[Témoignage] C4 1.6i VTR impressions

I was asked to write a report about my C4 1.6i VTR Pack Coupé. Here is a little list of some of the features and my impressions of them. Beware, C4 lovers, not everything here is positive.

 

Remote control key: Very good. You can unlock the car or turn on the lights on more than 50 metres distance. The key itself is however quite flimsy when you unfold it.

 

Doors: Very big and heavy on the coupé.

 

Seats: Nice and comfortable. Adjusting the backrest angle is done with a release handle instead of with a wheel. This means that laying the seat far down so you can lie back and watch the birds through the glass roof is done in a second.

 

Floor mats: I don't know what really should be delivered as standard. I got some lousy "universal" Citroën mats that has to be folded up in the corners. Will buy C4 mats as soon as possible.

 

Cup holder: You might remember that I was wondering if C4 has one. It did, but the placement is extremely bad. It is actually placed in such a way that a cup or bottle gets stuck against the handbrake. This picture shows the cup in place. You can see that the cup sits neatly in the holder, but the handbrake (the cigar shaped thing) is pressing on it. (The picture is taken backwards.)

 

http://home.online.no/~danullen/c4/c4cup.jpg

 

Windows: I have posted pictures before to show how the rear view in this car looks. That was with a clean car. Now, here is what it looks like when driving in the rain and snow. Quite pathetic. You need to use the side mirrors to know what is going on behind you.

 

http://home.online.no/~danullen/c4/c4rearview.jpg

 

The front has its problems too. The wipers don't go far enough out to the sides. When driving in dirty conditions the salt and dirt builds up against the A-beam. The dotted red line here shows where the dirt begins. The picture doesn't show it too well, but this part gets really hard to see through in certain light conditions, making the already wide A-beam almost twice as wide.

 

http://home.online.no/~danullen/c4/c4wiper2.jpg

 

Wipers: Since we are talking about wipers, here is another concern. You know the people who stick flyers (or parking tickets for that matter) under the wipers when the car is parked or you know the people you see in some french street corners who want to wash your windscreen for a euro? What happens when they grab and lift the wipers? The wiper goes straight in to the paint of the bonnett as seen in this picture.

 

http://home.online.no/~danullen/c4/c4wiper.jpg

 

Windshield washers: When you spray the windshield you should only do it over 50 km/h. Otherwise the dirty water just runs down from the roof leaving stripes all over the windshield.

 

Climate control: It seems to work quite well but there are a two things that are really annoying. I am mostly alone in the car. But when I change the temperature I have to do it on both sides. My old Stilo had a "Mono"-setting that ment you could control both sides with one knob.

 

The other thing is that when you have the climate control on Auto, you never see what it does. On the Stilo the climate control showed you all the settings when in Auto. You could see how fast the fan was going, if the air got in at the windshield or at the feet and if the recirculation went on. The C4 tells you nothing about what it is doing. You just have to trust it. This is what it looks like when on Auto.

 

http://home.online.no/~danullen/c4/c4autoac.jpg

 

Parking sensors: I have the complete front+rear radar with display and it works really well. It doesn't just help you park. It also helps you through tight corners, for example up a ramp in a garage, or through a narrow street with cars parked so it's hard to get past. But there is a thing about it that you have to be careful with. It seems it is only active in the front when in forward gear and in the rear when in reverse. Let's say you are parallel parking with the nose downhill. You reverse uphill into the parking space. The rear radar goes beep, so you press down the clutch and roll forwards, still in reverse. Now, because you haven't changed to first gear, you can't be sure that the front radar is actually active. I'm not completely sure this is how it works, I haven't dared to take the chance to test it yet. But I have noticed that often when I for example reverse into a spot and get the beep from the rear, then when I change to first gear the beep stops, even though I am still at the same distance from the car behind.

 

Speedometer: This is incredible. I have tested the speedometer against a GPS receiver, which always shows the correct speed. I used the cruise control to keep a steady speed while testing. At 50-51 on the speedometer the GPS reading was 50.4-50.8. The same at 60 and 80. I'll check higher speeds as well, I just need to get an external antenna to the GPS so I don't have to have a co-driver doing the reading while holding the GPS against the side window. This test was made with brand new tyres on Resolfen 17" rims.

 

Cruise Control: This works very well. If you need to overtake you just press the accelerator. When you let go of the accelerator the speed goes down to the preset one again. If you need to go slower, the best thing is to press pause and continue driving on your own. When you are ready you just press resume and the car goes back to the preset speed.

 

Speed limiter: This also works very well and is really useful in town. If you need to go faster than the preset limit you just press down to the floor where there is a distinct click and you are released from the limiter. When you again go at the preset speed or slower the limiter activates automatically again.

 

Adjusting the speed setting could be a bit easier though. To go plus or minus 1 km/h you press and release the plus or minus buttons. To go plus or minus 5 km/h you press and hold the buttons. The problem is that if you for example want to increase from 70 to 100, you have to press and hold the plus button at the same time as you check the display to see how far you have come. Ideally, it should say click or beep for every 5 km/h so you can count the clicks while keeping your eyes on the road.

 

Suspension: I am almost wondering if there is something wrong with my car and hope someone can tell me if their car does the same. When going at moderate speed (20-50 km/h) over bumps in the road, typically bad tarmac or railroad crossings where there is an edge some centimetres high, the suspension says CLONK quite loudly. It feels like something is about to fall off. Not good at all.

 

Rear window: The rear window on the Coupé is an eye catcher and it has a positive function in the winter. There is less snow and ice to remove. That's good since the windscreen is 50% bigger than on other cars, which means 50% more snow and ice to scrape there.

 

http://home.online.no/~danullen/c4/c4noice.jpg

 

Changing wheels: I changed from winter to summer wheels last weekend. The box below the carpet in the boot is easy to take out and it has all the things you need. As usual though, the jack is only for emergencies so it is really crappy. This one is even worse than the one in my Stilo or my girlfriend's Fabia. When you turn it, it is almost impossible not to scrape the ground for each turn.

 

The set also includes a special plastic hook to remove the bolt caps and a very useful centering bolt for mounting the wheel. The bolt caps on Radicale/Resolfen is however quite soft and when you use the hook to pry them off, it feels like they are about to crack. But they get off before that, so no worries.

 

So, a lot of negative impressions listed here. Does that mean that I am unsatisfied with the car? No, I like it a lot and look forward to every drive. The car is good to drive, comfortable to sit in, has a good cockpit and loads of smart solutions. I can definetly recommend it.

 

/Dan

Thanks for your impressions, looks like you are a better journalists than most of french "specialists"!

Thanks a lot for this very thorough analysis of everyday life with a C4. You sound much more negative overall than most users, but I think this is good to get that kind of feedback too.

As for the parking sensors, I don't know if that's the case on the C4, but on the C3, you can activate the rear sensor when in forward gear if you push a button on the dashboard (the same button that allows you to completely deactivate it). Worth having a look at the C4 user manual.

Speaking about the CLONK, there are apparently quite a few complaints on the forum. This is a really annoying thing and it reminds me of the problems that most C3s had when they came out. Mine had the whole front suspension system changed and it did not seem to do much to cure the problem. Another potential source was the bracket on which the engine was mounted. Again, changing a few parts there did not significantly improve the situation.

Hopefully this will not be the case with the C4. However it is really weird (and obnoxious) that every new Citroen comes with that kind of defect : it is paricularly bad for the reputation of great and smooth suspension that the brand had gained in the past.

 

I hope that you'll enjoy your rides in your new citroen despite all these nuisances.

 

Cheers,

 

Pierre.

You sound much more negative overall than most users, but I think this is good to get that kind of feedback too.

Yes, that was my thought. I am much more positive than negative, but since most of what is posted in the forum is very positive, I thought I'd balance it by concentrating mainly on the negative things.

 

/Dan, proud and satisfied C4 owner...

Thanks a lot for your impressions and feedback.

There isn't any car in the world with no default, so it is important that the users identify these defaults to have a real description of this C4.

 

It will allow me to make my choice with many informations about quality and default.

Thank you Dan for this quite impressive analyze.

3questions for you :

Isn't it possible to set the wipers to go further on the sides? Any others have this problem too?

Your winter alloy weels are on 17" or 16"?

Did you get that scented air freshener pack (3)?

Isn't it possible to set the wipers to go further on the sides? Any others have this problem too?

I'll ask the dealer when I do the 1500-2500 km service. It's a possibility I think.

 

Your winter alloy weels are on 17" or 16"?

The winter wheels seen on the snowy picture are 16" Radicale. Now I have put on 17" Resolfen and the car looks even better.

 

Did you get that scented air freshener pack (3)?

I got the special delivery package which includes one scent from each of the three ordinary packets. The three are Ylang Bambou, Fleur de Vanille and Menthe Musc. So far I have tried the Ylang Bambou and it smells like shampoo...

 

/Dan

excellent, if our journalist would be so objectives.......

 

very good synthesis.

I would appreciate you continue to developp your critic with some pictures, it s really helpfull!

 

PS: send it also to auto journal, auto plus and Co in France ;o)

Here's another thing I wonder if someone can comment. Am I the only one who has the "scroll wheels" going the wrong way? When I select radio channel with the scroll wheel I have to roll it upwards to go downwards in the channel list. The same thing on the computer. When I roll that scroll wheel upwards I move downwards through the menu options. Is it something wrong with my car or something wrong in the head of one of Citroën's engineers?

 

/Dan

I have the same behaviour...

but I took the "tip" to think "aviation way"...

I mean push to go down, pull to go up... and it works...

if you think, the buttons of the electrical windows have the same logic...

 

also the black panel feature originaly comes from airplane cockpits...

Premières impressions après 500km fait ce we... c'est tout bon, je découvre toutes les possibilités petit à petit...sortant d'une 206 j'ai l'impression d'avoir une voiture de luxe...quels gadgets, c'est génial!!! Je n'ai pour l'instant que du bonheur à la conduire, pas de problèmes, bon ok un, c'est un haut parleur qui déconne un peu, et un son qui globalement comme ça déjà été dit sur ce site, n'est pas grandiose...je crois qu'il était même mieux sur la 206... Sinon elle est belle, mais qu'elle est belle... le noir va très bien au coupé, ça en jette...Et le moteur n'attend qu'une chose c'est de vrombir...je suis frustré pour l'instant de ne pas trop appuyer, mais yen a sous le capot, ça se sent...

Je ne trouve pas la vision arrière si déstabilisant que ça.

Un mot encore pour l'instant: Vive la C4 coupé