2006 Citroen C4 Picasso review from Norway

I'm an early buyer. The car is early production and among the first 10 in Norway. Some faults are there on delivery simply because they aren't ready from the importer. I'm waiting for the original floor mats, and the front parking sensors have to be enabled in the on board computer, which the importer can't access because they haven't got the equipment to connect to the car yet.

Same goes for the rear air suspension which sometimes reports errors on the service-display of the car. Dealer cannot fix this until they have the parts for it. That's what you get for being an eager customer I guess. The car isn't even launched yet in Norway. Deliveries start in January.

Outstanding exterior and interior design. This is (finally) a true Citroën. I dislike the C5, so after owning ZX, BX, XM and Xantia I just had to skip the C5 and buy a Peugeot instead. However, the C4 hatchback had me in love again. But since that was too small for family use, I decided to wait for the Picasso. And the wait was truly worth it.

This car has pretty much the same extremely comfortable yet responsive road handling as in it's older gas/hydraulic sisters. A bit too easy on the steering perhaps, but you get used to it.

The new EMG6 gearbox is very good. Quick and smooth changes, unlike the older "Sensodrive" boxes found in smaller and older Citroëns like C2 and 3.

Plenty of stowage space, you can store stuff for years in this car and never find it again, but the car will still be as tidy and clean as it was when new. Seating arrangement is the best I've ever seen in any MPV.

Lot's of gadgets, which means you need to spend hours reading the instruction book to fully appreciate everything. The car takes care of everything for you. Just start it and go. Exterior lights turn on automatically, and interior lighting as well if it's needed. When you tap the gas pedal, the parking brake releases automatically. If it's raining the wipers take care of the rain. If you're driving in a polluted environment, the parking sensors in the front "smells" the pollution and block the air intake for you. It needs some thinking yes, but once you get a hang of it all, every other car on the road seems like Fred Flintstone's.