Prestigious new Citroen DS3

Citroen have history when it comes to luxury but it appears they’ve gone slightly bonkers with the introduction of the DS3 Ultra Prestige – a small car with a huge ego.

The DS3 is a cool little car with great character. It’s a good looking car, quirky and sporty at the same time, but it’s just restrained enough to deliver a little elegance when necessary. The new model takes that elegance and heads off to play with the big boys.

The interior is where the luxury really shines. The leather upholstery offers a brand new “watchstrap” design and “crescendo” colour effect – white at the top blending to black on the seat - that was specially created for this car. The dashboard also dons the leather, a beautiful sweeping piste of Alpine white with white dials to match. Even the door panels and centre armrest are trimmed in leather. And we aren’t talking any old cow, this is leather usually reserved for the most discerning customer.

The equipment list is equally extravagant with automatic digital air conditioning, Bluetooth Stereo, colour sat nav, parking sensors, automatic headlights and wipers, electrically heated and folding door mirrors and a uniformed driver. Ok, there’s no driver, but this is the level of luxury Citroen are striving to attain and for a small car that will sell for £20,000 they haven’t fallen too far short of the mark.

To top it off the DS3 has glammed up on the outside too. A sports spoiler, tinted windows in the back for evading the paparazzi, 17-inch charcoal grey alloys and an Ultra Prestige roof graphic that shifts from matt to gloss as the light changes. Citroen have also fitted a “Dark Chrome Signature” option with black and chrome touches on the mirrors and lights and a chrome side strip. This is a well-dressed little car.

It’s not all fashion and elegance though, don’t be fooled into thinking the DS3 is all show and no go. There are two engine choices in the Ultra Prestige, a feisty little THP 155 petrol with over 150bhp and a six-speed manual gearbox and a diesel e-Hdi 110 fitted to an Airdream six-speed ‘box. The diesel even features stop/start and hits 74.4mpg with only 99g of CO2/km.

It remains to be seen how big a market exists for the Ultra Prestige but the fact that Citroen have put this elegant little car on sale only four months after it premiered at the Frankfurt Motor Show certainly demonstrates their confidence.

www.citroen.co.uk

















By David Young

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