Review: Citroen DS3

In the red body with the white roof, the DS3 is a sweetie, writes Brian Byrne. The first of Citroen's new series of upmarket cars, it is pitched directly at BMW's Mini. Already the arguable favourite of women in these islands.

The DS3 is based on Citroen's C3, so the engines are familiar. Bits like the dashboard and instruments are straight out of the supermini too, but with a bit of added sparkle. The steering wheel is stylish, with leather and aluminium trimming. The seats are special to DS. The 2-door body, of course, is unrelated to the more dumpy C3.

The front is very smart, a strong grille, sharp 'eyes' and funky vertical lines of LED daytime running lights. The back hatch is also good looking. From the side, the 'shark fin' incorporated in the centre pillars lifts the profile out of the ordinary.

Of the pair of engines available, the 90hp 1.6 diesel is one of the best in class in the world. In the DS3 you only know it's a diesel by the frugal way it sips fuel and the torquey pull when pressed. At 4L/100km and CO2 of just 104g/km, it giggles as it passes fuel pumps.

It happened that during my time with the car I had two three-hour journeys to do in one day. If it was going to show up any problems in comfort or driving manners, these would have raised them. But there weren't. Quite the contrary, the seats and the driving position in the car were at a level which some premium brands should copy.

Citroen seems to have dumped the quirky controls and instruments that were a hallmark of some recent models. Keeping it simple is one of the things that's important in these distracting times. I still don't like the orange colour of some of the info panels, and maybe the graphics on the speedo could be clearer. And the aluminium inserts on the gearshift are going to be bloody cold when winter bares its teeth.

But, y'know, I think this DS3 will get some traction. And not just amongst the ladies. There are colours and roof pattern options that many young men would be happy to own. Prices start at €18,950 for the petrol VTi 95hp DSign, rising to €21,500 for the 1.6HDi 90hp DStyle which I had.