Citroën C4 SpaceTourer MPV (2013-2019) - Interior & comfort
The Citroen C4 SpaceTourer features comfortable seats and the interior is quiet at motorway speeds
The outside of the latest C4 SpaceTourer has a futuristic design that continues throughout the car’s interior. Material finishes fall some way short of the Volkswagen Touran for tactile appeal, but everything feels solidly assembled and capable of withstanding the rigours of family life. The seats are comfortable and the panoramic windscreen (which is standard on all models in the range) gives the inside of the car a light and relaxing feel, which may prove helpful for long journeys with children.
Where the C4 SpaceTourer excels is for ride quality. Even on bumpy roads, the Citroen's suspension does a good job of smoothing out the surface and keeping the car’s occupants comfortable. And the interior remains quiet and relaxing when you get up to speed on the motorway.
Citroen C4 SpaceTourer dashboard
The centrally-mounted digital instrument console might not be to all tastes. Entry-level Touch Edition cars have a monochrome display that boldly shows your speed, engine revs, fuel level and coolant temperature, while also providing secondary information such as the time, your fuel consumption and projected range.
Feel and Flair models have a more sophisticated 12-inch colour display, which seems a little gimmicky compared to newer electronic dashboards. It offers a number of user-configurable display modes and you should soon get used to the way information is displayed. The larger screen allows navigation maps and directions to be displayed alongside the other info.
A seven-inch touchscreen looks after infotainment functions on all models, with the result that the C4 SpaceTourer’s dashboard is largely free of buttons. The touchscreen itself is very clear, but it suffers from too many menu choices and isn’t as intuitive to use on the move as other systems in the class.
Equipment
The C4 SpaceTourer trim levels are Touch Edition, Feel and Flair. All are very well equipped, boasting climate control air-conditioning, alloy wheels, cruise control, remote central locking, rear parking sensors and a touchscreen infotainment system with DAB radio and Bluetooth connection with media streaming.
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Feel adds a touch of extra style with aluminum mouldings around the windows, larger 17-inch alloy wheels, a 12-inch dashboard display with sat nav and parking sensors at the front. The front seats gain a massage facility, while the rear seats can recline and slide fore and aft to maximise passenger space or load capacity.
Top-of-the-range Flair cars pile on the luxury, with half-leather seating, a panoramic sunroof, second-row air-conditioning and aircraft-style seatback tray tables. This version is distinguished by 18-inch alloy wheels, while a reversing camera, self-parking facility and hands-free tailgate opening add extra convenience.
Technology
Citroen’s seven-inch touchscreen operates reasonably quickly and is easy to read in bright sunlight (although it doesn’t support multi-touch gestures), but the menu system is confusing and the buttons around the edge of the touchscreen don’t always immediately respond to being pressed, making a second attempt sometimes necessary. It also lacks some of the latest features like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The system’s unresponsiveness and unintuitive setup is made all the more frustrating by the lack of conventional heating and ventilation controls. If you want to change the temperature, you have to use the touchscreen. If it worked perfectly, this might not be too much of a hassle, but in reality, adjusting the heating can be frustrating and distracting.
The C4 SpaceTourer’s stereo performs reasonably at low volumes, but playing louder music can make it sound harsh. The sat nav is useable if slow, and doesn’t deliver its instructions early enough before turns. Entering your destination can also be fiddly – confusingly, you have to put postcodes into the ‘street’ box.
On a more positive note, if you go for the top-of-the-range Flair model, the self-parking system that comes with this trim works pretty well. Similarly, the autonomous emergency braking system is effective, and even tells you how far you are away from the car in front in seconds, rather than just giving you a warning or applying the brakes if it detects an imminent collision.
