Citroën C3 Aircross review - Reliability & safety
There are some worries over Citroen’s owner satisfaction, but the C3 Aircross should prove very safe
The Citroen C3 has now been on sale for a few years, but it featured in our 2023 Driver Power ownership survey. It came in a lacklustre 74th-place out of the 75 models included overall, with a disappointing score for reliability – owners gave it a higher score for its running costs. The car is also fitted with an impressive array of safety technology.
Citroen C3 Aircross reliability
Owners love the car's styling but were less keen on the C3 Aircross’ reliability. Overall, the car finished near the bottom of the Driver Power table in 2023. However, its PureTech petrol and BlueHDi diesel engines are widely used in a variety of Peugeot, Citroen and DS models, with no major issues reported. There are still a few areas of concern for the Citroen brand, but it improved to 11th place out of 30 manufacturers in our latest results – not bad considering it was languishing in 28th back in 2021. Around 14% of all the Citroen owners surveyed said they’d had at least one fault in the first year of ownership, which is lower than Kia (25%) and Vauxhall (23%).
Safety
The Citroen C3 Aircross was crash-tested by Euro NCAP in late 2017, receiving a five-star result. That’s good news for consumers, even if its 85% score for adult occupant protection isn’t class-leading, being 10% lower than the SEAT Arona managed. Its 82% score for child occupant protection is 2% ahead of the SEAT though.
Along with the usual airbags to protect occupants in a collision, the C3 Aircross is fitted with driving aids to help prevent a crash. These include a colour head-up display that helps keep your eyes on the road more of the time, along with traffic-sign recognition. Lane-departure warning and blind-spot monitoring can help keep you out of harm’s way on the motorway and there’s also Active Safety Brake – Citroen’s name for autonomous emergency braking, designed to stop the car before a collision if it detects you're about to run into something. This is only standard on the Max trim level, though – it's optional at extra cost on other models.
