Citroen C4 Review & Prices

The Citroen C4 looks like nothing else on the road, and depending on your taste that may be a great starting point. It’s the size of regular family hatchbacks such as the Volkswagen Golf and Kia Ceed, but it has chunky styling and a slightly raised body - so you may instead be shortlisting it alongside compact SUVs such as the Ford Puma, Peugeot 2008 or Volkswagen T-Cross.

It’s a bit like a British Indian takeaway - perfectly comfortable being a fusion of two things. It’s not authentically a hatchback or an SUV, but unless you’re really into labels, does it really matter? And like those takeaways, it can be great value, with a starting price that comfortably undercuts many key alternatives.

The C4 was launched in 2020, and its mid-life facelift went on sale in early 2025. The most obvious change was to the styling - Citroen rebranded itself during the pre-facelift model’s life, and so the latest cars wear the newest Citroen roundel at the front. They also get new slim LED headlights with multiple daytime running light stripes, while around the back there are squarer LED taillights and the Citroen wordmark spelled out across the boot lid.

Inside, it’s pretty much business as it was before - but there are new seats with better support in the corners, an updated infotainment system and a new digital gauge cluster to replace the old car’s fairly basic one.

In practicality terms, the Citroen C4 is closer to a hatchback than an SUV. Though it’s slightly taller than something like a Volkswagen Golf, that doesn’t really equate to increased interior space, and legroom in the back is only just about okay for adults. The C4’s 380-litre boot is a decent size, matching the Golf, but much smaller than a Ford Puma or Peugeot 2008 - you can blame the stylish, swoopy roof line for that.

The interior does feel built down to a price, but considering the C4 costs nearly £5,000 less than the equivalent Volkswagen Golf you can forgive a few areas of scratchy plastic. What’s more important is that it’s easy to use, and here it’s a mixed bag.

Technophobes will love that Citroen’s retained a full set of physical climate controls underneath the main screen, as well as physical buttons for things like the drive modes and on the steering wheel. You even get an easy shortcut to turn off the more annoying driver assistance features.

However, the infotainment screen isn’t quite so straightforward. There are quite a lot of menus to dive through, and functions aren’t always where you’d expect them to be.

The C4 comes with a choice of petrol or hybrid engines - there’s also an all-electric e-C4, which we’ll cover separately. All offer good fuel economy and plenty of performance, considering the C4 is quite a lightweight car. But the hybrid engines are much noisier than the ones in a Toyota Yaris Cross, and the sole petrol offering comes paired to a pretty clunky eight-speed automatic gearbox.

To drive, it’s quite interesting - because so few cheap cars focus on comfort any more, instead fitting stiff suspension and big wheels to improve looks and handling. The result is that the C4 feels wallowy and awkward if you’re trying to sling it down a back road, but on the flip side it’s superbly comfortable on the motorway and deals with lumps,, potholes and speed bumps around town better than anything else this side of a luxury car.

There’s no denying the C4 won’t suit everybody, then, but if it sounds like your cup of tea why not check out our best Citroen C4 deals here? You can find a used Citroen C4 for sale here, or check out other used Citroens for sale here. And remember that Carwow is the place to be if you need to sell your old car, where our network of trusted dealers will bid to get you the best price.

Prices for the C4 kick off at less than £23,000 - that’s much less than any comparably sized hatchback, and Citroen often offers impressive discounts to make it even more reasonable.

The range starts with the You! model which comes pretty generously equipped. LED headlights, a 10.0-inch touchscreen and 5.0-inch instrument cluster, climate control, rear parking sensors and 18-inch alloy wheels all come as standard equipment, though stepping up to the Plus model does net you a larger 7.0-inch instrument cluster, head-up display, reversing camera and navigation along with a more powerful set of engines to choose from.

The range-topping Max, meanwhile, still comfortably undercuts a Volkswagen Golf but gets a heated steering wheel and front seats, adaptive cruise control, tinted rear windows, blind-spot detection and keyless entry.

The C4 doesn't like being pushed down a country road but it's superly comfy over bumps in town

In town

Citroen doesn’t pretend that the C4 is even one bit sporty - instead, it’s focused completely on comfort. Key to this is what Citroen calls ‘Progressive Hydraulic Cushion’ suspension - essentially, hydraulic elements in the dampers which make for seriously soft suspension but without allowing the car to wallow all over the place.

It works fantastically well around town. Though it doesn’t iron out speed bumps like the biggest luxury cars, it takes the sharp edges off them. It also successfully masks poor road surfaces - and combined with the very soft and forgiving seats, makes for a relaxing experience.

All versions of the C4 are now automatic, but it’s the hybrid engines that are the best to drive around town as they use the electric motor to mask the slightly choppy gear changes.

Visibility out of the front is good, but the rear window is split across two parts and has a line across the middle of it - and no wiper - so rearward visibility isn’t fantastic. The C4 has a good turning circle, but even the biggest alloy wheels have a lot of tyre sidewall so you won’t be perpetually worrying about bumping into kerbs.

On the motorway

The trick suspension does work very well on the motorway, too. The C4 really glides across bad road surfaces when you’re going quickly, with only short sharp impacts - like expansion joints on bridges - penetrating the cabin’s ambiance.

The engines can all get a bit raucous on the motorway - the three-cylinder thrum isn’t unpleasant, but it’s a touch louder than you’d like especially when you’re trying to get up to speed on a slip road. Wind and road noise is otherwise well contained.

Citroen’s assisted driving features work quite well, with adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping aids that don’t feel too obtrusive or twitchy.

On a twisty road

Get onto a winding country lane and you can see where Citroen’s comfort focus means compromise. If you try and push on you’ll soon notice that the C4 leans a lot more in corners than a comparable hatchback or small SUV - something like a Ford Puma feels much more tight and natural to drive quickly.

The C4’s steering is also super-light, which is great around town but does leave you rather unsure of where the front wheels are pointing. Grip in the corners is just fine, but it’s just no fun driving the C4 fast - it’s much more satisfying to go a bit slower and take advantage of the suspension soaking up the lumps and bumps of a typical B-road.

The latest C4 offers plenty if interior storage and the seats are super comfy, but it's only average in terms of boot space

The C4 isn’t a huge car, but other small SUVs have boxier bodies and therefore have more room for passengers and people - take a look at the Volkswagen T-Cross or Dacia Duster if you want to see a compact SUV that makes the most of its interior space.

Up front, the C4’s seats deserve special mention - they’re so-called ‘Advanced Comfort’ affairs, which is a fancy way of saying that while they look flat, different types of foam padding provide a really nice amount of support. They’re accommodating for drivers of all sizes, and after the 2025 facelift they even support you quite well in the corners - something the earlier C4’s seats didn’t do.

Storage is quite good - there’s a pair of big, deep cupholders, a shelf for your phone (with a wireless charger on some models) and a usefully grippy tray with a hidden storage compartment underneath it. It’s just a shame that bigger items can’t go in the glovebox - on right-hand drive examples in the UK, most of the space is taken up by the fuse box. You get a shallow drawer instead, but this is taken up by a clever mount for a tablet.

Space in the back seats

Two six-foot adults won’t struggle too much for legroom or foot space, but the C4 isn’t really wide enough to carry three abreast in comfort, and the sloping roofline means headroom is at a bit of a premium. Again, more boxy cars - or ones where you sit lower, like a Volkswagen Golf - offer greater practicality in the rear.

You get ISOFIX mounting points in the outer rear seats, and the rear doors open quite wide, but you will have to manoeuvre taller child seats underneath that sloping roof.

Boot space

There’s not much to report back here - boot space in the Citroen C4 isn’t particularly stellar. At 380 litres it matches the Volkswagen Golf, but the vast majority of small SUVs make it look puny - the Peugeot 2008 has 434 litres, the Ford Puma 456 litres, while the Dacia Duster has up to 517 litres.

There’s an adjustable boot floor so you can either maximise space or have a totally flat floor when the seats are folded down - a useful touch. Otherwise, the steeply-raked back window does limit your capacity to carry large, square items, so be careful if you’re thinking about taking an old washing machine to the tip or visiting everybody’s favourite Swedish flat-pack furniture store.

The C4’s interior isn’t particularly stylish, but considering the price of the car it does actually feel reasonably premium and quite well-made. There are of course some cheaper materials if you go looking for them - the door cards feel quite flimsy, as does the lower part of the centre console, and there’s quite a lot of shiny piano black plastic which is going to instantly be marred by greasy fingerprints.

The tech on offer is the same as you get in many much more expensive products from the Stellantis family, though. The C4 has a 10.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system as standard, which sits nice and high up on the dashboard so it’s right in your eyeline.

Wireless smartphone connectivity comes as standard which is great, because nobody likes having wires trailing all around the cabin. You do have to step up a trim level or two before you get the corresponding wireless smartphone charger, though.

The rest of the interface does leave a little to be desired. The screen is bright and clear but isn't always the quickest to respond, and some functions are buried in places you wouldn’t expect them to be - or if they are, you have to navigate through a few too many menus to get there. The Kia Stonic or Ceed have much more straightforward systems.

You can of course use voice commands, which on the C4 are connected to ChatGPT to give AI functionality. Take its advice with a pinch of salt, though - it proudly told us there were two ‘Bs’ in the word ‘strawberry’.

Once nice feature is that Citroen hasn’t seen fit to route all of the C4’s controls through the touchscreen. You get a full panel of climate controls, as well as switches for all the functions you’re likely to need to adjust while driving. There’s even a panel to adjust the height of the head-up display, which is usually something buried under many layers of menus in alternatives.

The C4 is offered with two hybrid engines and one non-hybrid petrol option. There are also a pair of electric variants, which we’ll cover separately in our Citroen e-C4 review. The entry-level trim gets the lower-powered 100hp hybrid, while Plus and Max trims can choose between a 136hp hybrid or a 130hp plain petrol.

Fuel economy from the hybrid 136 was very good indeed, returning 57mpg on a mixed test route. We’d expect similar results from the 100hp hybrid, perhaps dipping a little if you find yourself needing to put your foot down more to get up to speed. That’s a really good figure compared to a Ford Puma or MG ZS, but it’s worth noting that the Toyota Yaris Cross can achieve well over 60mpg with consummate ease - it’s the running cost champion.

The 130hp petrol, meanwhile, should return 50mpg on a long cruise, but less than 40mpg around town, if our experience with it in the pre-facelift car is anything to go by. It’s a shame Citroen no longer offers the super-economical 1.5-litre diesel, but low sales mean there was no reason for it to continue.

CO2 emissions from the hybrids are less than 110g/km, bringing with them fairly low rates of road tax as well as company car BIK tax - but plug-in hybrid or fully-electric alternatives make much more sense thanks to the huge cost-savings available.

The latest C4 has a four-star Euro NCAP safety rating. It performs well in a collision but was deducted points for pedestrian safety and a limited suite of active safety features. Active safety features fitted as standard include Traffic Sign and Speed Limit recognition, Lane Departure Warning and Cruise Control with Speed Limiter function.

Every new Citroën comes with a three-year/60,000 mile, fully transferable warranty and a 12-year anti-perforation warranty. Citroen also provides a new eight-year warranty on all the powertrain components - that is, the engine, gearbox and their related items.

Citroen was the fifth most reliable car brand in the 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, which goes to show that stereotypes about French cars being flimsy might be displaced. The pre-facelift C4 actually came top of the 2023 survey, which is a stellar performance.