Category: Sporting 4x4s 
Price Range: £20,345 to £25,945
Good to drive, smooth diesel engine, plenty of cabin space.
Rear seats only for occasional use, limited off-road, bland styling, lacks prestige badge.
Smart, capable and practical 4x4.
Keen to dip a toe into the thriving small 4x4 segment, the PSA group has been canny enough to minimise its exposure to risk.
Instead of gambling millions of Euros on developing an SUV from scratch it struck a deal with Japanese firm Mitsubishi for rights to rebadge the Outlander.
Good plan, but there was a problem. The diesel lurking under the Mitsubishi bonnet had been borrowed from arch-enemy Volkswagen, something that didn't rest easy with a French firm that prides itself on its own diesel engines. There was only one solution: the Outlander was re-engineered to take the firm's 156bhp 2.2 HDI.
As well as the new engine Citroen tweaked the suspension to suit European roads, while inside, the cabin plastics were upgraded.
To confuse matters, the Mitsubishi is now available with the French engine as well as the VW unit and adopts not only the suspension retune, but the higher quality interior too.
Two C-Crosser models are offered, the VTR+ and Exclusiv - both have the 5+2 seating and high levels of kit.
