The Overview | The Drive | The Cabin | The Verdict
The Drive
The first thing you will notice immediately is the ride. It’s soft. Really soft. It’s a throwback to a bygone era of the French automotive industry where the French roads were appalling and their cars rode softly. Ironically with the rise of the pothole in the UK, it’s the French that comes out tops again and the ride is not unpleasant.
Citroën has invested a lot of time and money into developing a ride system that almost mimics that of the hydropneumatic cars. It’s compliant, wobbly and lollops over undulated roads and badly repaired parts.
There is, however, a downside to this and that is it has a tendency to amplify the noise of some ridges within the road. It’s no worse than in any hard riding car except it feels a bit more amplified because it’s such a change from the usual soft quiet ride.
All this ride and handling would be nothing if it didn’t have an engine to suit and while l was critical of the new C3 that we had the same engine. It thwarted good progress. All that is forgotten in the Cactus. The engine felt alive and engaging. There is also an extra 36 Ib.ft of torque available now and that really does make the difference. The Cactus is a fun car to drive.
Motoring nurse or medical motorist? It's a difficult one. By day l nurse and by night l drive.
Fingers have always been grease deep in attending the motoring of an ageing fleet. And now l write about new and old.
If you have a car or motoring product you would like reviewed here for TGUK please e mail me:
stuart.bird@thegayuk.com
Member of the Southern Group of Motoring Writers. (SGMW)
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