What's the news?
The Citroen DS 3 range has come in for a mid-life revamp. It applies to the three-door hatch and the DS 3 Cabrio. Along with cleaner engines and more safety tech buyers are offered more ways in which to customise their cars. Oh, and notice it's now the 'DS 3' with a space, not 'DS3' as we're pretty sure it used to be...
Exterior
On the outside there are new combined Xenon and LED headlamp modules, designed to enhance visibility and use less energy. The new lights are inspired by those fitted to the Numéro 9 and Wild Rubis concept cars and incorporate sequential indicators - said to be a first for a car in this class. Within the lamp unit the various elements have been arranged to give a distinctive appearance. On a more practical note the LEDs have a life of 20,000 hours, which is 20 times longer than halogen lights.
Customers can choose to have a screen-printed rear window on selected models. There are also new 17-inch, diamond-cut alloy wheels and two new paint colours: Belle-Ile Blue for the DS 3 Cabrio and Pearl White for both body styles.
Interior
A new interior customisation option is a laser-etched dashboard strip, while a reversing camera is also available as an extra. Certain models will also get 'City Active Brake', which uses short-range radar to detect slow moving and stationary vehicles in the car's path; at speeds below 20mph the system automatically applies the brakes to avoid potential collisions.
Mechanicals
There are two new diesel engines, the BlueHDi 120 and BlueHDi 100, which both use Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) to reduce NOx emissions by 90% and CO2 by 4%. Official emissions figures for the two motors are 94- and 79g/km respectively with the BlueHDi 100 managing 94mpg on the combined cycle.
Some markets will also get the PureTech e-VTi 82 ETG petrol engine, although it is not yet confirmed to be coming to the UK. Capable of 69mpg and producing 95g/km of CO2 it comes with a five-speed automated manual transmission incorporating a creep function and updated software for a smoother drive.
Anything else?
Since its launch the Citroen DS 3 range has sold 300,000 cars around the world.
John Lambert - 23 May 2014
