Citroen C4 X Review & Prices

If you’ve ever looked at the Citroen C4 hatchback and thought ‘it’s good, but I wish it had a bit more junk in the trunk’ then step right this way. The Citroen C4 X is almost identical to the regular Citroen C4, but round the rear instead of a regular hatchback you’ll find an elongated tail and a saloon boot.

This has the twin effects of making the C4 X more conventional - think back to the days when every company car was a small saloon - and less practical and flexible. It’s like building an extension to your kitchen, but making it out of wattle and daub with a thatched roof.

You might love traditional saloons, though, in which case the C4 X will suit you very nicely as it does have more overall luggage space than the regular C4 hatch, with 510 litres of boot capacity as opposed to just 380 litres. What you lose is the ability to carry larger loads, because the rear window and the parcel shelf remain fixed in place. While you can thread longer items through the folded back seats, anything taller is a no-go.

Other than the boot, the C4 X is basically a Citroen C4. That’s no bad thing, as it means you’ll find a roomy and straightforward interior, and a choice of efficient engines. It also means that the C4 X is sized perfectly for anybody who might be considering a variety of hatchbacks or compact SUVs - such as the Volkswagen Golf or Peugeot 2008. With its raised ride height and sleek silhouette, though, it’s closest in spirit to the Renault Arkana or Volkswagen Taigo.

Comfort is the order of the day with the C4 X. The seats have various different densities of foam running through them in a bid to make them more comfy. All you need to know is that they’re wide, squashy and supportive for a long journey - though they don’t do the best job of holding you in place during vigorous cornering.

There’s even a hydraulic element to the suspension, a bit like Citroens of old. All it means here is that the C4 X deals very well with poorly surfaced roads or speed bumps, but can feel floaty at higher speeds, in the sort of way that could induce car sickness in some passengers.

The entry-level car comes with a 100hp petrol engine and a manual gearbox, but you can also choose between a 130hp petrol or a 130hp diesel, both of which come with an eight-speed automatic.

There are three trim levels available: You!, Plus and Max. Even You! trim comes very well kitted out with a digital driver’s display, 18-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control and a 10.0-inch infotainment touchscreen with smartphone connectivity, but this entry-level spec is limited to just the 100hp engine. Mid-range Plus is where the smart money goes thanks to nicer upholstery, a reversing camera, sat-nav and the 130hp petrol engine as standard.

Top-spec Max cars get a 360-degree parking camera, a head-up display, tinted windows, and keyless entry, and this is the only model where you can select the diesel engine. There's also an all-electric Citroen e-C4 X - reviewed separately here.

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Prices for the C4 X look very attractive if you’re comparing it to regular hatchbacks - with a starting price of less than £20,000, it’s more than £6,000 cheaper than an entry-level Golf, for example.

There’s a pretty big leap of £5,000 between the You! and Plus trim levels which can be explained by the engines - the former comes with a 100hp engine and a manual gearbox, while the latter is only available with a 130hp engine and an automatic. 

Even with that taken into account, the C4 X is still a real budget option. It’s not as cheap as a Dacia Duster, but the top-spec Max model is still comparable to well-equipped examples of much smaller superminis such as the Volkswagen Polo.

Comfortable in town or on the motorway, but keen drivers or speed demons look elsewhere

In town

The C4 X is pretty good to drive in town. Thanks to the hydraulic suspension it irons out bad surfaces and speed bumps really well, with no thudding over potholes or juddering on uneven tarmac like you'd find on some sportier-feeling alternatives. Compared to a more firm-riding SUV like the Toyota C-HR the C4 X feels like a limousine.

Neither gearbox option is great for town driving, though. The manual gearbox has a notchy action and a long throw, and the 100hp petrol engine it's mated to requires a lot of gear changing to keep it in the sweet spot. Meanwhile, the eight-speed automatic available with the more powerful petrol or diesel engines can easily get confused in traffic or when you suddenly need a lower ratio to pull out of a junction. It has a tendency to surge forward just a little when the engine stop/start system cuts the power, which can make for a jerky experience when driving at slow speeds.

The car's steering is very light, and visibility from the front is good. A reversing camera to make parking easier is standard on the middle of the three trim levels - we'd say this is a particularly useful addition, as the C4 X's bodacious rear is harder to judge thana hatchback would be when parking.

On the motorway

The suspension here is more of an acquired taste. Some will find the C4 X's soft setup to be really comfortable on a long trip - and there's no denying that it does iron out road imperfections really well. Things like motorway expansion joints don't really intrude on the cabin, like they would in a Volkswagen Taigo.

However, you might find the C4 X to feel almost uncomfortably floaty - a sensation that can induce car-sickness in some.

If the suspension setup suits you then there's little else to complain about on the motorway. The C4 X isn't a particularly powerful car, but even the 100hp engine can keep up with traffic with no real issues - though you may need to drop a gear or two on a sliproad or when overtaking, especially if the car's fully laden. The 130hp petrol or the diesel engine are more relaxed here, especially with their eight-speed automatic gearboxes that in top gear keep the engine revs extremely low - great for economy and refinement.

On a twisty road

The C4 X will handle hard cornering but it's not particularly enjoyable to do. The body leans quite a lot in bends - again, thanks to the soft suspension setup that makes it so comfortable on bad roads - and this can make it feel a little uncontrolled if you're going fast.

The steering doesn't inspire much confidence either. It's so light that you could drive it with one finger, but there's not much of a sense of connection between the steering wheel and the road - so you can't feel how much grip you have in the bends. A Ford Puma is much more fun to drive.

Roomy back seats and a big boot, but no good for carrying bigger items

The Citroen C4 X is nicely roomy up front. The wide, flat seats don’t have particularly pronounced bolstering so it’s very easy to slide yourself in, and all models come with height adjustment for the driver’s seat plus reach and rake adjustment on the steering wheel so it’s easy to make yourself comfortable.

Storage solutions are actually very clever, too. There are two reasonable cupholders just in front of the gear selector, and underneath the climate controls you get a deep tray for odds and ends as well as a grippy shelf to keep your smartphone on. It’s flanked by USB-C and regular USB ports.

The door bins are large, and while the glovebox is a bit pokey you do get a really handy slide-out drawer above it, ideal for keeping snacks. There’s even a mounting point where you can clip a tablet holder, so front-seat passengers can entertain themselves.

Space in the back seats

Despite the C4 X’s sloping roof there’s pretty good headroom in the rear seats for all but the extremely tall. Legroom is good too, with space for a six-foot passenger to sit behind a driver of a similar size. It's easily as roomy as the Renault Arkana.

The C4 X is a little narrow to make seating three across the back particularly comfortable, but if you do need to then the centre passenger has room for their feet plus a seat that isn’t set too high. The big rear windows give a good view out, too, and there are ISOFIX points for mounting child seats in both rear seats.

Boot space

With 510 litres on offer, the C4 X’s boot looks extremely capacious on paper compared to the regular C4 (380 litres) as well as the smaller cars with which it competes on price. To get more overall capacity, you’d need something like the significantly more expensive Skoda Octavia (600 litres) or the Volkswagen Golf estate (611 litres).

However, a saloon opening means the C4 X’s boot is rather limited. Where on a regular hatchback you could remove the parcel shelf and load items right up to the rear window, that’s not an option here - everything that goes into the boot must fit through the rather narrow tailgate.

And while you can fold the back seats down to liberate more space for longer items - they split 60:40 and there’s a ski hatch in the middle seat - they do leave a big hump in the load floor that’s extremely awkward to hoick items over.

Easy to use, well-built, but hard to get excited about

Given some of the wacky cars in Citroen’s back catalogue you might be expecting the C4 X to have a quirky interior. Well, you’ll be disappointed - it’s boringly conventional. 

That’s actually a boon if you don’t like the proliferation of all-touchscreen interiors. The C4 X has plenty of physical switchgear, including a panel for the climate controls, shortcut switches for the safety equipment and a ‘home’ button for the infotainment system - all really useful.

The infotainment system is a big, 10.0-inch widescreen sat high up on the dash within easy reach. It runs software that’s based around customisable tiles, and in many places feels like a smartphone to operate. Speaking of smartphones, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both standard on all models - though only the top-spec Max car has a wireless charging pad to really make the most of this.

All models also get a 5.0-inch digital instrument display. This is nowhere near as customisable as something like the Virtual Cockpit you get on a Volkswagen, and it can’t do things like display a full-screen map. It’s clear enough, with essential information displayed big and bold in the centre - though for models with a manual gearbox you’re likely to miss having a proper rev-counter. The digital alternative Citroen offers is really hard to read.

The C4 X is relatively lightweight, simple, and not particularly powerful, so it’s no big surprise that all of the engines offer good fuel economy. The basic 100hp petrol claims 53.3mpg officially - expect around 40mpg in town driving and 50mpg on a longer run if you’re driving sensibly. This model has the lowest CO2 emissions at just 120g/km, and the lowest company car Benefit-in-Kind tax.

The 130hp petrol is a little thirstier thanks to its increased power and automatic gearbox. Citroen claims 49.6mpg, which could be achievable on a long run - but expect closer to 45mpg normally. CO2 emissions are a still-reasonable 129g/km.

For the best efficiency, you need the 130hp diesel, which claims 58.6mpg but in reality can achieve over 60mpg if you drive it carefully. The flipside with a diesel is twofold - firstly, they take a while to warm up, so it won’t provide its best efficiency on shorter runs. Also, despite CO2 emissions of 127g/km, the diesel surcharge on company car tax means it’s not particularly cost-effective.

There is no plug-in hybrid model to reduce costs further, but there is an all-electric e-C4 X available.

The C4 X retains the Euro NCAP rating of the Citroen C4 it’s based on, which means a four-star rating. It provides good collision protection but lost points thanks to a relative dearth of active safety features. You do get traffic sign and speed limit recognition, lane departure warning and cruise control as standard, while top-spec models get a 360-degree camera and a head-up display.

Citroen’s historic reliability record isn’t great but in recent years it’s turned around somewhat. The engines in particular are extremely well-proven and used across a vast number of Citroen, Peugeot, Vauxhall and now even Fiat and Jeep models. You still can’t expect dependability and longevity on the level of a Toyota, but there shouldn’t be any panic day-to-day.

Citroen offers a three-year, 60,000 mile warranty with the C4 X, which is the same as most European competitors such as the Peugeot 2008 or VW Golf. A Kia xCeed has a seven-year warranty, though, while a Toyota C-HR has up to ten.