Citroen have always made cars that are a little bit different and the new C3 is, well, no different. Elegant and far more attractive than the model it replaced in January, its most distinctive feature (and one of its best) is the panoramic windscreen.
Standard on all but entry level C3s, the glass stretches back behind the driver’s head and ends midway along the roofline.
It floods the interior with light and if you’re somewhere close to mountains (such as most of Scotland) then it provides wonderful views of the scenery as you pass through.
In the blazing sunshine we’ve been enjoying lately, it also generates enough of a greenhouse effect to put the air conditioning under considerable strain.
There’s a cover, containing the sun visors, that slides forward and makes the windscreen conventional size, but it seems a shame to shut yourself off from the best summer we’ve had in years, so I just cranked up the air conditioning and wore shorts.
The C3 range starts at £10,890 for the (non-panoramic sunroof) 1.1 VT, rising to £16,240 for the 1.6HDI in Exclusive trim.
I drove the 1.6 petrol, also in top-of-the-range Exclusive trim, which costs £14,690.
It’s fairly nippy, with 0-62mph coming up in under nine seconds.
It needs to be revved to get the best out of it, however, and although it achieves almost 48mpg, I’d probably go for the|1.6 litre diesel, which returns just under 66mpg, and costs £600 more.
The C3 has a soft suspension set-up that endows it with a ride quality surpassing anything else in the supermini class. It really is magic carpet-smooth.
The flipside is handling that rolls clumsily, making the car no fun on corners.
If you want something that’s dynamic and agile, avoid this and go for a Fiesta, but if it’s comfortable cruising you’re after, this is the one to go for.
Inside, the C3 has a feeling of quality that would have been unthinkable in a Citroen even 10 years ago.
The quality of materials is top notch, and a bit of effort has been put into coming up with a distinctive, stylish dash and switchgear.
My only quibbles were an absence of cup holders and shortage of stowage space there’s no storage box in the central console, for example, and the glove box is pretty small.
There’s plenty of space in the front and the back isn’t bad either, although legroom could be better.
There’s a class-leading 300 litres of space in the boot, however.
My car came in an amusingly-camp shade of powder blue.
Driving along the dual carriageway to Perth a couple of days ago, I was happily singing along to the radio and overtaking a smart black saloon car.
As I drew level, the sharply-dressed, sunglass-wearing young blade behind the wheel must have noticed he was about to be passed by what seemed to be a large, light blue powder puff on wheels.
He put his foot to the floor and sped off into the distance.