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MONTH 6CITROËN C4CACTUSHALFWAYTHROUGH MYlong-t erm test and the C4 Cactusstill has me spellbound. In fact th eonly person happier than me is theHonda Jazz owne r who park salongside. He has an engraved invitation to gleefully smac khis driver’s door into the Cactus every time he climbs out.All I can say is thank you airbumps. Perhaps moreimportantly at this junc ture, nothing has broken or failed.This statement is a massive tempt of fate I know, and quitedeliberate beca use perhaps it’ll throw up a nice tasty dramafor us to resolve in month seven. I doubt itthough. Not onlyhas the Cactus been as dependable and hardy as the realthing, and ke pt me enthralled with its peachy three-potengine, commendable fuel economy, agile handling andcomfy cabin, but thumbing through the GBU section in theback of our magazine, it’s clear our Shine model repres entsgood value too. For R289 900 I’m hard-pres sed to findanything of comparable size with LED DRLs, satellitenavigation, cruise co ntro l, hard-drive storage for music,Bluetooth, reverse camera, park sensors and two of myabsolute favourite convenience features: automatic wipersand headlights. For similar sub-R300k money it’s all GolfTrendlines, Corolla Exclusives and similar – great stra ight-shooters but each either found wanting in the specificationbattle or, crucially, minus the fun factor of the Cactus. Yousee, you can’t put a price on character; th is is what theFrenchie with its teal paintwork continues to teach memonth after month.Each morning I climb ab oard, recline into the softwingback-l ike chair, lean on the armrest and breathe easy. IfCitroën sent me a customer satisfac tion survey to fillin itwould score brilliantly, no question. This despite its moreobvious shor tcomings; yes, my rose-tinted spectacles do havesome perspective. The omission of one-touch electricwindows isn’t as inconvenient as I thought itwas going to be but it’s stillstra nge consideringhow much tech is on board. Life for rearpassengers is a taxing affair. The privacy glasskeeps it verydark back there, the pop-out rearwindows provide no air and neither does the air-conditioning beca use there are no air vents. That’s to beexpected I suppos e as there’s even a shor tage of ventsupfront: only one on the driver’s side, one out thetransmission tunn el for your foot and one beneath th etouchscreen. Speaking of to uchscreens, I’ve had to adapt tothe Citroën system’s particular quirks. As with many similarsystems it’s a slow starter in the mornings. It also falters ifyou aren’t deliberate enough with your finger-pad input.Worse than that I went five months thinking there was noother way to select media than by scrolling betweenunrecognised album covers. Thankfully I’ve discovered theList button onthe steering wheel that lists the songs in thealbum on the central screen – all is forgiven.But not before I touch on the weakest link in the Cactuschain – the manual gearbox. With long throws and a high-taking clutch I can see why some might emer ge from aCactus after a shor t test drive feeling less than besotted. It ismost tiresome in stop/start traffic. However, PSA PeugeotCitroën has just intr oduced asix-speed automatic with its 1.2Turbo in the 208 hatchback – ifthe same two-pedal tranny findsits way into the Cactus then therereally will be no reason not to fallunder the spell of this loveablevehicle. Sadly, according toCitroën, the Cactus auto isunlikely to happen be fore 2017.Ray@TopCar``````Ups/downs``````That feelingyou’re seeing theworld through rose-tint ed spectaclesIf I must; thereare one or two``````LOGBOOKCITROËN C4 CACTUS 1.2E-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 000kmservice plan>Total fuel cost| R4 40 7.67Running cost| 72c/km``````Onlythe ‘cheekens’haveadapted tolifeinCactus’srearquarters.Harsh gearshiftcontinues tograteNo fair-weathercompanionSimple, to-the-p oint, yet brilliantlyspecced andunimpeachably rel iable:the C4 Cactus continues to impress