Citroen C4 (2011): first official pictures

This is the new Citroen C4, the French car company's latest rival for the ever-present VW Golf, Vauxhall Astra and forthcoming Mk3 Ford Focus. Citroen hopes to challenge the trio with a mix of class-leading interior space and a gadget-laden cabin, and the new C4 will be unveiled at the Paris motor show this September, before UK sales start in early 2011.

Yup, and there’s some Megane Coupe in there too. To some in might look a little mundane after the recent spate of gorgeous Citroen concept cars, but the C4 is the conservative offering for the mainstream, while the sibling DS4 (due in 2011) will be more outlandish.

Citroen is promising ‘exceptional levels of interior space and occupant comfort’, so the new C4 is 4.33m long, 1.79m wide and 1.49m high (5cm longer, 2cm wider and 3cm taller than the outgoing car, and bigger than the rival Golf: 4199/1786/1480). There’s a 408-litre boot too, which Citroen claims is class leading, and is usefully bigger than the Golf’s 350-litres.

Alongside the usual array of tech (hill start assist, electronic parking brake, lane departure warning) the C4 is available with a blind spot monitoring system, cornering lights, and massage front seats. There’s also a chance to personalise the new C4 – the colour of the instrument binnacle can be changed, and drivers can adjust the audio alerts. And finally there’s ETouch, which offers on-board emergency assistance, and also monitors your driving patterns before offering up advice on how to improve your fuel consumption.

Citroen is also promising that the C4 will be ‘environmentally respectful’ so the use of laser welding during manufacturing has helped keep a check of any weight increases, while the front and rear spoilers have been optimised to make the car as slippery as possible. The C4 will also be available with the company’s new micro-hybrid e-HDi engines, which feature stop/start tech to help achieve 109g/km CO2 – future models will get that down to 99g/km. 

By Ben Pulman