C4 Picasso

CITROEN re-entered the people mover market in Australia with the C4 Picasso, 32 years after the demise of its iconic, multi-seat DS Safari station wagon.

Known as the C4 Grand Picasso abroad, the French-built Citroen competes with the Honda Odyssey and Mitsubishi Grandis, as well as its Renault Grand Scenic compatriot.

Like these, the Picasso has four doors and a three-row, seven-seater cabin layout, with the last pair of chairs folding flat into the floor.

However the Citroen was first in class with a diesel engine – a 2.0-litre HDI common-rail twin-cam 16-valve four-cylinder turbo-diesel producing 100kW of power at 4000rpm and 270Nm of torque at 2000rpm – transversely mounted and driving the front wheels.

The sole transmission on offer is an Aisin-supplied AM6 six-speed automatic gearbox with a steering-wheel paddle-shift function.

This combination – unavailable in Europe in the seven-seater Picasso, and devised specifically for Australia, New Zealand and Japan – helps the HDi deliver a combined average fuel-consumption figure of 6.1 litres per 100km and a carbon-dioxide reading of 159 grams per kilometre.

Top speed is 195km/h, the 100km/h mark is hit in 12.5 seconds, and the standstill to 400m-sprint time takes 18.5 seconds.

In contrast, the EW10A 2.0-litre twin-cam 16-valve four-cylinder petrol engine model delivers 103kW at 6000rpm, 200Nm at 4000rpm, 8.9L/100km, 211g/km of carbon dioxide waste, 190km/h, a 12.2 second 0-100km/h-sprint run, and an identical 0-400m-dash result. Plus, the 2.0-litre petrol Picasso must suffice with Citroen’s AL4 four-speed automatic gearbox.

No manual or semi-automatic transmissions are available for now.