Citroen C3 Review: Who Should Consider This Car?

When you are out in the market to buy a new car, which is feature-rich, has a plush ride quality, and stands out in the competition, there are hardly any choices available to opt from. Recently, Citroen India updated its model lineup in India, and the C3, which is the entry-level micro-SUV, got updated with new features, making it a more compelling choice. However, it still competes with some of the tough competitors in its segment, like the Tata Punch and the Hyundai Exter.

A few days ago, I took the Citroen C3X out for a spin in the city and on the highways. I travelled long distances and checked its fuel efficiency, features, comfort, and other factors. Today, I’ll briefly share my overall experience with the C3X and will tell you whether you should consider it or not and which is the most value-for-money variant of the lot.

Let’s begin!!!

What’s Good

Performance

The Citroen C3X is offered with two petrol engines. There is a 1.2L inline three-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine, and there is a turbo petrol engine. Since I drove the turbo petrol engine paired with a six-speed torque-converter gearbox, I’ll be sharing my experience of that. This engine produces 110 bhp and 205Nm of torque.

I personally liked the engine performance from this unit. Talking about the power output and how it feels in real-world driving, the engine has a peppy performance, and once I cross the 2,000 RPM, the C3 pulls effortlessly. Although Citroen does not offer any driving modes in the C3, the low-end turbo lag is well-contained, and once you put your foot down, there is ample grunt on offer. I enjoyed driving this car on the highways, as it feels joyful, and its performance and power delivery are good. As mentioned, the low-end lag is well contained, and the mid-range is the sweet spot. However, the top-end feels quite empty, and it redlines around 6,000 RPM.

Since I drove the six-speed torque converter automatic gearbox, it isn’t the smoothest in its market. While I was stuck in the traffic jam, there was a bit of jerk while upshifting, and once you cross 60-70 km/h speed, the shifts become smooth. When I shifted it in the manual mode, it held on to a gear, and I can say that the C3 has tall gearing, and the third gear easily crosses triple-digit speeds. This is the same engine that powers other Citroen models as well, but it feels peppy and punchy to drive in the C3.

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Comfort

Talking about the seating comfort, I spent a good time in the rear and front seats of the Citroen C3X, and I feel they are pretty comfortable. Though it is Citroen's entry-level micro-SUV, the cabin has a good amount of space on offer. It has easy ingress and egress, and my grandparents were easily made in and out of the vehicle.

The front seats have good cushioning; however, I feel that Citroen could have offered better bolstering to enhance the comfort, and it would have resulted in a better cabin experience. The cabin is wide enough, and the C3X offers decent shoulder room, resulting in you not rubbing your shoulders with the co-passenger.

In the rear seats, the C3X offers ample space. I was comfortable in the rear, and the cabin was wide enough for three passengers. I have had ample knee and leg room, and although the C3X misses out on a tall boy design, there is ample headroom. However, one bummer I found with the C3X is that it doesn't include adjustable rear-seat headrests. These could have improved the comfort and provided a better rear seat cabin experience.

The seat cushioning is on point, and though it lacks leatherette upholstery, the fabric does not feel cheap or substandard. Moreover, there is no rear centre armrest on offer, and honestly, I did not feel the need for it even.

To add more comfort and practicality, there are multiple storage spaces on offer. At the front, you have a decent-sized glove box, which can carry a good amount of stuff, but it misses out on a locking mechanism. Then there is plenty of space in the centre console around the wireless charger area, wherein I kept my wallet, keys, and my phone, and it is quite handy and easy to approach while I was on the go. To keep myself hydrated in the hot, humid climate, the C3X’s door pockets can easily store 1L water bottles in each door, and the front cup holders are also easy to approach, and mostly I kept my iPhone in that place.

Features

The Citroen C3X is equipped with multiple convenience and safety features. The new C3X is now offered with a push-button start/stop, a 360-degree parking camera, cruise control, automatic climate control, and others.

Honestly, these feature additions were required for this car in 2026 to make it a more modern offering in the market. Since it has a push-button start/stop feature, it has an approach lock and unlock feature, and I feel it is very handy to use, as I just have to keep the keys of the car in my pocket, and it comes with ease of mind.

During my 100 km daily commute, I enjoyed using the cruise control, as it was missing earlier and is easy to operate as well. Moreover, the 10.25-inch infotainment system comes with wireless connectivity for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and my iPhone got connected instantly, and there was no lag in it. The touchscreen is pretty responsive, and I feel the UI and the UX have some scope for improvement.

Since I am a music lover and listen to different genres of music while I am travelling, the sound output in the C3X is okayish.     If you are a hardcore music lover, I recommend that you get the audio system upgraded. The automatic climate control, which is the new addition, chilled the cabin in no time. One of the interesting facts is that the display shows the lowest temperature as 13 degrees Celsius, which I have never seen on any other car in the market.

The instrument cluster is the same as that of the other Citroen models on offer. It shows plenty of information, and the display is crisp and easy to read. It has a multi-view system, and I usually kept it with a tachometer and a digital speedometer, and I sometimes felt there was a bit of lag in the revs of the engine and the display. It feels a bit basic, and I expect Citroen to update the UI of it in future updates.

Design

The design of the Citroen C3X is striking and has a curvy profile. The front is similar to the other Citroen SUVs, having a split setup for the LED DRL that gets connected with the chrome grille. The LED headlamps have good throw at night, and it brightens the road well. During my night drive experience, I did not feel much difficulty, and I do not recommend going for aftermarket headlamps in the C3X. Lower down, the bumper has black cladding, and to enhance the sporty appearance, the silver elements enhance the overall aesthetics, which I personally feel goes well with the black shade of the C3X.

On the sides, it is a micro-SUV, and it runs on 15-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels, and I liked the design of them. Though in 2026, the C3X offers flap-style door handles, and I feel the angle could have been slightly lower, as I noticed that it took a bit of effort for my grandparents. 

Overall, the C3X has a proportionate stance, and it does not look boxy like its competitors.

At the rear, the design is simple, and Citroen has given it a minimalistic update with the C3X update. It comes with halogen taillamps and indicators, which I feel Citroen could have offered an LED unit. 

Lower down, you have plastic bumpers finished in black to reduce the visual bulk. Talking about boot space, I feel there is good storage space on offer, and I expect that with a CNG tank, there will be some space left to keep your small bags. Despite the boot space being enough, the loading lip is slightly on the higher side, and it sometimes made it a bit of a challenge to stuff in luggage.

Ride and Handling

Talking about the ride and handling front, the Citroen C3X offers a comfortable ride quality. I enjoyed driving the C3X, and it glides through bad roads and bumps comfortably. Since Citroen has tuned the suspension towards the softer side, while I pushed it around the corners, the body roll is pretty evident. However, it maintains its line while pushing through and feels stable. The 195-section tyre offers good grip, and if you want a slightly better experience, you can upgrade to 205 section as well.  

While I mostly drove it in the city and barely on highways, I feel the steering wheel feels a bit disconnected. Though it is well calibrated, the feel and feedback could have been improved to give a more engaging and better driving experience. It feels buttery smooth, and in a silent ambience, I was even able to hear the electric motor while rotating the wheel. It has a firm grip to hold, and the buttons are well-positioned, making it well-suited for proper ergonomics. While I cruised around 100-120 km/h, the steering wheel continued to feel disconnected, and I wish Citroen could have added artificial weight so that it became more fun to drive and inspired confidence while driving.

What’s Bad

Features

Despite Citroen having updated the C3X with new features, there were some features that the automaker still added, but I did not like. For starters, the new C3X is now equipped with a 360-degree parking camera, but in reality, the camera quality is not up to par. The 10.25-inch infotainment screen has glare under direct sunlight, making it very difficult to see and judge. Moreover, at night, it gets pixelated, and we face a bit of difficulty while reversing.

Additionally, the C3X gets USB Type-A ports in the front and Type-C ports at the rear, and I feel it could have been vice versa to have a better cabin experience. We feel it could have been swapped. Talking about comfort features, it misses out on front and rear armrests, which could have improved the comfort inside the cabin.

Fuel Efficiency

As the Citroen C3X comes equipped with two petrol engines, and I drove the 1.2L turbo petrol engine with an automatic gearbox, the ARAI claimed fuel efficiency is 18.3km/L.

However, as mentioned earlier, since my daily drive was around 100km, I got a fuel efficiency of 14 km/l. I expected slightly better fuel efficiency. One point to notice here is that the gearbox remains in fifth gear at around 75-80km/h speeds. Despite shifting it manually to sixth gear, it sometimes downshifted on its own, thus resulting in lower fuel efficiency.

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NVH

The Citroen C3X has good design and ergonomics, but one thing that could have been better is the NVH. As it runs on a three-cylinder petrol engine, the engine noise levels could have been better. It filters inside the cabin, and once I pushed it hard, it became more vocal.

The engine vibrations are present all over, and it filters inside the cabin and are evident on the pedals or on the door panels. Sometimes, in bumper-to-bumper traffic situations, the steering wheel also vibrates as the gearbox gets confused about which gear to be in.

Moreover, the road noise does not filter inside the cabin, but the suspension noise and the tyre noise do filter inside. With the windows down, you can feel a lot of noise coming in, and once I shut the windows, there is a bit of calmness, but the tyre noise kicks in. I generally kept the music volume a bit on the higher side to keep distracted from these disturbances. However, I recommend that you get aftermarket damping done to add more weight to the car, and it will eventually enhance the cabin insulation.

What is the price of the Citroen C3X?

The price of the Citroen C3X starts at ₹4.99 Lakh (ex-showroom) for the base variant, and it goes to ₹9.45 lakh (on-road, Noida) for the top-spec variant.

Which is the value for money variant in the Citroen C3 lineup?

Since the Citroen C3 is offered with five variants and two engine options, here’s a complete breakup of which is the VFM variant with each engine option.

If you are planning for the 1.2L NA petrol engine in the C3 and you are tight on budget and can't extend to the fully-loaded X Shine variants, we suggest you choose the Feel(O) trim. It comes with necessary features like an infotainment touchscreen, driver's seat height adjustment, steering wheel tilt adjust, six airbags, speed-sensing door locks, and ISOFIX child seat anchor points.

The lower, Feel variant has only dual front airbags and no touchscreen, which I feel is a skip. The Feel(O) at ~ ₹6.8 lakh (ex-showroom) gives you almost everything essential; the X Shine NA at ₹7.63 lakh (ex-showroom) adds LED headlamps, auto AC, push-button start, and a rear camera if you can stretch.

However, if you are going for the 1.2L turbo petrol engine, then there's no other variant to stress over. The Shine variant is the fully-equipped variant of the C3 and gets plenty of premium touches. It includes LED headlights and front fog lamps, a 7-inch digital instrument cluster, TPMS and others.

Verdict

Now the million-dollar question – should you buy the Citroen C3 in its segment or not? Our answer is Yes. Though the exterior design is similar to other cars in the lineup, it feels modern and bulky in the market. The interior has plenty of hard plastic elements, and with the new C3X variant, there are more features on offer. I feel some of these features could be a deal breaker for some buyers at this price.

However, there are some missing in the C3X as well, which I feel the automaker could improve in future updates. It may not feel as sporty on the exterior as its rivals like the Tata Punch, or the Hyundai Exter, but if good ride quality and punchy performance from a turbo petrol engine matter more than fuel efficiency and certain features, this Citroen makes a solid choice.