Owners about their striking value package
The French brand set off tongues with the Citroën C4 Cactus. The year was 2014, and the last time Citroën had added a sparkle to its design was a while ago. The reactions were divided: people thought he was super cute or ditto ugly. It did not stand in the way of success: more than 18,000 found an owner in the Netherlands. Were those owners also somewhat satisfied? You can read that here.
Citroën made no secret of the fact that savings were made on costs and weight with the C4 Cactus. On the contrary, it sometimes seemed more like a sport. For example, the front passenger does not have a ventilation grille on the right side of the dashboard and the rear doors are equipped with opening windows. And the most important: despite its ‘big’ name, the C4 Cactus is built on the platform of the smaller C3.
C4 Cactus: space and seating comfort
Even though the C4 is on a ‘small’ platform, owners aren’t complaining about the space. “The interior is nice and spacious due to the lack of a bulky dashboard, and the luggage space is also excellent,” says the owner of a Cactus PureTech 110 Shine from 2015. “For extra storage space I have a Thule roof bag, which looks cool on the Cactus.” Luggage can also go ‘on the roof’, according to another owner. He writes: “Enough space for a family with 2 teenagers, with a roof box installed for the holidays.” Another points out a point where you can see that Citroën took savings very seriously: “Rear seat cannot be folded down in parts,” he writes. His approach to this is pragmatic: “Never used it on other cars, so it’s no problem that the Cactus doesn’t have it.”
Users react differently to the seating furniture. “Chairs are fine. For someone who is used to the enormous armchairs of the older Volvos, I give these seats a big 9,” said a satisfied driver. “The adjustability of the seat and steering wheel combination is limited, but for my height (1.82 meters) it is fine.” A slightly taller driver shares this experience: “I remain very comfortable in these half-leather seats, even on long distances. At first I was a bit afraid that I would not be able to get a perfect sitting position because I am average to tall (1.87 meters) and the handlebars could not be adjusted in depth, but fortunately I found a good position.”
Seats self-adjusted
On the other hand, we also read some less positive reactions. “Chairs are spot on as far as I’m concerned,” writes someone who is less enthusiastic about it. “Too soft, my buttocks and right leg are bothering me.” Another rider, we’ll call him McGyver from now on, tackled the problem himself. “The only downside after a few hundred kilometers was the driver’s seat. This is too flat for my height and does not provide enough support for the lower back. I raised the front of the chair with a 3 cm thick metal tube and added a small lumbar support. Exactly what the chair needed for me. The chair now offers perfect support everywhere and a wonderful seat.”
After a major facelift at the end of 2017, Citroën is positioning the C4 Cactus slightly higher in the market and the car is more focused on comfort. New chairs were developed for this purpose. “In my opinion, the seats (advanced comfort seats) deserve extra attention,” writes the owner of such a Cactus from 2019. “We are very enthusiastic about them, nice and soft with sufficient support. The front seats are height-adjustable and the driver’s seat has adjustable lumbar support that can provide some extra support in the lower back. Lateral support is nil, but we don’t miss that as this car does not invite you to take every bend as quickly as possible. The handlebars are sufficiently adjustable in both height and depth.” Indeed: axial steering wheel adjustment was also added after the facelift.
Infotainment and ease of use
You can also save on physical buttons. Almost all car manufacturers use this trick nowadays, but the Citroën C4 Cactus was quite ahead of the music. Things such as the climate control are housed in the central touchscreen. Not to everyone’s satisfaction: “The infotainment system is so slow that the first iPhone probably works faster,” complains the driver of a C4 Cactus PureTech 82 Shine from 2017. The next user reports a different kind of slowness. “Sometimes the system starts up quickly after you start the car, other times it takes quite a long time (15-20 seconds) before you can fully access all the functions.” Another negative: “The reversing camera is very poor in the dark, you just can’t see anything.”
The operating concept did not change after the facelift, as the driver of such a 2019 car also noticed: “We have the infotainment screen in the middle. Don’t expect the speed or ease of use of a modern tablet: you sometimes have to be patient or press an extra time. The temperature control is also via the screen. Separate buttons are more user-friendly, but the climate control works fine in automatic mode.”
How comfortable is the C4 Cactus?
To answer that question, we have to pay close attention to the year of manufacture, because a lot changed in this area after the facelift. Let’s first examine the ‘original’ C4 Cactus. “The handling is excellent, a bit stiff and on very bumpy roads the car sometimes wants to bounce a bit in the bend,” writes the owner of a Cactus PureTech 110 from 2015. “This may be due to the large rims with relatively flat tires.” The next owner experiences the chassis as a successful compromise: “The car’s suspension is also pleasant, not as rocky as the Volvo, but fortunately not as bouncy as most German cars. I can safely drive over a speed bump without hurting my back.”
A traditional French driver is more critical: “After about the first month of driving you notice that it is a fairly light car. You can recognize some roads where the chassis does not handle very maturely. Some people shout that it is an incredibly sprung car, but my Peugeot 306 ‘floats’ better over the road, the Cactus is a lot stiffer.” However, according to many users, this stiffness appears to be relative: “A very nice point of this car is that it is not so stiffly suspended, every speed bump reminds your predecessor that other cars really drive a lot slower over the same speed bump,” says a satisfied person. rider. “The car could use some more sound insulation. The noise level increases very sharply, especially above 110 km/h,” he experiences.
It sounds as if this driver would be better off with a new C4 Cactus, because the sound insulation has been re-examined. The car has also been given a considerable overhaul in terms of chassis. Do you remember the term ‘Progressive Hydraulic Cushions’, with which Citroën wanted to bring back the old hydropneumatic feeling by additionally damping the extremes of the suspension travel? These debuted in the updated C4 Cactus. If we can believe this driver, it was largely successful: “I can be quite brief about the highway kilometers. Nice! It is nice and quiet on board and there is nothing to complain about the soft PHC suspension system.” The suspension system also has a downside: “Now, try out the mountain roads with an empty car. Oops, oops, PHC is not very sure about this. It is occasionally overhanging in the bends that you are afraid of. It’s not that it makes the car nervous, but the sagging in combination with the wide seats is not exactly ideal.”
Engines and drivetrain
Under the hood of the C4 Cactus, a naturally aspirated three-cylinder petrol engine with 82 or a turbo variant with 110 hp is available. There is also a BlueHDI diesel with 100 hp, which is dominated by the petrol versions in our review sections.
We know these petrol engines from various other Citroëns and Peugeots, but in the C4 Cactus they have to drag relatively little weight. “With 82 hp it is not a great car, but the weight of 1000 kg makes it a great car as long as you don’t have 4 people in it. It drives comfortably, relatively economically and has not left us on the side of the road once in the past 120,000 km,” the owner of a 2017 Cactus praises this engine.
This engine is less pleasantly experienced in combination with an ETG automatic transmission. This transmission, actually a robotized manual gearbox, regularly leads to frustration. Some owners do find a mode in it. “Certainly, the ETG gearbox is not suitable for cracking. I read in another review that he acts very strangely. Yes, at full throttle it continues to maximum revs, but with a little playing with the accelerator pedal it does exactly what I want,” writes a driver who has found such a mode. “Driving is fairly smooth, the automatic robot gearbox shifts well, but unfortunately it is not the most refined. Especially from 2nd to 1st gear,” writes another. Here too, the ETG automatic transmission did not return after the facelift. Automatic drivers now received a six-speed with torque converter, linked to a 110 hp engine.
Disruptions and irritations
The PureTech engine was recently in the news due to problems with the timing belt, but so far we have not seen any riders in reviews who had this problem. With the C4 Cactus we find an owner who had to deal with this: “A few weeks later the entire dashboard was removed due to an air conditioning leak, now the car is back at the dealer due to contaminated oil,” he writes. “Apparently a known problem at Citroën, has to do with the ‘wet’ timing belt that runs through the oil and should therefore last much longer. However, there is ‘dirt’ in the oil from this belt…”
Another PureTech 110 driver found the car less pleasant to drive over time. “The car has been driving a bit rough lately, had the Citroën dealer check this, it appears to be a known problem. Garage has solved this with a software update and a new engine mount, which has made the Cactus a lot smoother when driving away and driving in traffic jams.” Another rider had his engine locking hook replaced, which turned out to be subject to a recall.
Another challenge appears to be rust prevention: “This morning while cleaning I discovered that the bottom of the doors are starting to rust, on a 2.5 year old car! And not just on 1 door but on all 4 doors!”, writes the owner of a 2015 Cactus BlueHDI 100 in dismay. This is a known concern with this model, although it has been repaired under warranty on many C4 Cacti. The owner of this car, who was initially in good spirits, became less and less happy: his car did not withstand the test of time as well as hoped.
Conclusion Citroën C4 Cactus
The Citroën C4 Cactus was initially built with savings as the objective. Citroën has apparently managed to translate this fairly subtly into a user-friendly car, because owners have few complaints on this point. Well, the infotainment system could work faster, but not every owner complains about this. However, some owners find the chassis a bit stiff and the car could be quieter. Citroën has addressed these points with the 2019 facelift. The ETG automatic transmission, which caused quite a few complaints, is also no longer available since the update. This also applies to the 82 hp engine, although according to owners it probably did not have to be destroyed. Apart from that, the turbo-free engine performed sufficiently, partly thanks to the low weight of the car. The timing belt is a possible point of attention for both petrol engines.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl