside. The edging for aluminum slightly refreshed the salon. Plastic, however, did not step further than softly, but does not make cheap impression. Well, God be with him.
 

The main thing here is now there is a tachometer. Of course, he did not become round and separate (this is Citroen after all), but around the digital speedometer, the rest of the lipstick does not swim along the curved channel, but a real arrow. Today we, however, most likely do not need a 1.6-liter motor on our C3 is equipped with a robot of stupid mechanics that is. Moreover, silver levers of manual transfers stick out on both sides of the steering wheel on both sides of the steering wheel. The sense of them is even less than from the tachometer along with the steering wheel do not turn. Although it is possible to use a form on a straight line and an effort just right.


The robot wiser. If you go without a tear, it can be taken for a classic machine gun with a hydrotransformer everything quite smoothly, without jerks and clinks. It is worth releasing a 109-headed herd to the will, problems begin. The smoothness of the switching turns into slowness, the manual regime saves only partially C-3PO (French answer to Lucas) becomes more mean, but not faster. But this is rather a nit -pick. Firstly, such boxes are bought for traffic jams, and secondly, robots develop much faster than automatic machines at one time.
 
And Citroenovsky is definitely one of the best.
 

Perhaps the most C3 has changed in terms of controllability. The suspension, however, is still noisy and harsh on trifles, but the rolls decreased, and the energy intensity in this weight category has always been in short supply. But the French tried to overcome the slurry of the steering. Happened. Remaining light in the parking lot, the steering wheel literally stages, it is worth leaving it. The effort is growing somehow suddenly as if they are trying to convince you that the steering wheel should not be spinning at all. If you still dare, we can find that the reactive action carries a sufficient amount of information about the movements of the hemispheric in space.


He is strange, this Citroen C3. Touching and picky at the same time. Playful and slightly arrogant. And, alas, not for me. There was nothing to be done here from childhood, I painted a corner. But together with the restyled C3, intriguing news came to us: soon (seemingly) we should have a charged C3 VTR.
And also X-TR with unpainted bumpers and enlarged clearance. I definitely will not want to turn it into snow sculpture.
 

Autography
Citroen C3
Predecessor Saxo (1995)
Prototype Citroen Pluriel (1999)
PSA PF1 platform
Premiere September 2001
Modernization Autumn 2005
Body 5-door hatchback
Engines 1.1-1.6 l (61-109 l.
Production France
Expected replacement 2007
 

The car is provided by Exis, an official Citroen dealer.
During the test, the car is insured by Rosno.
 
Text: Nikolai Svistun
Photo: Roman Ostanin
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Source: Wheel magazine [No. 99/2006]