Citroen C4

SPORTY drivers can do themselves a favour and stop reading after the next paragraph. The C-segment Citroen they'll be wanting is the DS4 and that's not due on the UK market until the second half of this year, although it has already won best interior and most beautiful car of the year awards.

Still with me?

Good. That means you're one of the more mature, discerning types at whom the new Citroen C4 is aimed.

The styling of the slightly larger body is still distinctive, but the interior is a fair bit less left-field than in the previous C4.

The fixed steering wheel hub has gone, as has the translucent digital speedo.

That more mainstream interior is out to impress not with wackiness, but with quality.

And it succeeds. The cabin plastics are a Great Leap Forward and the driving position is better – more adjustable than in the old car's – too.

It's also very well packaged, with more passenger legroom and bags of headroom in the back, where there's width for three and enough legroom to satisfy most.

The boot is brilliant. It's the biggest in the segment and a fine, practical square shape, too.

Not that the boot's 408 litres (28 litres of it underfloor) is the only place to stow things.

There are big, bottle-holding door pockets and the test car from dealer Motor Mall was one of the C4 models that come with the raised centre console which includes a refrigerated and illuminated cubby which, under its shuttered lid, offers storage for four half-litre bottles.

And C4 comes in three trim grades: VTR, VTR+ and Exclusive – I drove an e-HDi 110 VTR+ EGS.

Don't get misled by the VTR name that was applied to a moderately sporty version of the Citroen Saxo – remember that sort of role will be filled by the DS4.

In the case of the C4, VTR simply denotes entry-level trim.

All C4s come with useful technology – in earning its five-star Euro NCap test rating, it scored the highest rating in the sector for safety technology.

Hardly surprising, since that technology includes a system that uses an integrated GPS and Sim card to send the crashed car's position to a central control centre and can do so automatically.

VTRs feature Hill Start Assist, Isofix child seat anchorage points in the outer rear seats, height-adjustable front seats, height and reach adjustable steering wheel and cruise control with a speed limiter.

VTR+ goodies include a leather steering wheel, customisable colour instrument displays, front fog lights with cornering function, rear parking sensors and a Connecting Box offering Bluetooth and a USB socket.

You can also choose whichever of the polyphonic sound alerts that annoy you least and set the intensity of the automatic air conditioning to one of three different levels.

And, in a sector first, the C4 can even be specified with massaging front seats.

Nice, but most C4 technology is more practical, like the use of the rear parking sensors to monitor the blind spots – a warning appears in the relevant door mirror – and parking space 'gap measurement'.

As you should have gathered by now kit levels are good across the range, but what makes the C4 I was driving different is the drivetrain.

The 1.6-litre diesel powerplant, a second-generation Stop and Start system and Citroen's micro-hybridisation improve urban economy – very relevant for local motorists – by up to 15% and put CO2 emissions down to an impressive 109g/km.

Micro hybrid? A reversible alternator uses regenerative braking to charge up an e-booster system that restarts the engine in 0.4 of a second.

On the road, the system works well, cutting the engine early during deceleration – at up to 5mph – and the restarts are as discreet as they are swift.

It copes pretty well with even our most difficult stop-go, edge-out junctions and the Hill Start Assist prevents roll-back on the uphill restarts we have to do so often.

The EGS gearbox's six ratios are well chosen, although some will find the changes take a bit of getting used to.

There are conventional automatics in the range, but this two-pedaller is a robotised manual.

Not jerky, the changes are not exactly surreptitious either.

Maybe it's because the clever robot changes gear at exactly the right time which is, by definition, probably not exactly when thee or me would.

Or maybe it's because we think we change gear more smoothly than we actually do. Ever wondered why the rebellious family seems to nod in agreement in the car? It's your gearshifting, mate.

You can always take control (of gearchanges, not family) yourself with steering column paddles but I'm a member of the 'you don't keep a dog and bark yourself' school.

Just as well that the box – which contributes to the outstanding economy, up to 67.3mpg in the combined cycle – does grow on you.

And the rest of the driving experience is mighty impressive.

In the VTR+ it's a comfy, thick leather wheel, too, with satellite controls for the in-car entertainment and cruise control.

The semi-sports seats are comfy and with the quality plastics and with brushed alloy lookalike inserts providing relief from the predominantly black interior, it's easy to think you're in a German car rather than a French one.

And it would be easy to think you were in something altogether bigger than a C-segment hatch. In fact the clap-hands wipers had me wondering whether I had timewarped back into our old MPV, although the commendably compact C4 is a much easier companion on local roads.

Even with diesel power, the cabin is well isolated from noise and the fuel-saving Michelin Energy tyres do nothing to spoil a cossetting ride.

It might be about to acquire a sporting, tauter-handling sibling, but the C4 promises a mile-munching, continent-crossing capability that nothing this compact or frugal has a right to. C4? C for class, I reckon.