The all new Grand C4 Picasso has improved over the previous car beyond recognition; it is such a nice car to drive. It looks pretty for such a large people carrier. The French have certainly added style to practicality.

It was news to me to learn that this Picasso has ‘Airdream’ in its title, a word that seems to have passed me by, and probably many others too, so I had to ask Citroen UK what it meant. All their cars that have low CO2 and have start-stop as standard are known as Airdream cars. This is probably a poor man’s French version of ‘BlueMotion’. Citroen do not seem to have marketed this very well, therefore some work needs to be done on getting the Airdream message across.

The new Picasso has been on a diet and has lost over 140kg in weight which has helped improve fuel consumption and CO2. But rigidity has not been affected and feels even more solid and safe.

The CO2 and economy make interesting reading, for such a large car that carries up to seven adults. The CO2 emission figure is very low, at 105g/km with a combined fuel consumption figure of 70.6mpg. I would guess it is almost impossible to get anywhere near that number. 

During the time we had this pre-production car it managed to achieve just over 50 mpg, according to the on-board computer, which is an outstanding result for this type of vehicle. It is not long ago you would have been more than happy to get 35mpg from a 7 seater.

A 1.6-litre diesel engine that produces only 115ps may sound a bit underpowered and that is what I thought too before driving it. But in reality it has more than enough get-up-and-go to ensure it’s not slow away from the traffic lights and can effortlessly maintain a motorway cruising speed.

The interior is well laid out with everything in the right place and easy to use with no silly French quirky things that are annoying and difficult to find or use. There are loads of cubby boxes and storage space. So many in fact that you can easily forget where you have put something and have to start opening every one searching for that missing pair of sunglasses or house keys, but maybe that is just an ‘age-thing’?

All the rear seats fold flat, very easily, to create masses of space. With row two and three folded down there is 2,181 litres of very useable space. The operation of the seats is relatively easy and the load area is completely flat when the seats are folded down. Each of the rear seats are individual and can move back and forth separately which is a nice useful feature. The third row of seats are not quite as large as the front and second row. But they are still capable of carrying adults, though I doubt many would want to travel very far in them. In reality the seats are more suitable for children and teenagers. Citroen have 

We can’t really understand why the new Picasso is still badged as a ‘Grand C4 Picasso’. Now was the time to drop this badge and just refer to it as a Grand Picasso, as it no longer bears any relationship to a C4 and in reality probably never did. But the French seem to like using it, even though it is so unnecessary. Other manufacturers seem to have successfully divorce the naming of their vehicles such as Ford with Focus C-Max and Volkswagen with Passat CC.carried forward the 5 seat version in to this new range and it is still known as just Picasso.

We drove the Grand Picasso on many different types of roads and various journeys. We found it to be very comfortable and extremely quiet on all surfaces, it was such a pleasure to drive. You sit high off the ground therefore vision is excellent and with a huge panoramic windscreen there are no blind-spots to be found. It feels very light and airy, you do not feel closed in, in a dark cabin. Citroen have very cleverly thought this car through and the design team have created the best of all worlds resulting in a very stylish MPV.

The price of the car we tested was £23,255 OTR, a lot of car for your money.

Martin Ward, Manufacturer Relationship Manager