Citroen has added a new three-cylinder petrol engine to its supermini line-up, with the 82hp unit going into both the C3 and DS3 range, as well as into sister firm Peugeot’s new 208.
The powertrain offers 107g/km and 62.8mpg in the C3 and 104g/km in the sleeker DS model, and it replaces the 75hp 1.4 petrol engine in the range, offering emissions and economy improvements of up to 35g/km and 15.7mpg respectively.
The engine is drama-free and offers adequate performance, but refinement could be better, while the emissions put it well ahead of its Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio rivals.
The Citroen C3 does, though, suffer in terms of some cheap-feeling interior plastics, and its residual value is well below that of the Fiesta or Clio, which reels in the efficiency advantage to put them all at a similar whole-life cost level.
