When I claimed that an economy hatchback/compact SUV is made for the love of driving, I could clearly see a few raised eyebrows in my mind’s eye. However, I wouldn’t make such a claim if I wasn’t absolutely sure of it. It wasn’t just me, three other members of TURBOCHARGED were blown away by the performance as well as the dynamics of the Citroën C3X. Come along with me and take a test drive in this cracking Citroën.
Citroën came to India not too long ago, in April of 2021. Since then, the marque has tried to capture the market without much success. In FY2025, Citroën occupied less than half a percent of the Indian domestic market and was not able to reach five figures in sales. The other French carmaker managed to outsell Citroën by more than a factor of five. This is the current state of affairs, and this is undeserved.
The Citroën C3 is the entry point to the brand’s Indian line-up, and as such, the price begins at a wholly reasonable ₹5.25 lakh ex-showroom. The one we had on test, the C3X Shine with the optional Halo 360 Camera (₹25,000 at the dealership), was priced at ₹9.90 lakh ex-showroom for the turbocharged engine with the automatic transmission. On paper, this is expensive. The lack of kit is sure to stop even the most idiosyncratic of buyers from taking a test drive. Unfortunately, that’s where the Citroën’s strength lies.
The car looks lovely if a bit anonymous from all angles, with the Citroën chevrons sitting proud on the front fascia — the angle from which it is most recognisable as a Citroën. The design has a certain ruggedness to it — makes me think of a khaki shorts-wearing Victorian adventurer, replete with a felt hat. It looks particularly good in the new Garnet Red shade, which was introduced with the C3X badging last August. I miss the iconic bright orange, though.
Climb inside, and there’s a suspiciously large amount of side bolstering in the extremely well-padded seats, followed by an extremely sporty small-diameter steering wheel. This starts to create a notion as to what kind of a car this might be, under the surface. The Citroën C3X expects the driver to operate their own wipers and headlamps — unheard of in today’s day and age. I half-expected to turn a physical key to start it. It also expects the driver to know what they’re doing.
Once the starter button is pressed, the C3X turbo-petrol wakes up and settles into a three-cylinder thrum. The exhaust produces a slightly raspy note that filters into the cabin thanks to a lack of sound deadening. It’s not just the engine, all other mechanical sounds are audible as well (the automatic gearbox shifting can be heard, not just felt — something I haven’t experienced in any rivals of the C3X). This creates a connection with the car that’s almost impossible to come by in most modern machines. However, there’s a little more to this story.
Once the lever is slotted into D and the brakes are released, the Citroën’s gearbox engages with a ferocity that is not expected of a car in this segment — honestly, it reminded me of the Polo GTI, the Golf GTI and various generations of Mini Coopers. With increased pressure on the throttle, it goes into warp mode. Before I realised, I was at the 80kmph mark and the speed warning chimed, and by the time I managed to catch a glimpse of the speedometer, I was approaching triple-digit speeds. As my brain tried to catch up to the velocity of the C3X, it kept accelerating, without any let up in forward thrust.
And then I was at one of the trillions of speed breakers dotted around the country. I braked but I already knew that I had to ride it out. Then I hit the speed breaker, and my brain was once again left trying to comprehend what happened. The Citroën C3X denied the existence of the speedbreaker, as well potholes and other road imperfections with the same panache as Giordano Bruno’s proclamation of the Sun being the centre of the Solar System in the 16th century.
In the more recent past, Citroën entered an era of utter domination in WRC, scoring nine consecutive drivers’ titles and eight constructors’ championships from 2003 to 2012. What I am trying to illustrate with this bit of history is that Citroën has not spent the C3X’s R&D budget on adding pseudo-luxury features to it; rather, they put that into developing the best suspension system possible, followed closely by one of the best turbocharged engine-transmission combos in a car costing less than ₹10 lakh. This is followed up with one of the most communicative steering systems, to the extent I had to check if it was hydraulic or electric (it was an EPS, but it can fool even experienced drivers into thinking it is a hydraulic one!). The Citroën C3X is not for everyone, which is probably why it hasn’t sold as well as it should have. The company’s marketing needs to be more aggressive as well, and Citroën really needs to highlight its insane rallying pedigree to draw customers to its showrooms. It needs to get the prospective customer to take a test drive. That’s it. Those who get behind the wheel for the love of driving will always end up falling for this charming French car. As for the enthusiasts, this is our chance to role-play Sébastien Loeb without losing our licenses!
Words: Sayantan De
Photography: Saidatta Naik, Shrenith Bhandary
