Citroen 'reinvents the wheel'

There’s a lot at your fingertips when you get into the uncluttered cabin and behind the wheel of Citroen’s C4.

There's a lot at your fingertips when you get into the uncluttered cabin and behind the wheel of Citroen's C4.

Citroen is basing the sales campaign for its new C4 range in New Zealand around the marketing-speak phrase, "alive with technology". It points to equipment unusual in the mid-sized segment, such as headlights that see around corners, a speed limiter, tyre-pressure warning system, a dash-mounted air-freshener, laminated side-glass to cut road noise, and a steering wheel that rotates around a fixed centre hub.

There is also an optional lane-departure warning system that alerts the drowsy driver that the car is straying out of its lane.

It works by vibrating the left-hand or right-hand side of the driver's seat cushion, a sensation similar apparently to that of the car running over rumble strips on the side of a motorway.

Sensors near the wheels react to compounds in road-marking paint and activate the system when the car unintentionally drifts across a lane at speeds above 80km/h.

Citroen says it introduced the system in a mainstream model after research showing that driver fatigue was a major factor in 25 per cent of death and serious injury accidents in Europe.

It has won industry awards in Europe for the device, which has been described as "eerily efficient".

But it won't be available in New Zealand, says Citroen, because it has not been tested in this market.

The novel design of the steering wheel not only frees the dashboard of switchgear but ensures that most of the essential controls are placed close to the fingertips.

The rev counter sits on top of the hub and its screen switches from orange to red to warn the driver of manual models to change up a gear.

Citroen says the fixed-hub design is also a world safety first in that the airbag housed inside it fires from a set position, unlike most cars where the airbag rotates with the steering wheel.

This movement compromises the effectiveness of driver's airbags, says Citroen.

It says the fixed-hub has allowed it to design a bag that offers better protection to the driver.

The speed-limiter prevents the car exceeding a set speed but the driver can instantly disable it by jumping on the accelerator and pushing its travel beyond a resistance point set by the programmed speed limit.

The set speed will appear in a translucent digital display on the top of the dashboard, along with other information.

It is easy to read, thanks to technology that adjusts to prevailing light, but the futuristic design itself somehow appears foreign in an otherwise clean and uncluttered cabin, made even more pleasant by an air-conditioning system that boasts a built-in air freshener.

Nine different scents are available in cartridges that slot into the diffuser next to the air vent.

They can make a difference, too, in a cabin that is spacious with adequate headroom and kneeroom front and rear.

The Citroen C4 was launched the other day as a liftback in five-door or three-door guises, priced between $31,990 and $42,990.

Buyers have the choice of three petrol and two diesel engines mated to either five-speed or six-speed manual gearboxes or four-speed automatics with a four-speed manual mode. The Citroen C4 is based on the same platform as the Peugeot 307 and shares many of its components, including the suspension set-up, front struts and rear torsion beam.

But it looks a world apart, longer and lower with a more rakish bodyshell but more interior room. A brief drive on roads south of Auckland showed it to be a typically predictable offering. The ride was good on good roads but it wasn't as good as might be expected on bad surfaces, where noise from the softish suspension thumped its way into the cabin. Handling was predictable, offering neutral behaviour with understeer at speed. The electro-hydraulically assisted steering was also predictably accurate.

The engine line-up is: 83kW 1.6-litre petrol; 106kW (143bhp) 2-litre petrol; 135kW (180bhp) 2-litre petrol; 83kW (110bhp) 1.6-litre diesel; 103kW (138bhp) 2-litre diesel.

At $35,990, the 1.6-litre turbodiesel (a Ford-PSA Group product) with its 260Nm of torque offers the best value for money.

Safety features include six airbags, ABS anti-lock braking and stability and traction control systems.The Citroen C4 ranks high in occupant protection and achieved the maximum five stars in a recent crash test in Europe.

* Citroen's 2005 World Rally Championship car is based on the C4 coupe.

But while the 2-litre engine in the coupe produces 135kW (180bhp) through the front wheels, the turbocharged variant of the same engine in the four-wheel-drive C4 rally car puts out 235kW (315bhp) and about 550Nm of torque.