Citroen C4 hatchback (2010-2018) review - Practicality, comfort and boot space

The big expanses of plastic not only give a cramped feel to the cabin, but they reduce usable storage. The tray in front of the gearlever is recessed, which makes it difficult to put modern smartphones in (another trait of the C4’s age), while right-hand-drive cars get a smaller glovebox thanks to the fuse box and its fixed position to the left of the dashboard. However, the C4’s worst trait is its driving position – in particular, the way your body lines up with the high-set pedals. Plus, there is less space for rear passengers.

Size

The C4 hatch is 4,329mm long, 1,789mm wide and 1,489mm tall. In comparison, the Ford Focus is a little bigger at 4,360mm x 1,823mm x 1,469mm, while the VW Golf is a little smaller, measuring 4,255mm x 1,799nn x 1,425mm.

Leg room, head room & passenger space

The car is a full five-seater, but the C4 struggles against roomier rivals such as the Skoda Octavia because a large load area eats into the rear seat space.

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However, it’s not too bad in the back, especially if you only usually carry kids. Taller adults who are over six foot may feel a little cramped, both for legroom and headroom. There are no such problems up front.

The rear doors open wide for easy access, the seats in the back fold down in a 60:40 split and there are ISOFIX child seat mounting points as standard.

Boot 

While the Citroen’s 380-litre boot shows the limits of the platform’s packaging, this rises to 408 litres if you include the under floor storage. Fold the rear seats and there’s 1,300 litres of space, but this means the C4 still trails a Skoda Rapid by 190 litres.

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Sadly the car's design does make it rather awkward to load when you fold the seats down, because they lie at an angle – a shame as the total load volume goes up to 1,300 litres.

All C4s come with a compressor-based get-you-home kit instead of a spare wheel, so we’d recommend the extra £75 for a full-size spare or space-saver.

If you want to pull a caravan, the 2.0-litre diesel is the best for the job with a maximum towing capacity of 1,750kg. That’s a couple of hundred kgs more than the 1.6-litre diesels and the petrol.