Citroen C3 2025 review | A comfortable and affordable supermini

What is the Citroen C3?

For several years and multiple generations, the Citroen C3 has represented the entry point into the French firm’s range as its smallest and most affordable model. The latest iteration of the car, originally introduced in 2024, is a little different to those that have gone before, because it trades its hatchback design for a slightly raised-up SUV-like stance, as is very much the fashion these days. But despite its extra heft, the C3 still has a starting price that makes it one of the most affordable new cars in the UK.

Granted, to attain the lowest starting price, you have to put up with relatively modest equipment levels and a petrol engine that’s noisy and not awfully powerful, but both are more than tolerable given the low price. Citroen also offers a higher-spec version with more luxury trappings, and a pokier and more refined hybrid powertrain, for those prepared to spend a little more.

Rivals? Well, you have to consider the Dacia Sandero, and the more SUV-like Sandero Stepway, as competitors, and these are cheaper still, although arguably more compromised at the same time. The MG3 is also a small car that’s cheaper, and available with both a petrol engine and a hybrid powertrain. There are also several other models from the gigantic Stellantis stable, of which Citroen is a part, that use exactly the same platform and mechanicals as the C3: these models include the Fiat Grande Panda, the Vauxhall Frontera, and the (slightly bigger) Citroen C3 Aircross.

Like all these sister cars, the C3 is also available as an all-electric car. However, we’ve written a separate review for the EV version because its ownership proposition and competitor set are rather different. This review, then, concentrates solely on the petrol-engined versions.

How practical is it?

The C3 is a very small car - just a shade over four metres long - so you wouldn’t expect it to be the last word in practicality. And while it isn’t, it does a better job in this area than you might expect.

Up front, there’s a decent amount of room, enough that the driver and the front passenger won’t be banging elbows. There’s lots of movement in both the height adjustment for the driver’s seat, and the two-plane adjustment in the steering column, so finding a comfortable driving position should be easy for pretty much anyone. Forward visibility is good, and although the rear window is pretty small, rear visibility isn’t too bad, either.

The rear seats are also better on headroom and legroom than you might expect, with more than in many rivals. A pair of tall adults should sit comfortably behind front-seat occupants of similar proportions, although there’ll be nothing doing if you try to squeeze a third passenger in.

Getting there in the first place might be a bit of an issue, though. The rear door openings are very narrow, and there’s an odd piece of protruding bodywork in the frame of the door - next to the rear-seat backrest - that eats into your access space even further. Curving yourself around it isn’t easy, even for relatively dextrous passengers, and if Granny comes along for the ride, she may want to bagsy the front passenger seat.

Boot space is limited but not tiny at 310 litres. That’s enough for a small family to survive day-to-day, but it probably won’t serve as your only family car, especially if weekend trips or domestic holidays are a regular occurrence. There’s also a high load lip that gets in the way when loading heavy items: you’ll have to muscle them over and lift them down onto the recessed boot floor below. You’ll also find no underfloor storage, nor a ‘frunk’ beneath the bonnet, so your charging cables will likely be rattling around in the boot.

The rear seats drop in a 60/40 split to open up a maximum of 1,188 litres of cargo space, but they don’t lie flush with the boot floor, leaving a large step in your extended load area.

In terms of quality, the C3 is pretty much what you’re probably expecting. This is a car at the cheaper end of the market, so it wouldn’t be realistic to expect swathes of high-grade soft-touch material and posh detailing. But, while all the interior plastics you encounter are hard to the touch, they are textured quite nicely, and the mix of colours, shapes and finishes on show (the strip of fabric that runs across the dashboard is a particularly cool touch) makes everything look and feel cheerful and interesting.

What’s it like to drive?

Both combustion-engined versions of the Citroen C3 are powered by a turbocharged 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine. The entry-level one sends 98bhp to the front wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox, allowing it a modest 0-62mph time of 10.6 seconds. The higher-grade one adds hybrid assistance to take the combined output up to 108bhp, and this is administered exclusively through a six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. This one is capable of dashing (well, sauntering) from 0-62mph in 9.8 seconds, and both versions have a top speed of 99mph.

They’re pretty close numerically, then, but they’re a way apart on character. Let’s start with the entry-level version.

When first pulling away, and when working in the lower- and middle parts of the rev range, it actually feels quite a bit more eager than you might think - and than it really is in terms of outright speed - as three-pot engines often do. It really encourages you to give it plenty of revs, which you’ll need to do in order to achieve halfway decent pace, such is the shortage of genuine power. And that shortage really comes to the fore once you venture into the upper echelons of the rev range, whereupon your rate of acceleration tails off dramatically.

But while this revvy, up-and-at-’em character is quite endearing, it does the car’s refinement no favours whatsoever. You find yourself working the engine to its limits just to keep up with traffic, and this generates a shouty, raspy soundtrack from under the bonnet, as well as lots of vibrations coming at your extremities through the steering wheel, pedals and floor. Snapping through the rather imprecise and baggy-feeling manual gearbox isn’t exactly a feast for the senses, either. The engine drones away noisily at motorway speeds, too, and it’s also joined in that environment by a fair amount of both wind- and road noise, too. Suffice it to say that this isn’t the most relaxing way of getting around.

The hybrid version, meanwhile, is an altogether more relaxed experience. While you can detect its small amount of extra shove, it actually feels hardly any faster, partly because your rate of acceleration is limited by the rather conservative behaviour of the automatic gearbox, not to mention its rather slovenly responses. The throttle responses have a similar profile.

All of this does, however, give the hybrid powertrain a less frenetic character, and so refinement is generally better in most situations: it moves along in traffic with greater ease, and it’s less strained at motorway pace. You will hear it moving around on electric-only power at very low manoeuvring speeds, at which point it’s obviously even quieter, but being quite a basic hybrid, it’ll only do this for metres - rather than miles - at a time.

Engines aside, though, the thing that really characterises the C3’s driving experience is its impressive comfort. It has what Citroen calls Advanced Comfort Suspension with Progressive Hydraulic Cushions. That’s basically a marketing name for fancy bump stops that smooth out movements at the extremities of the suspension’s travel.

It’s effective to be fair, and the generally soft setup also contributes to a very plush and cosseting ride. Sure, this softness results in some body movement over undulations and when changing direction, but it’s not excessive and things don’t feel too roly poly. It’s actually not as much of a limiting factor to the car’s handling as the steering is: it feels very artificial, the weighting is inconsistent, and the odd square-shaped steering wheel (seriously, Citroen, there really is no need to LITERALLY reinvent the wheel…) feels obstructive if you try to feed it through your hands.

Technology, equipment and infotainment

Many modern cars these days have infotainment systems that have to perform so many diverse functions that they end up being incredibly complex, and as a result, are difficult to use. The Citroen C3 isn’t one of them, partly because as a car at the cheaper end of the market, it simply doesn’t have all that many features, so the infotainment has less to deal with.

Your driver’s seat- and steering wheel controls are all manual, you’ll find physical controls on the doors to raise and lower your electric windows and adjust your door mirrors, there are physical buttons for disabling some of the more annoying driver-assistance systems, and also, there are - praise be to the gods of common sense - physical controls on the centre console for the ventilation system. On that last point, the lower-end Plus trim has manual air-conditioning that’s operated by a collection of three rotary dials, while the higher-spec Max version has climate control, which replaces the dials with a collection of buttons and toggle switches. Happily, both arrangements are an absolute doddle to operate.

In both trims, above those ventilation controls sits the central 10.25-inch touchscreen, and your infotainment system brings together DAB radio, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and six speakers. In addition, Max cars have native satellite navigation and wireless phone charging. All the essentials, then, but without too many fripperies.

But despite the simplicity of the system, it’s still way more difficult to use than it should be. The layout of some parts of the menu structure is just bizarre, and you often find yourself hitting dead-ends with it, and you wouldn’t think it possible to make finding a particular DAB radio station so unbelievably difficult. We spent a full two weeks with the car and never quite figured it out. What’s more, the graphics look rather dated and the screen sensitivity could be better.

In terms of other luxury kit, Plus-trimmed cars come with 17-inch alloy wheels, a contrasting roof, automatic LED headlights, electric windows, rain-sensing wipers, heated electric mirrors with power folding, cruise control, and rear parking sensors,

On top of that, Max trim adds front foglights, rear privacy glass, a reversing camera, part-leather-effect upholstery, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, and a heated windscreen.

Citroen C3 running costs

One of the Citroen C3’s key selling points is its affordability. Prices start at around £19,000 for the Plus-trimmed car with the non-hybrid engine, making this one of the most affordable models currently on off in the new-car market, and the price rises to around £21,000 if you want the hybrid. Prices for the Max version range roughly between £20,000 and £22,000, depending on your choice of powertrain.

Both should be pretty easy on the motion lotion, too. The non-hybrid powertrain should be good for up to 52.0mpg according to official WLTP figures, while the hybrid has an equivalent figure of 59.2mpg. In both cases, we’d expect a little less in the real world, but we’d expect the hybrid to get closer to its official figure due to its more relaxed nature: we can see the rev-hungry character of the entry-level engine being more damaging to real-world returns.

All versions of the petrol-powered C3 sit in insurance group 24 (of 50), so insurance premiums will probably be about as middling as they can get. VED road tax is also the same across the board, with all versions being liable for the regular flat rate of £195 per year.

Citroen C3 reliability

There isn’t yet enough data on this generation of Citroen C3 to have a halfway-accurate stab at predicting its long-term reliability, because it simply hasn’t yet existed for long enough. We suspect that this won’t remain the case for too long, though: the C3’s platform and mechanicals underpin seemingly countless models produced by parent company Stellantis, so it shouldn't be too long before there’s a decent pool of data to draw from.

The car comes with a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty from new, which is the very least you should expect from any new car, and is frankly rubbish when the likes of Toyota will offer you up to ten years or 100,000 miles of cover if you get your car serviced annually within the dealer network.