Latest edition of Citroen’s C3 has been officially revealed in Lyon ahead of its official launch which is scheduled for January of the next year. The 2017 Citroen C3 is seen as the most important model for the French factory, which is meant to lead the next generation of their vehicles and to create serious competition for Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio. This subcompact will be under the pressure of succeeding because French company wants to prove that it can still manufacture small cars that will dominate the market.
Exterior
Citroen C3 carries on its family style and design, first seen on the new C4 Picasso while also taking some design cues from a little more peculiar C4 Cactus model. On the front end of the vehicle, there are slim headlights that stand out on the grill which is fully made out of chrome. Brands badge is, traditionally, centered in the middle of the mask, while the fog lights can be found lower on the bumper. Taillights, for which LED technology has been used, are more similar to C4 Cactus than anything else. Together with redesigned rear end, they are giving the car unique looks.
Viewing it from the side, we can notice that it is not fully made out of metal but instead is partly covered in protective plastic. This way of treating the exterior was first time used on C4 Cactus, and will probably be implemented on all of the cars in this range. Citroen’s newly developed Airbump technology made this possible.
One of the things that we like most is the fact that it will come in nine different exterior colors, three contrast colors for the roof, different choices for the fog lights, side mirrors and Airbump surrounds. As a result, it will be possible to customize it in many different ways.
2017 Citroen C3 Interior
The cabin, just like many other things on this model, is inspired by C4 Cactus. The dashboard will come with few to none buttons, and will instead feature medium-size 7-inch touchscreen. Infotainment display will be put on the top end of the control panel and will bring Apple CarPlay, Mirrorlink, and Android Auto. All of this will come as standard equipment on 2017 Citroen C3.
Interior will come in four different trims. First one is the basic, that doesn’t come with any special features. Metropolitan Grey brings changes to the seats and dashboard in terms of softer colors and textures. Urban Red as its name suggests brings darker red to the interior shades. The trim that tops Citroen C3 offerings is Hype Colorado that offers leather steering wheel and materials of the highest quality used across the cabin.
In spite of all those mentioned above, the most important piece of technology is Citroen’s own ConnectedCam. This system is actuality a GPS-enabled two-mega-pixel camera, that is turned forward and it’s positioned on the rear-view mirror. The primary function of this camera is to record and store pre-accident situations in length of 30 seconds, and 60 seconds after the accident for later review. This way it’s much easier to determine what happened, and whose fault is it, in case that incident happens.
Engine
In the engine department, we are going to see some familiar options. The custom in Citroen is that units come from PSA group, and those are PureTech petrol and BlueHDi diesel engines. The diesel will be Blue HDi 1.6-litre engines that will have 74bph or 99bph. The PureTech petrol powertrains with 1.2-litre displacement and three-cylinders can produce 67bhp, 81bhp, and 109bhp respectively.
The option of start-stop will be available on the entire range of new Citroen models. What might seem like a little bit unusual is that, for starters, there will be only manual transmission offered. Automatic models will be available at a later date after the new C3 is officially launched.
Price and release date
As previously stated the sale of 2017 Citroen C3 will start at the begging of the next year. C3 will be offered, same as the last model was, only with five doors. Price will most likely stay unchanged compared to the previous installment and will be around £11,000.
