27 Jul 06
Sometimes the 'service' light came on without an accompanying mileage figure but other information instead. Washer fluid, fair enough. Tyre pressure, ditto. Coolant water, not so good. But I topped it up and the level stayed put thereafter. And throughout its time with us, the C4 needed just one litre of oil to top up the sump.
Even before its final down-tools, the air-con behaved curiously. Sometimes, on a cold, damp night, the windscreen would suddenly mist over completely then gradually clear. (And no, the recirculation mode was not switched on.) Also, the air-con was noisy, always emitting odd whistles and whines, and it never seemed to get up to the required temperature without manual intervention to encourage it. Climate control systems are fine in theory, but when they don't do as they are told I'd rather have a simple manual air-con system that's fully under my control.
That's the faults and failures dealt with. It's hardly a frightening list, and they don't detract too much from an intriguing and mainly well-behaved car. We were keen to run a C4, partly because it was the car range I voted top as a juror in the 2005 European Car of the Year contest. That year's overall winner was the Toyota Prius, but the C4 ended up as runner-up.
Ahead of the Ford Focus? Indeed yes, and the reason was its refreshingly radical design especially when set against the play-it-safe, unadventurous, forgettable Ford. I like the way the C4 looks, a style which immediately marks it out as a Citroen with all the marque's legacy of innovation clearly signalled. The cabin is especially interesting with a starkly simple dashboard and much of the switchgear concentrated in a fixed hub set in the centre of the steering wheel, easily reached with just a stretch of the fingers.
You wonder how the steering wheel's movements reach the front wheels if the column is seemingly fixed. The answer is an internally-toothed ring gear inside the steering wheel boss, which turns a fixed idler wheel which in turn causes a column shaft to rotate. Those extra gears would lead to extra friction and the prospect of free play, you would think, together spoiling the steering comprehensively. But no. The steering is one of the best ingredients of the C4 VTS's dynamic recipe.
