Citroen Grand C4 Picasso 2018 review

You have to give credit to the Citroen guys for naming one of their cars Picasso. Just not the reasons you might think.

Of course, at first glance it seems the height of impudence to name your mover of people after one of the true masters of art. But then you look at the work of Picasso; everything is famously strange, disproportionate and somehow mixed up.

All this works great in paint, but it is hardly what car designers are striving for.

Despite this, the seven-seat Citroen Grand C4 Picasso has been spinning in the Australian new car market for several years, but has never made much headway in the sales charts. But the big Citroen was given a refresh last year when the French automaker redesigned and revamped interior technology in an attempt to lure more customers into its outdated model.

So should an updated Grand C4 Picasso be on your shopping list?

Citroen Grand C4 2018: Exclusive Picasso Bluehdi
Safety Rating
engine's type	2.0 L turbo
fuel type	Diesel
Fuel efficiency	4.5l / 100km
Landing	7 Places
Price from	$25,600

Is there anything interesting about its design? 8/10

Is there anything interesting about its design? Have you seen this thing? All of a sudden, all these Picasso things start to make more sense. In short, it's not your average passenger vehicle, and it looks a million miles away from the boring van-like human shifters you might be used to.

On the outside, our test car's two-tone paint job gives the Picasso a flashy, youthful look, aided by large alloy wheels, oddly shaped windows, and LED strips up front.

Grand Picasso is equipped with 17-inch alloy wheels. (Image credit: Andrew Chesterton)

Climb inside and cool tech offerings dominate the dashboard, sitting under a windshield so huge it's like sitting in the front row of an IMAX movie theater. The materials and the two-tone color scheme work well inside, and while some touch points don't feel overly premium, they all look good together.

How practical is the interior space? 9/10

It just so happened that during my week of driving a Citroen, I had to pick up a new sofa bed. And despite the suspicion (but obviously not measuring) the dimensions would overwhelm the Picasso, I gave it a crack anyway. 

Surprisingly, once you fold those two rear rows of seats, the Grand C4 Picasso really becomes a small mobile van. Dropping the seats the first time around is a bit awkward, but the space is super impressive after that. Citroen claims 165 liters with all three rows, up to 793 liters with the second row folded down, and a whopping 2181 liters in full minivan mode.

Of course, all the usual stuff is there too, like two cup holders in the front and space for large bottles in the front doors, and where a traditional shifter would have been has been replaced with an insanely deep storage box (in Citroen, the shifters are located on the steering wheel). column). Drivers in the back seat get their own 12-volt outlet and door vents, as well as space in the doors for bottles.

But the real thing about Citroen is the smart little things that you'll learn more about along the way. For example, there is a small flashlight in the trunk that I used during Operation Sofa Bed. A dual rearview mirror helps you see what the kids are doing in the backseat, and the passenger seat has that pop-up footrest or ottoman that isn't a million miles away from a feature offered in the most expensive German premiums at just a fraction of the cost.

The second row seats are also individually adjustable, so you can slide them back and forth to customize the space to your liking. And as a result, space in any of the three rows fluctuates somewhere between good and great, depending on how you manage the seats.

Does it represent good value for money? What functions does it have? 8/10

With only one trim level "Exclusive", it's a pretty easy choice folks; gasoline or diesel. Opting for petrol will part you at $39,450, but if you opt for the diesel powerplant found in our test car, that price jumps significantly to $45,400.

With that money, you can buy a five-door, seven-seat Grand Picasso with 17-inch alloy wheels, car headlights, and cool headlights that light up the walkway as you approach the car. It's also a one-touch boot that opens and closes on demand.

Inside, cloth seats, dual-zone climate control, keyless entry and push-button start, and cabin tech is covered in a killer 12-inch center screen that pairs with a six-speaker stereo, as well as a second seven-inch screen that handles all driving information.

What are the main characteristics of the engine and transmission? 8/10

The Grand C4 Picasso 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel engine delivers 110kW at 4000rpm and 370kW at 2000rpm and is mated to a six-speed automatic torque converter that sends power to the front wheels.

This is enough to accelerate to 10.2 km / h in 100 seconds, and the maximum speed is 207 km / h.

Gasoline and diesel engines get a six-speed automatic transmission with a torque converter. (Image credit: Andrew Chesterton)

As mentioned above, you can get a petrol model with a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo with 121kW and 240Nm. This is a new addition to the lineup: the pre-facelift version of the Grand C4 Picasso only works with a diesel engine. The petrol variant also gets a six-speed torque converter, front-wheel drive and a 0-second 100-km/h time of 10.2 km/h.

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How much fuel does it consume? 8/10

Citroen claims an impressive 4.5 liters per hundred kilometers on the combined cycle, and emissions are 117 g/km. Its 55-litre tank should give you a range well north of 1000 km.

Claimed fuel consumption is 6.4 l/100 km.

What is it like to drive? 8/10

Inevitably, with a car as smart as this Citroen, the way it drives will always take a backseat to a lot of the other things it does. Its practicality and spacious interior, for example, will surely outweigh its road performance on the list of "reasons to buy".

So it's a really nice surprise to jump into this thing and discover that it's actually a real pleasure to drive. First, it doesn't drive like a big car. It feels small and easy to control from behind the steering wheel, the steering surprisingly works without that bus game you sometimes find behind the wheel of a big car.

Driving through Sydney's twisty roads is amazing, and the gearbox is relatively trouble-free. (Image credit: Andrew Chesterton)

Parking is easy, cornering is easy, the ride on Sydney's winding roads is amazing, and the gearbox - aside from a slight lag at start - is relatively smooth.

The diesel engine goes into a pleasant and quiet mode while driving. It does get a little louder when you put your foot down and it's not fast, but the PSU really fits the character of this car - no one buys it to win traffic light derbies, but there's enough power to get around without it. simplicity.

Disadvantages? Oddly for such a smart car, it has one of the worst rear view cameras I've ever seen, which is like watching a blurry and pixelated TV from the 1970s. There is also too much focus on security for me. It may seem that you are in Mission Impossible just waiting for one of the many alarms that sound when you do something wrong. For example, if you try to turn off the engine and the car is not in the parking lot, a siren (literally a siren) starts blaring, as if you were captured while breaking into a bank vault.

In addition, the technology is there, but it does not work as smoothly as we would like. The stop-start button, for example, often takes a few taps to actually turn off the engine, and steering column-mounted drive selectors are a nuisance in just about every application I've ever seen them in, including this one.

Warranty and safety rating

Basic Warranty

5 years / unlimited mileage


guarantee

ANCAP Safety Rating

What safety equipment is installed? What is the safety rating? 7/10

The rather impressive safety offering starts with six airbags (front, side and curtain - but the curtain airbags only go as far as the second row, not the third - disappointing for such a passenger-focused car), but it adds some smart tech like active cruise -control, lane departure warning with assistance, blind spot monitoring with steering intervention, automatic emergency braking (AEB), a rear view camera and a 360-degree parking system that offers a bird's-eye view of the car. It can even park the car for you, as well as driver fatigue monitoring and speed sign recognition.

It received the highest five-star ANCAP safety rating in crash testing in 2014.

How much does it cost to own? What kind of guarantee is provided? 6/10

The Citroen Grand C4 Picasso is covered by a (frankly disappointing) three-year, 100,000 km warranty - yes, Citroen's impressive six-year unlimited mileage warranty that previous model buyers would have received has now been cancelled. This will require service every 12 months or 20,000 km for both diesel and petrol models.

The Citroen Confidence Service Price Promise program allows you to check the cost of the first six services online, but they are not always cheap: currently the cost is between $500 and $1400 per service.

Verdict

For every car that is inexplicably successful, there is one that inexplicably didn't - and the Citroen Grand C4 Picasso is firmly in the second camp. Its endless practicality, comfortable on-road dynamics and stylish looks really should have attracted more fans to it, and yet it loses in the sales race.

There are several options that are just as comfortable, smart, and stylish, yet practical enough to gracefully accommodate seven people or a sofa bed.

Did you like the Citroen Grand C4 Picasso, or would you prefer a bulk offer? Let us know in the comments section.