Toyota Citroen C4 Picasso

Tell us its not gorgeous, and you know you're lying.

Svelte, stylish, urban, yet contemporary. The new Toyota Citroen C4 Picasso looks like a charm, and quickly, we'll be able to discover it is a charm.

Mind you, before reading on, we'd have to first proclaim that this ain't a paid advertorial feature, as reading on will spur your mind into suspiciously wondering - For which we could understand.

Recent years, we saw the rise of 7 seater family MPVs catching up trend as a logical replacement of traditional 5 seater family sedan such as the Toyota Camry or Honda Accord.

One needs no further explanation as to why, for these segment of vehicles had improved from the yesteryears of wishy-washy handling, dull styling of what seems like an ice cream van; to what was today's resemblance of a bird's nest build to attract the opposite sex, for a quick intercourse of course - and it ain't too bad.

In fact, with a body length likewise that of a mid size family sedan, these 7 seater MPVs offers much more, with flexible seatings that could both accomodate occupants, and huge loading areas that could fit in anything from a washing machine to a refridgerator - Try that with your S-Class and you'll see what we meant.



One of the most surprising contenders in this segment, is undoubtedly the Toyota Citroen C4 Picasso, born in the country where Renault, was the first to create a 'van' for the family, with sedan-like underpinnings, they handle like sedans, yet they could swallow cargoes like no other, true to the nomenclature of MPV. (Multi Purpose Vehicles)

Mind you thou, not all so-called MPVs are true MPVs, take for instance the bunch of rubbish from Toyota, say Avanza, Innova or Nissan Grand Livina; other than seating 7 person, they couldn't do much, and with interiors that merely fits a handful of cupholders, they would then call a day off, and decide to lump the remaining budget of say 99% to spendings on TV, Newspaper, Radio and billboard advertising brainwashing consumers that they're actually MPVs, because they sit 7 person - My Arse.

Let's check out what we meant by true MPVs, and in fact - Class leaders here. Yes, from an immediate point of view, they also sit 7, but there's where the similarities end with the likes of MPV wannabes aforementioned - Or rubbish for closer descriptions; as this Toyota Citroen C4 Picasso would immediately render them useless.



First off, the middle row of seats, well, 'Row' might not be the correct word here, as all are individual seats, where its exceptionally comfortable for any passenger in any seat, and each could slide their seats to adjust for legroom, or luggage space at the back when the last row was folded and stowed flat onto the floor.

Also, there are no third class citizen treatments here for the passenger sitting in the middle, as a three pointed seatbelt is provided, which was pulled from the ceiling from the adjacent right. This is actually something all manufacturers should be enforced to comply, as a strap running through the jelly-soft tummy is similar to a wire cutter slicing through during a head-on crash, of which, you'd rather not have your seatbelts buckled (That'll get you RM300 fine 1 year's jail term = Much more than you normally pay for to get out of trouble), so that you can have a good macro mode view of the dashboard. Yes, the dashboard might not sound suitable here, how about cockpit?



First off, if that steering wheel looks kind of futuristic, its because it is. There are plenty of prototype concepts shown from various manufacturers of steering wheels that either look like a joystick, or ones that only the outer handle turns, with the center remained fixed. And as of writing, no other car maker in the market had the balls to put them into production; and speaking of balls, no other manufacturers have even a fraction of what Citroen does in their pants.

Of course for aesthetics purpose, not having your logo turning upside down might be a case of good karma for the brand, but more importantly, it does so with only one thing in mind - Safety.



Most cars now comes with airbags, except manufacturers that completely disregard the lives of their customers (No excuses here, we'll continue to condemn the crap out of cars that don't come with 4 airbags at least), and airbags are specifically designed to absorb impact from the human body. However, the airbag housed in the steering wheel, can't actually deploy in the 'correct' direction or shape, mainly because accidents don't only happen when we're going straight forward, in fact more happened when we tend to turn our steering wheels. This is where most airbags would deploy not in the optimum way, thus you might crack your teeth on that cruise control button on your Honda Accord whilst hitting another car, with your airbag deploying and yet it somehow misses your head.

Even though chances are slight for such an occurrence, but we know French do we? For everything the Japanese do, they do with a motive in mind, they know Malaysians paying for a RM170,000 Toyota Camry wont be asking for another two airbags, or that Directors or Executives sitting at the back wouldn't care if their multi-million dollar brain would get smashed by the window - all because they want to earn that little bit more, as they shamelessly hide behind the limelight and let their advertisements tells you otherwise.

As for French (Or Italian for that matter), they do that for a passion. And this is the very word in the entire of Oxford Dictionary that would most befit this car as you sit in, just look at everything. It's not as extravagant as British luxury marques, or having the teutonic build quality of the Germans that leaves you feeling as warm as an engineering textbook.

The buttons for controlling the center console, cruise control and multi information display, (Of what used to be a multimedia display - Thanks to local governments ridiculous tax structure) was clearly designed and built from the very first drawing board, unlike some that distributors could easily 'add' or 'delete' functions reserved for other markets or for 'facelift' models.



Immediately one could notice how spacious it feels sitting in the cockpit, and spacious is another word for what the various bins and pockets and consoles offers. The front dash offers two identical openings for storing all your miscellaneous stuffs (Mind you, items placed on your dash is as if ballistic missiles during a collision), the center panel right underneath the stereo control unit is a chilled compartment housed with cupholders where you can placed your opened drinks - thanks to the gearshift column that was housed on top of the steering wheel, practical design that needs some getting used to.



(Ok, again due local tax structures, its very unlikely there's a case of WYSIWYG here - CD Changer), as with the ambient lightings you'll see below. One interesting feature you can notice thou, is the inclusion of TWO rear view mirrors, where actually the upper one is for the blindspot of the driver, where in this left hand drive photo, its meant to reflect the 7 o'clock spot of the driver, thus it would be 4 o'clock direction for right hand drive versions available here.

There's also plenty of huge glass areas in this Toyota Citroen C4 Picasso, as its always a bit claustrophobic sitting in an enclosed area. Now most of you would've start thinking this would scorched you abit on a hot day, but we can take a wild guess that designers and engineers of of this Toyota Citroen C4 Picasso actually went to the length of designing sun visors that could extend out by 31cm to cover the top portion of the front passengers, now how many car manufacturers out there are so thoughtful?



Yes, notice the other huge glass behind the front passengers? On a hot day, you might as well keep it shut, at night, or a trip to downtown Kuala Lumpur for some spectacular view of the Petronas Twin Towers, you know they'll come in handy. And sitting in a car with huge glass surface areas would practically ease off an anxious driver, cooling them off, reducing their blood pressure, cutting down aggresive driving, and practically makes for a better solution than any of those "Operasi Meningkatkan Pendapatan Sampingan Saya".



So, the designers who are actually human beings who had a family themselves have thought of all those possible little moments in life, how about a common scenario of a passenger that's feeling warm whereas another was freezing? Simple, offer each areas a dedicated climate control unit. Each of the four air con vents, had their own dedicated little LCDs and control unit for the desired temperature and volume of air. With the two housed on the B pillars, actually blowing onto someone's face or body, rather than the 3 minute jobs we all see from many manufacturers that blows no other direction except the center passenger's testicles.



Likewise, after going through such an impressive list of features, we guessed you've all been brainwashed to think that you actually deserve an integrated sunshade for rear passengers, which is such an 'impossible' thing to add on for our local executive sedans which had 'ambitions of no limits' that seems to believe the sun only shines through the rear windscreen.

Towards the rear, this is where 50% of the magic is (What? Still More? Yes.) Yes, the hatch goes from as low as knee level (the lowest most arms would reach whilst standing) thus there's no need of 'lifting' heavy items up to load them into the Picasso, and the opening area is just massive, rear head lamp clusters that are housed atop are also worth noting that not only it could alarm the immediate car behind, but its also easily visible for cars further behind. In the case of some minor fender bender, these rear clusters are also save from damage which most of the case, are not repairable, unlike a dented bumper.



Now you guys must be wondering what is that vibrator-like thing doing in a family car, well first of all, it's the rear ambient light for the boot, it's also a detachable torch light, snugly housed in the charging port. How cool was that?

Now of course, the Toyota Citroen C4 Picasso have second and third row of seats that could fully fold flat, not only so, the rearmost seats also offer an abundant space underneath and behind for storage. However as most of the time the rear seats would be flat folded, the Toyota Citroen C4 Picasso is perhaps one of the most versatile wagons as well. Complete with plenty of storage bins behind, a slab bar for preventing your luggages from tumbling around, a net for loose items and a cover for those 'wandering eyes' of not so good intention.



So? A family vehicle that looks good, packed full of caring, considerate features, wonderfully capable, a decent 2.0 ltr engine coupled to a torquey 4 speed automatic transmission, with paddle shifters on the steering for some uphill moments? And one that comes with so much style and flair, with the highest grade of 5 Star achieved from the EuroNcap crash tests, one that even had gentle ambient lighting underneath the side mirrors when you unlock your car just to make sure you don't bring any smell in, so that your kids could have a pleasant ride? It all just costs RM174,000.

Remember, European cars are the most heavily taxed compared to Japanese or Thai build imports, thus its the government that earns the big portion of money that you're paying for, in fact what Citroen receive, is actually that of what we pay for our 'considered good' Nissan Grand Livina.

The only problem? It doesn't carry a Toyota badge.

Even if we tried so hard telling you time after time its a Toyota. Or even if its more reliable, it consumes less petrol, or that it rides more comfortable, or it had massively improved build quality. Or Mr OJ Simpson swear that it is in fact a Toyota. The truth is, Malaysians just wouldn't buy anything other than Toyota or Honda. Its of course without doubt that Toyota and Honda are practically good cars, but there are just plenty that are as good, or better still.

For Malaysian consumers that prefers listening to 'Owners that hadn't own one before' rather than info searching for themselves, and the reputation of a manufacturer that had a slightly embarrassed 'slanged pronunciation in some local dialects', it is a killing blow for a brand that consistently deliver promising products. (Ok there are quite a handful of rubbish, but blame Peugeot (Citroen's owners) for that)

Only if it were to come with a badge on the front, rear, and steering saying 'TOYOTA' or 'HONDA', it will be an entirely different scenario to all those 'luxury' MPVs that are roaming around our streets from AP sellers, which comes without manufacturer backed warranty, and of course parts availability and depreciation, yet people still buy them, all because of the brand.

To Citroen, you guys had the rebadged Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo, why not a Toyota C4 Picasso? Might do some magic with a brand that was once roaming our roads 10 years back with the ZX, Xsara and Xantia.

Let us top this off with a hats off salute to the engineers in France. As for the local marketers, let's see how Volkswagen is able to rise up to prominence here in such a short 2 year span ok?

Final Verdict? Wonderful MPV. Victim of bad brand management, Thus depreciation.