Top Car

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

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

Top Car

Get our desktop app

Company

Features

Documentation

Resources