Citroen C3 test drive since 2009 hatchback

Shiny

Such machines are often called female. This is rather a compliment than a reproach. At least the Nissan Micra and Citroen C3.
Didn't you really embarrass that you drove in a female car? - the employee of the representative office of Nissan asked me when she took Micra. Motorly muttered something like not, it’s just that work, I thought: did it embarrass me? Maybe it’s time for Thailand for surgery? However, according to the results of brief self-testing, it turned out that in everything else, except for the justification of the right to use Nissan Micra, the current gender affiliation somehow suits me, so I had to look for other reasons.
Thoughts, of course, moved further in, fashionably speaking, the global direction: what is female in application to the car? Most often, compact, relatively low -power and stylish cars are awarded with such an epithet. That is, an ideal female car is a handbag on roller skates. Only consumer cosility does not allow manufacturers to reach this logical end of the chain: many car owners still want to have four places, a roof over their heads and a trunk with a capacity of at least a cart from a supermarket. All this typical city car provides them. And even more.
 
 
Who is dinner with the girls ... The appearance is perhaps the main sign of a female car. All cars are trying to make it beautiful, but it is for the small ones that the appropriate or non -trivial layout is considered and appropriate proportions, or the use of bright stylistic solutions. The first is the Citroen C3, the second approach was chosen by the authors of the Nissan Micra. And most of their classmates are also successfully standing out in the stream - and not only in size. Every extravagance is explained by the brutal restrictions on dimensions: it is not so difficult to please passengers of a large car, the creators of the babies have to strain the imagination. The recipe is relatively simple: more vertical landing plus use of each cubic decimeter of the body volume.
The Micra layout is closer to traditional models, but in terms of sophistication of style, the machine is not inferior to either C3 or other competitors. What is confirmed by the prestigious German prize for the design of Rote Punkt. In our opinion, a relatively low car looks heavy. But you can come to terms with this. Especially when you get acquainted with the interior closer: a thorough study of details and a lot of pleasant little things that make the daily use of the car convenient and pleasant.
 
 
Citroen is also not bad in this regard, but Nissan is a little, but is ahead of it. For example, an additional glove compartment under the right front seat Micra is an extremely convenient thing when you leave the car in the city. You can hide relatively large things that you do not want to carry with you, but you should not leave in sight in the car. You can also in the trunk - but you still need to go before him. C3 has a drawer under the seat, which is not so capacious and convenient.
Both of our cars were quite expensive. The list of possible options by Nissan now includes such a thing that is already familiar to the owners of expensive models, like a radio circuit: you can open the doors and turn on the ignition just having the key in your pocket - we appreciated it. There was also an audio system with CD and control on the steering wheel. However, the last can boast of C3. By the way, French manufacturers were one of the first to offer the opportunity to control the sound, without removing their hands from the steering wheel. And the Frenchmen opened the back seat in this class. But in our current pair, only Micra offers such an opportunity. Unfortunately, the original C3 chip - the folding Moduboard shelf in the trunk - is available only in the most expensive versions.
... He dances them. We took both cars in the most feminine version - with a machine gun. Such a transmission is proposed, according to tradition, only with the most powerful engines: although in this case we are talking about 1.4-liter, Micra gives almost 90 hp, and C3-15 horses less. Nevertheless, for comfortable control without constant switching, the mixer must be paid: the dynamics of such modifications is far from the record. However, this is enough for the city: in any case, the kik-Down provides a fairly intense acceleration of up to 60-80 km/h and allows you to get away from the traffic light with ahead of other SUVs, which seem to be real macho. But here the laws of inertia, which depends on the mass, are already entering into force.
 
However, there are a lot of differences in the character of cars. Micra, although it looks extremely stylish, is more traditional in layout and design than C3: a kind of excellent student, which is forgiven for cosmetics and jewelry for politeness and excellent answers in history. And Citroen, whose salon is not executive at first glance, but is not inferior in the number of original ideas that its creators endowed with the generosity of real creators. The elegant and simple design of the ventilation deflectors allows you to control air flows in an incredibly wide range, and the futuristic instrument shield is quite convenient for reading information-though after at least a 20-minute addiction period.
 
 
These impressions were confirmed on the go. Nissan leaves a feeling of lightness - however, sometimes I want the motor not to seem so subtle, and the suspension does not give up so easily when passing irregularities. It is clear that in the cities of Europe, for which Micra is intended, roads are real roads, and not by layers of asphalt of different ages, and it is usually customary to go around the pits. Nevertheless, the French car relates to such obstacles much more calmly, and its engine seems to be less strained with an equally active style of movement. The similarity manifested itself only in the design of the steering: on both machines there is an electric amplifier, the characteristics of which change depending on speed. Although according to Citroen's subjective impressions, it seems harder.
The only thing C3 disappointed was its main fundamental difference from Micra. Automatic transmission is equipped with a manual selection of programs, which is absent from England in principle. However, at such a speed of response to the lever team, this mode could be absent on Citroen: in the machine, acceleration, if worse, is not much. So the only truly reasonable use of the sectral regime here is braking by the engine.
 
  Another curious difference was revealed during parking. Funny Micra block factories are arranged so that they are visible from the driver's seat and serve as a kind of dimensions. Although with such low bumers I still had to be careful. The complex form of the back, where there is a hint of a real protruding trunk in the style of the classic mini, finally bowed A La Lupo from a well -known commercial in favor of parking - as if a car is half a meter more in all dimensions. Since in fact the size is quite modest, it was not too difficult to find parking lots. In C3, a sloping hood during ordinary landing is practically not visible, but visibility back and sideways are much better. Plus black plastic on bumers. If you were in France and paid attention to Parisian cars, half of which are clearly visible traces of parking by ear, then surely evaluate the rationality of this approach.
Return to the root. A three -day stay in the role of, so to speak, a transvestite, not too much annoyed me. I came to the conclusion that cars for the beautiful half of humanity are not so different from male ... Well, well, we will be political correct - from unisex -style cars. And some female excesses are either simply borrowed from the most expensive representatives of the four -wheeled tribe, or with a high probability will soon appear on many universal models. What can only be glad.
Text Valery Chusov, photo Sergey Sherestnikov
 
Model/Modification Citroen C3 Nissan Micra
The manufacturer/country Automobiles Citroen SA/France Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd./ Greatbrin
Number of doors/places 5/5 5/5
ENGINE
Type/number/location of gasoline cylinders/4/in -line gasoline/4/in -line
Working volume (cubic meter) 1360 1386
Power (kW (lp) at about./Min.) 55 (75) at 5400 65 (88) at 5200
Moment (nm at about./Min.) 118 at 3300 128 at 3200
TRANSMISSION
Front front drive
Automatic gearbox 4-speed automatic 4-speed
Brakes, safety
Front/rear disk/drum disk/drum
Assistering electronic systems of ABS, Emergency Inhibition system ABS, EBD, emergency braking system
Front and side airbags
 
Dimensions/mass
Length/width/height (mm) 3850/1667/1519 3715/1660/1540
Wheel base/clearance (mm) 2460/120 2430/150
Tires 185/60 R15 175/60 \u200b\u200bR15
Equipped/complete mass (kg) 964/1507 1010/1060
The volume of the fuel tank (L) 47 46
Maximum speed (km/h) 162 158
Acceleration to 100 km/h (sec.) 17.7 15.0
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 9.7/5.5 8.6/5.8
Price in Moscow from $ 15,500 $ 18,300

 

Source: "Autopilot"