They are here. They’re quite widely spaced,
but you can drive around it easily enough – albeit with a couple of hindrances.
For a start, there’s no revcounter, which isn’t a huge hardship, but it is a
useful tell for selecting the most appropriate gear in town. It’s more useful
for that than sensing the impending arrival of the rev limit, anyway, even
though this engine is quite willing when near it. This engine has a generally
relaxed, refined, nature even at higher revs, but there’s little to be gained
by revving it out, because most of its good work is done in the mid-range.
Interior
door handles, like the glovebox, reference luggage design. Interesting, but
we’re unsure how well they’ll wear. Armrests are clad in Neoprene-like cloth
The other hindrance is the gearshift, which
is sometimes obstructively notchy and matched to a clutch with a cumbersome
take-up. Both contrive to detract from the otherwise easy-going nature of the
powertrain, which is a pity.
Put against the clock, the Cactus can reach
60mph in a reasonable 11.8sec, but to make that kind of progress, you do have
to shoulder the burden and work that gearbox. An 11.7sec sprint from 30-70mph
is acceptable enough. Try the same in fourth gear and you’ll be laboring at
lower revs before the motor swings into action and it wants 20.4sec to cover
the same benchmark. It’s a pity, because there’s a pleasing drivetrain in the
making here, but the fact is that if you choose a car from the Volkswagen
Group, you’ll have an easier time of it.
Goodbye
instrument binnacle; all the information is presented digitally
Ride And Handling
That there’s more C3 than C4 under the
Cactus’s skin is not necessarily a great thing. DS3 aside, these underpinnings
haven’t produced the most appealing small cars to drive, and the Cactus is no
exception.
In a way, there’s merit to Citroën’s
intentions here. It seems to want the Cactus to have a gently loping gait, in
the manner of famously relaxing and quirky Citroëns. And it does, of a fashion.
The wheels are a fairly sizeable (for a supermini) 17 inches in diameter, but
the tyre sidewalls are a generous 50-profile (on a 205mm width) so there’s
compliance in the rubber, as well as in the suspension.
But there’s more to making a car
comfortable over distance than just making sure that it’s relatively soft, and
here the Citroën falls down. We had testers say they’d have been more relaxed
on a motorway cruise or on an extended drive in a hot hatch or sports car, because
at least that way they’d get some respite from having to make continual
corrections.
The
glovebox is a good size, has rubberized non-slip nipples on the top and isn’t
intruded upon by a fuse box as normal on RHD cars
The Cactus’s steering, three turns lock to
lock, is light but has precious little self-centring and the suspension seems
to offers little damping control at the top of its travel. So there’s
considerable initial roll and pitch, in response to even small imperfections or
direction changes, which means that you’re always working at the wheel and
getting pitched to different angles. On a two-minute drive, this implies that
it’s softly sprung and easy to drive. But in the longer run, it’s just quite
tiring.
In short, there’s nothing here for the
likes of us, and that’s a pity. A base Ford Fiesta shows every other
manufacturer how it’s possible to have a pliant yet very controlled ride, and
the THP 155 version of Citroën’s DS3 is pretty good at it, too. None of that
legwork seems to have been put into practice with the Cactus. This basic,
just-about-adequate handling might be okay on a car that’s much cheaper than
its competition but, as you’re about to read, the Cactus doesn’t quite have
that advantage.
Ventilation
is controlled via the touchscreen. You get three vents altogether and there are
no superfluous individual shutter controls
Buying And Owning
The Cactus may well become an appealingly
low-cost ownership proposition once it’s on your driveway, but putting it there
cheaply enough is another matter. Our test car was just under $34,220 once all
of its options were accounted for – hardly the stuff of pragmatic brilliance.
The Cactus range starts with prices beginning with a ‘12’, but so do several
key rivals. So although it’s a lot of car for the money, making a real bargain
out of the Cactus will be down to haggling with your dealer.
The Cactus takes some beating on CO2
emissions, though, and it’s generously equipped, with midrange Feel models
getting that touchscreen interface, DAB radio, cruise control and parking
sensors as standard features.
Fuel economy is good – at times excellent.
Our overall return of 46.6mpg was deflated by plenty of fast motorway running
and our performance figuring session. Drive this car more modestly and 60mpg is
easily achievable.
Citroën’s
nav system is good, with respectable display clarity, clear directional tulips
and easy route planning
Verdict
If we could award road test verdicts
without rotating a tyre on asphalt, the C4 Cactus would have done better. It’s
cleverly conceived, distinctive to look at on the outside and intelligently
designed on the inside. It’s not as significant a car as the Nissan Qashqai, we
suspect, but it’s a novel, interesting and well-targeted one nonetheless.
Trouble is, it could be cheaper. A generous dealer discount would make the
difference on that front, but getting one isn’t guaranteed.
If only, then, it were a bit more pleasing
to drive, with more of the vigour of a DS3 THP 155 than the dourness of a
humdrum C3 hatchback. The former is no less comfortable and, by a margin, is
less tiring over distance. The gearshift, the clutch action, the steering, the
damping… all could be improved. Still, above all, we crave cars that are
interesting, even if they are flawed – and the C4 Cactus is certainly
interesting.
