Citroën adds "BLACKCHERRY" Edition and New EU5 HDi Engine to C3 Picasso's UK Range

For the new model year, Citroën has updated the range of its UK market C3 Picasso with the addition of a limited edition version called the "BLACKCHERRY " and the introduction of a new Euro 5 HDi 110 diesel engine matched to a 6-speed transmission.

The new C3 Picasso BLACKCHERRY is based on the VTR+ model with power coming from a 90HP 1.6-liter turbo diesel engine. The model stands out from the rest of the series with the cherry red and glossy black exterior and interior detailing, roof bars and 17-inch cherry red diamond-tipped alloy wheels. It is offered exclusively in a premium black metallic body finish.

Standard features include air conditioning, cruise control with speed limiter, Connecting Box (USB socket & Bluetooth® system), electrically adjustable door mirrors and front electric windows. On-the-road prices start at £15,195.

In other news, the French carmaker's small MPV will be offered with a new Euro 5 1.6-liter turbo diesel engine delivering 110HP and linked to a 6-speed gearbox. Citroën says fuel economy is just under 59mpg UK on the combined cycle with CO2 emissions down 5g/km over the Euro 4 unit to 125g/km.

Citroën also added a Connecting Box (USB and Bluetooth connectivity) as standard specification on the VTR+ and Exclusive trim levels.

The updated C3 Picasso goes on sale across Britain on November 1st.

New Citroën AirCross: First Photos of C3 Picasso-Based Crossover

Citroën's Brazilian arm has released the first official photos of a new model called the AirCross, essentially a crossover version of the C3 Picasso MPV with a jacked up suspension and a body kit around the bottom of the body to give it a more rugged, off-road look.

Styling tweaks include the relocation of the spare tire to the rear hatch, newly designed front and rear bumpers, a new grille up front, wheel arch extensions, roof rails, faux aluminum trim and larger alloy wheels.

Details remain scarce for now, but it is believed that the AirCross will be offered as a two-wheel drive model only sharing the same engines and transmission options with the standard C3 Picasso.

Via: Worldcarfans , Source: Citroen Brazil

Launch Report Citroen C3 Pictures

I imagine it will be a while before anyone at Citroen is prepared to say this without insisting on anonymity, but it strikes me that the new C3's launch date of 15 January 2010 won't be a moment too soon. The current C3, now well into the coughing-up-blood stage, appeared in 2002, and it wasn't much cop even back then. In particular it felt very cheap indeed, and its design, described by Citroen at the time as "friendly-looking, distinctive and stylish", made it look, to me at least, like a trilobite.

The new C3, which is almost exactly the same size as a Ford Fiesta, feels like the work of a company which is at its ease with larger and more luxurious cars. It's not quite as impressive in that respect as the Fiesta, or indeed the Volkswagen Polo, but it is certainly a major improvement (or a "huge leap" - Citroen's words again) over what has gone before. And it looks nothing whatever like a trilobite.

It does, however, look slightly odd, in all forms other than the entry-level VT. That version has a conventional windscreen, whereas the others (VTR+, Exclusive and the special edition Airdream+ I'll be dealing with shortly) have what Citroen describes as a Panoramic Zenith screen, which extends beyond the heads of the front passengers. You probably didn't know, and I didn't either, that the average angle from the driver's eyeline to the top of the screen in a supermini is 28 degrees. Well, with the Panoramic Zenith, it's 108 degrees.

If you drive in constant fear that somebody may be about to drop a grand piano on you from a tenth-storey window, the C3 is the supermini for you, since you can check whether or not this is going to happen simply by glancing upwards. Personally, I'm rather casual, perhaps wrongly, about assaults of this nature, and that's one reason I'm not a great fan of the Panoramic Zenith. Another is that I can't help wondering how much it would cost to replace the screen if it were to be irreparably harmed (which could happen - I mean, even a piccolo is going to do a lot of damage from ten storeys up).

A third is that the screen makes the C3 look as if it has a bad case of receding hairline, and a fourth is that I don't like having all that glass around me because it makes me feel vulnerable. There's no good reason for that. It just does, and I don't like it. Fortunately, if you are likewise minded, you can block out most of the glass by pulling a cover across it, which is what I would do every time.

I would also, without hesitation, buy a diesel C3 rather than a petrol one. That's not just because the diesels are more economical, are cheaper to tax thanks to their lower CO2 emissions and have better mid-range performance, but also because the ride is so much better. From my brief experience so far, the petrol cars are just too bouncy, whereas the diesels feel a lot more secure even when you're just pottering around town.

All the same, even the diesel C3 hatchbacks are not quite as splendid to drive as their Picasso mini-MPV equivalents, which I find very strange indeed. The Picasso is also a lot more practical, of course, though the hatch has a very useful load capacity of 300 litres with all the seats in place. That's 200 less than the Picasso, but very good for a supermini; in fact Citroen says it's class-leading, which is true, though it's only five litres more than the Fiesta and the Hyundai i20 provide.

There is a lot of room for front passengers too, as there was in the old C3, but rear legroom is limited to the extent that four six-foot adults would find it difficult to get comfortable. Bearing in mind how superminis are generally used, though, I doubt that many customers are going to wail and gnash their teeth over this.

Your local Citroen dealer will be able to talk you through the differences between the trim levels, but a couple of points are worth mentioning here. All versions except the VT get air-conditioning as standard, and all except the Exclusive have full-sized spare wheels (the Exclusive gets a space-saver, but at least it's not one of those daft repair kits which are no use to man nor beast). The Exclusive also stands alone in that it's the only one available with rear electric windows, and the only one supplied - optionally, at extra cost - with ESP, which has dropped it from a possible five stars to just four in the Euro NCAP crash test ratings.

The Airdream+, which comes only with the 90bhp 1.6-litre turbo diesel engine, has more or less the same equipment as the mid-range VTR+, apart from having steel wheels rather than alloys, but it's special in that it has by far the best combined fuel economy of the range at 74.3mpg (even the less powerful 1.4 diesel is more than 8mpg shy of this) and is exempt from VED thanks to official CO2 emissions of 99g/km. At £14,490 it's more than halfway up the price list, though, and like the cheapest (1.1 petrol VT, £10,790) and most expensive (1.6 HDi 110bhp Exclusive, £16,140) and the only automatic (1.6 petrol 120bhp Exclusive, £15,590) it won't go into production until March, two months after the rest of the range has started appearing in UK showrooms.

Launch Report Citroen C3 Pictures

I imagine it will be a while before anyone at Citroen is prepared to say this without insisting on anonymity, but it strikes me that the new C3's launch date of 15 January 2010 won't be a moment too soon. The current C3, now well into the coughing-up-blood stage, appeared in 2002, and it wasn't much cop even back then. In particular it felt very cheap indeed, and its design, described by Citroen at the time as "friendly-looking, distinctive and stylish", made it look, to me at least, like a trilobite.

The new C3, which is almost exactly the same size as a Ford Fiesta, feels like the work of a company which is at its ease with larger and more luxurious cars. It's not quite as impressive in that respect as the Fiesta, or indeed the Volkswagen Polo, but it is certainly a major improvement (or a "huge leap" - Citroen's words again) over what has gone before. And it looks nothing whatever like a trilobite.

It does, however, look slightly odd, in all forms other than the entry-level VT. That version has a conventional windscreen, whereas the others (VTR+, Exclusive and the special edition Airdream+ I'll be dealing with shortly) have what Citroen describes as a Panoramic Zenith screen, which extends beyond the heads of the front passengers. You probably didn't know, and I didn't either, that the average angle from the driver's eyeline to the top of the screen in a supermini is 28 degrees. Well, with the Panoramic Zenith, it's 108 degrees.

If you drive in constant fear that somebody may be about to drop a grand piano on you from a tenth-storey window, the C3 is the supermini for you, since you can check whether or not this is going to happen simply by glancing upwards. Personally, I'm rather casual, perhaps wrongly, about assaults of this nature, and that's one reason I'm not a great fan of the Panoramic Zenith. Another is that I can't help wondering how much it would cost to replace the screen if it were to be irreparably harmed (which could happen - I mean, even a piccolo is going to do a lot of damage from ten storeys up).

A third is that the screen makes the C3 look as if it has a bad case of receding hairline, and a fourth is that I don't like having all that glass around me because it makes me feel vulnerable. There's no good reason for that. It just does, and I don't like it. Fortunately, if you are likewise minded, you can block out most of the glass by pulling a cover across it, which is what I would do every time.

I would also, without hesitation, buy a diesel C3 rather than a petrol one. That's not just because the diesels are more economical, are cheaper to tax thanks to their lower CO2 emissions and have better mid-range performance, but also because the ride is so much better. From my brief experience so far, the petrol cars are just too bouncy, whereas the diesels feel a lot more secure even when you're just pottering around town.

All the same, even the diesel C3 hatchbacks are not quite as splendid to drive as their Picasso mini-MPV equivalents, which I find very strange indeed. The Picasso is also a lot more practical, of course, though the hatch has a very useful load capacity of 300 litres with all the seats in place. That's 200 less than the Picasso, but very good for a supermini; in fact Citroen says it's class-leading, which is true, though it's only five litres more than the Fiesta and the Hyundai i20 provide.

There is a lot of room for front passengers too, as there was in the old C3, but rear legroom is limited to the extent that four six-foot adults would find it difficult to get comfortable. Bearing in mind how superminis are generally used, though, I doubt that many customers are going to wail and gnash their teeth over this.

Your local Citroen dealer will be able to talk you through the differences between the trim levels, but a couple of points are worth mentioning here. All versions except the VT get air-conditioning as standard, and all except the Exclusive have full-sized spare wheels (the Exclusive gets a space-saver, but at least it's not one of those daft repair kits which are no use to man nor beast). The Exclusive also stands alone in that it's the only one available with rear electric windows, and the only one supplied - optionally, at extra cost - with ESP, which has dropped it from a possible five stars to just four in the Euro NCAP crash test ratings.

The Airdream+, which comes only with the 90bhp 1.6-litre turbo diesel engine, has more or less the same equipment as the mid-range VTR+, apart from having steel wheels rather than alloys, but it's special in that it has by far the best combined fuel economy of the range at 74.3mpg (even the less powerful 1.4 diesel is more than 8mpg shy of this) and is exempt from VED thanks to official CO2 emissions of 99g/km. At £14,490 it's more than halfway up the price list, though, and like the cheapest (1.1 petrol VT, £10,790) and most expensive (1.6 HDi 110bhp Exclusive, £16,140) and the only automatic (1.6 petrol 120bhp Exclusive, £15,590) it won't go into production until March, two months after the rest of the range has started appearing in UK showrooms.

Launch Report Citroen C3 Pictures

I imagine it will be a while before anyone at Citroen is prepared to say this without insisting on anonymity, but it strikes me that the new C3's launch date of 15 January 2010 won't be a moment too soon. The current C3, now well into the coughing-up-blood stage, appeared in 2002, and it wasn't much cop even back then. In particular it felt very cheap indeed, and its design, described by Citroen at the time as "friendly-looking, distinctive and stylish", made it look, to me at least, like a trilobite.

The new C3, which is almost exactly the same size as a Ford Fiesta, feels like the work of a company which is at its ease with larger and more luxurious cars. It's not quite as impressive in that respect as the Fiesta, or indeed the Volkswagen Polo, but it is certainly a major improvement (or a "huge leap" - Citroen's words again) over what has gone before. And it looks nothing whatever like a trilobite.

It does, however, look slightly odd, in all forms other than the entry-level VT. That version has a conventional windscreen, whereas the others (VTR+, Exclusive and the special edition Airdream+ I'll be dealing with shortly) have what Citroen describes as a Panoramic Zenith screen, which extends beyond the heads of the front passengers. You probably didn't know, and I didn't either, that the average angle from the driver's eyeline to the top of the screen in a supermini is 28 degrees. Well, with the Panoramic Zenith, it's 108 degrees.

If you drive in constant fear that somebody may be about to drop a grand piano on you from a tenth-storey window, the C3 is the supermini for you, since you can check whether or not this is going to happen simply by glancing upwards. Personally, I'm rather casual, perhaps wrongly, about assaults of this nature, and that's one reason I'm not a great fan of the Panoramic Zenith. Another is that I can't help wondering how much it would cost to replace the screen if it were to be irreparably harmed (which could happen - I mean, even a piccolo is going to do a lot of damage from ten storeys up).

A third is that the screen makes the C3 look as if it has a bad case of receding hairline, and a fourth is that I don't like having all that glass around me because it makes me feel vulnerable. There's no good reason for that. It just does, and I don't like it. Fortunately, if you are likewise minded, you can block out most of the glass by pulling a cover across it, which is what I would do every time.

I would also, without hesitation, buy a diesel C3 rather than a petrol one. That's not just because the diesels are more economical, are cheaper to tax thanks to their lower CO2 emissions and have better mid-range performance, but also because the ride is so much better. From my brief experience so far, the petrol cars are just too bouncy, whereas the diesels feel a lot more secure even when you're just pottering around town.

All the same, even the diesel C3 hatchbacks are not quite as splendid to drive as their Picasso mini-MPV equivalents, which I find very strange indeed. The Picasso is also a lot more practical, of course, though the hatch has a very useful load capacity of 300 litres with all the seats in place. That's 200 less than the Picasso, but very good for a supermini; in fact Citroen says it's class-leading, which is true, though it's only five litres more than the Fiesta and the Hyundai i20 provide.

There is a lot of room for front passengers too, as there was in the old C3, but rear legroom is limited to the extent that four six-foot adults would find it difficult to get comfortable. Bearing in mind how superminis are generally used, though, I doubt that many customers are going to wail and gnash their teeth over this.

Your local Citroen dealer will be able to talk you through the differences between the trim levels, but a couple of points are worth mentioning here. All versions except the VT get air-conditioning as standard, and all except the Exclusive have full-sized spare wheels (the Exclusive gets a space-saver, but at least it's not one of those daft repair kits which are no use to man nor beast). The Exclusive also stands alone in that it's the only one available with rear electric windows, and the only one supplied - optionally, at extra cost - with ESP, which has dropped it from a possible five stars to just four in the Euro NCAP crash test ratings.

The Airdream+, which comes only with the 90bhp 1.6-litre turbo diesel engine, has more or less the same equipment as the mid-range VTR+, apart from having steel wheels rather than alloys, but it's special in that it has by far the best combined fuel economy of the range at 74.3mpg (even the less powerful 1.4 diesel is more than 8mpg shy of this) and is exempt from VED thanks to official CO2 emissions of 99g/km. At £14,490 it's more than halfway up the price list, though, and like the cheapest (1.1 petrol VT, £10,790) and most expensive (1.6 HDi 110bhp Exclusive, £16,140) and the only automatic (1.6 petrol 120bhp Exclusive, £15,590) it won't go into production until March, two months after the rest of the range has started appearing in UK showrooms.

Citroen's Frankfurt Show Stars on Video: C3 Hatchback, DS3 Premium Supermini and REVOLTe Concept

This year's Frankfurt auto show saw Citroen taking the wraps off three distinct model; the C3 five-door hatchback and the production version of its more upscale three-door sibling, the DS3, as well as the REVOLTe concept, a distinctively modern interpretation of the iconic 2CV. You've already seen the pics and read the details but now it's video time as the French automaker has cooked up a series of promotional films for all three models that you can check our right after the break.

2010 Citroen C3: New High-Res Photo Gallery of French Hatch

We have no clue what's the hidden meaning behind a photo that shows the C3's buttocks, a sensual blond and what appears to be a photochoped statue of a horse wearing a lamp on its head, but it's refreshing to know that at least some automakers have good taste in women when it comes to hiring models for press shots. Just hit the jump to take a closer view at Citroen's updated gallery of the all-new C3 that will welcome the crowds at the all-important 2009 Frankfurt Show on September 15. For detailed info on Citroen's VW Polo rival, click here.