MONTH 6
CITROËN C4
CACTUS
HALFWAYTHROUGH MY
long-t erm test and the C4 Cactus
still has me spellbound. In fact th e
only person happier than me is the
Honda Jazz owne r who park s
alongside. He has an engraved invitation to gleefully smac k
his driver’s door into the Cactus every time he climbs out.
All I can say is thank you airbumps. Perhaps more
importantly at this junc ture, nothing has broken or failed.
This statement is a massive tempt of fate I know, and quite
deliberate beca use perhaps it’ll throw up a nice tasty drama
for us to resolve in month seven. I doubt itthough. Not only
has the Cactus been as dependable and hardy as the real
thing, and ke pt me enthralled with its peachy three-pot
engine, commendable fuel economy, agile handling and
comfy cabin, but thumbing through the GBU section in the
back of our magazine, it’s clear our Shine model repres ents
good value too. For R289 900 I’m hard-pres sed to find
anything of comparable size with LED DRLs, satellite
navigation, cruise co ntro l, hard-drive storage for music,
Bluetooth, reverse camera, park sensors and two of my
absolute favourite convenience features: automatic wipers
and headlights. For similar sub-R300k money it’s all Golf
Trendlines, Corolla Exclusives and similar – great stra ight-
shooters but each either found wanting in the specification
battle or, crucially, minus the fun factor of the Cactus. You
see, you can’t put a price on character; th is is what the
Frenchie with its teal paintwork continues to teach me
month after month.
Each morning I climb ab oard, recline into the soft
wingback-l ike chair, lean on the armrest and breathe easy. If
Citroën sent me a customer satisfac tion survey to fillin it
would score brilliantly, no question. This despite its more
obvious shor tcomings; yes, my rose-tinted spectacles do have
some perspective. The omission of one-touch electric
windows isn’t as inconvenient as I thought it
was going to be but it’s stillstra nge considering
how much tech is on board. Life for rear
passengers is a taxing affair. The privacy glass
keeps it verydark back there, the pop-out rear
windows provide no air and neither does the air-
conditioning beca use there are no air vents. That’s to be
expected I suppos e as there’s even a shor tage of vents
upfront: only one on the driver’s side, one out the
transmission tunn el for your foot and one beneath th e
touchscreen. Speaking of to uchscreens, I’ve had to adapt to
the Citroën system’s particular quirks. As with many similar
systems it’s a slow starter in the mornings. It also falters if
you aren’t deliberate enough with your finger-pad input.
Worse than that I went five months thinking there was no
other way to select media than by scrolling between
unrecognised album covers. Thankfully I’ve discovered the
List button onthe steering wheel that lists the songs in the
album on the central screen – all is forgiven.
But not before I touch on the weakest link in the Cactus
chain – the manual gearbox. With long throws and a high-
taking clutch I can see why some might emer ge from a
Cactus after a shor t test drive feeling less than besotted. It is
most tiresome in stop/start traffic. However, PSA Peugeot
Citroën has just intr oduced a
six-speed automatic with its 1.2
Turbo in the 208 hatchback – if
the same two-pedal tranny finds
its way into the Cactus then there
really will be no reason not to fall
under the spell of this loveable
vehicle. Sadly, according to
Citroën, the Cactus auto is
unlikely to happen be fore 2017.
Ray@TopCar
Ups/
downs
That feeling
you’re seeing the
world through rose-
tint ed spectacles
If I must; there
are one or two
LOGBOOKCITROËN C4 CACTUS 1.2
E-THP SHINE
>Odo reading start/now| 2105/8 520km
>Distance covered| 6 415km
>Fuel consumed| 364.94ℓ
>Average fuel consumption| 5.7ℓ/100km
>Service inter val|1-year/ 15 000km
>Service cost| C-overedby5-year/100 000km
service plan>Total fuel cost| R4 40 7.67
Running cost| 72c/km
Onlythe ‘cheekens’
haveadapted tolifein
Cactus’srearquarters.
Harsh gearshift
continues tograte
No fair-weather
companion
Simple, to-the-p oint, yet brilliantly
specced andunimpeachably rel iable:
the C4 Cactus continues to impress