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The Citroen C4 X is what happens when there鈥檚 a fire in a car dealership and a hatchback, an SUV and a saloon car all get melted together. Based on the regular C4, which is already a sort of halfway house between hatch and SUV, the C4 X adds more fuel to the fire with a fully separate saloon boot.

This might sound antiquated, and it certainly harks back to days past when the default family car was something like a Ford Cortina. It鈥檚 like a re-release of a classic record player, but with Bluetooth and MP3 functionality slightly uncomfortably grafted on.

The C4 X (and the C4 hatch) both received a mid-life facelift in early 2025, upgrading their tech levels and ushering in a new look. Conceptually, there鈥檚 nothing much like the C4 X - the only other small saloon cars on sale are from premium brands such as the BMW 3 Series - but if you want something that has jacked-up suspension and a sleek silhouette, you might look to the Renault Arkana, Volkswagen Taigo or Peugeot 3008.

In all aspects other than its boot, the Citroen C4 X is the same as the regular Citroen C4. So let鈥檚 start with the point of difference - the load area. You get a huge 510 litres of load capacity, which is much bigger than the paltry 380 litres of the C4 hatchback. But what you gain in capacity you lose in flexibility.

The C4 X鈥檚 boot lid doesn鈥檛 open wide enough to allow you to load big, bulky items, and while you can fold the rear seats down for longer loads you still have a fixed parcel shelf which limits you from carrying anything taller than about two feet. So while it鈥檚 great for soft bags or loads of supermarket shopping, if you want to take your old appliances to the tip, you鈥檙e out of luck.

In the cabin, the C4 X has the same dashboard as the C4 hatchback, with a 10.0-inch infotainment screen and 7.0-inch driver display. They work well enough, though the infotainment system can be slightly labyrinthine in terms of where functions are hidden in the menu structure.

In the back seats, you get slightly more headroom than the C4 hatchback, though legroom and width are identical. The rear backrest is also ever-so-slightly more reclined - by a whole degree - but you won鈥檛 mistake it for the back seat of a Mercedes S-Class anytime soon.

In terms of engines, the C4 X is really easy - there鈥檚 only one available. It鈥檚 a 1.2-litre petrol with a hybrid system, and it replaces both the old 1.2-litre non-hybrid petrol and the 1.5-litre diesel that was previously available. It provides reasonable performance and good fuel economy, though it鈥檚 not as efficient as the Renault Symbioz鈥檚 hybrid engine - or as nice to drive.

There鈥檚 also a fully-electric Citroen e-C4 X available, but we鈥檝e covered that in a separate review. What all versions of the C4 X do get is partially hydraulic suspension, which makes it very comfortable over bumps.

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The C4 X is pretty inexpensive for its size. No longer available as an entry-level model, it comes in a choice of two high-specced trim levels - Plus and Max - but both are significantly cheaper than even the most basic Volkswagen Golf.

For just over 拢24,000 you get a 10.0-inch screen with built-in nav, LED headlights, climate control, a 360-degree camera, 18-inch alloy wheels and wireless phone connectivity with a wireless charger.

Stepping up to Max brings you heated front seats and steering wheel as well as a raft of extra driver assistance kit.

The C4 X may not be as cheap as a Dacia Duster, but the top-spec Max model is still comparable to well-equipped examples of much smaller superminis such as the Volkswagen Polo.

Comfortable in town or on the motorway, but keen drivers or speed demons look elsewhere

In town

The C4 X is pretty good to drive in town. Thanks to the hydraulic suspension it irons out bad surfaces and speed bumps really well, with no thudding over potholes or juddering on uneven tarmac like you'd find on some sportier-feeling alternatives. Compared to a more firm-riding SUV like the Toyota C-HR the C4 X feels like a limousine.

The car's steering is very light, and visibility from the front is good. A reversing camera to make parking easier is standard on the middle of the three trim levels - we'd say this is a particularly useful addition, as the C4 X's bodacious rear is harder to judge than a hatchback would be when parking.

The hybrid engine isn't bad around town - it doesn't drive on electric power for very long, though, and it's quite noisy when it cuts back in, certainly moreso than the equivalent Toyota. However, it shifts gears smoothly enough and has plenty of low-down grunt.

On the motorway

The suspension here is more of an acquired taste. Some will find the C4 X's soft setup to be really comfortable on a long trip - and there's no denying that it does iron out road imperfections really well. Things like motorway expansion joints don't really intrude on the cabin, like they would in a Volkswagen Taigo.

However, you might find the C4 X to feel almost uncomfortably floaty - a sensation that can induce car-sickness in some.

If the suspension setup suits you then there's little else to complain about on the motorway. The C4 X isn't a particularly powerful car, but can keep up with traffic with no real issues - though you may need to drop a gear or two on a sliproad or when overtaking, especially if the car's fully laden.

On a twisty road

The C4 X will handle hard cornering but it's not particularly enjoyable to do. The body leans quite a lot in bends - again, thanks to the soft suspension setup that makes it so comfortable on bad roads - and this can make it feel a little uncontrolled if you're going fast.

The steering doesn't inspire much confidence either. It's so light that you could drive it with one finger, but there's not much of a sense of connection between the steering wheel and the road - so you can't feel how much grip you have in the bends. A Ford Puma is much more fun to drive.

Roomy back seats and a big boot, but no good for carrying bigger items

The Citroen C4 X is nicely roomy up front. The wide, flat seats don鈥檛 have particularly pronounced bolstering so it鈥檚 very easy to slide yourself in, and all models come with height adjustment for the driver鈥檚 seat plus reach and rake adjustment on the steering wheel so it鈥檚 easy to make yourself comfortable.

Storage solutions are actually very clever, too. There are two reasonable cupholders just in front of the gear selector, and underneath the climate controls you get a deep tray for odds and ends as well as a grippy shelf to keep your smartphone on. It鈥檚 flanked by USB-C and regular USB ports.

The door bins are large, and while the glovebox is a bit pokey you do get a really handy slide-out drawer above it, ideal for keeping snacks. There鈥檚 even a mounting point where you can clip a tablet holder, so front-seat passengers can entertain themselves.

Space in the back seats

Despite the C4 X鈥檚 sloping roof there鈥檚 pretty good headroom in the rear seats for all but the extremely tall. Legroom is less impressive, but there's space for a six-foot passenger to sit behind a driver of a similar size. It's easily as roomy as the Renault Arkana.

The C4 X is a little narrow to make seating three across the back particularly comfortable, but if you do need to then the centre passenger has room for their feet plus a seat that isn鈥檛 set too high. The big rear windows give a good view out, too, and there are ISOFIX points for mounting child seats in both rear seats.

Boot space

With 510 litres on offer, the C4 X鈥檚 boot looks extremely capacious on paper compared to the regular C4 (380 litres) as well as the smaller cars with which it competes on price. To get more overall capacity, you鈥檇 need something like the significantly more expensive Skoda Octavia (600 litres) or the Volkswagen Golf estate (611 litres).

However, a saloon opening means the C4 X鈥檚 boot is rather limited. Where on a regular hatchback you could remove the parcel shelf and load items right up to the rear window, that鈥檚 not an option here - everything that goes into the boot must fit through the rather narrow tailgate.

And while you can fold the back seats down to liberate more space for longer items - they split 60:40 and there鈥檚 a ski hatch in the middle seat - they do leave a big hump in the load floor that鈥檚 extremely awkward to hoick items over.

Easy to use, well-built, but hard to get excited about

Given some of the wacky cars in Citroen鈥檚 back catalogue you might be expecting the C4 X to have a quirky interior. Well, you鈥檒l be disappointed - it鈥檚 boringly conventional.聽

That鈥檚 actually a boon if you don鈥檛 like the proliferation of all-touchscreen interiors. The C4 X has plenty of physical switchgear, including a panel for the climate controls, shortcut switches for the safety equipment and a 鈥榟ome鈥� button for the infotainment system - all really useful.

The infotainment system is a big, 10.0-inch widescreen sat high up on the dash within easy reach. It runs software that鈥檚 based around customisable tiles, and in many places feels like a smartphone to operate. Speaking of smartphones, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both standard on all models - though only the top-spec Max car has a wireless charging pad to really make the most of this.

All models also get a 7.0-inch digital instrument display. This is nowhere near as customisable as something like the Virtual Cockpit you get on a Volkswagen, and it can鈥檛 do things like display a full-screen map. It鈥檚 clear enough, though, with essential information displayed big and bold in the centre.

The C4 X is relatively lightweight, simple, and not particularly powerful, so it's no surprise that its hybrid engine can provide pretty good fuel economy.

You should find 50mpg achievable in mixed driving, and more like 55mpg if you do a long, gentle cruise. That's a pretty good figure, though the Toyota C-HR will do more than 60mpg if you're careful, and is much more powerful.

CO2 emissions are also good but not stellar. At 106g/km they're lower than the equivalent petrol or diesel, but there is no plug-in hybrid model to reduce costs further, so the C4 X doesn't make as appealing a company car choice as it could.

There is an all-electric e-C4 X available if you want to reduce running costs to a minimum.

The C4 X retains the Euro NCAP rating of the Citroen C4 it鈥檚 based on, which means a four-star rating. It provides good collision protection but lost points thanks to a relative dearth of active safety features. You do get traffic sign and speed limit recognition, lane departure warning and cruise control as standard, plus a 360-degree camera and a head-up display.

Citroen鈥檚 historic reliability record isn鈥檛 great but in recent years it鈥檚 turned around somewhat. The engines in particular are extremely well-proven and used across a vast number of Citroen, Peugeot, Vauxhall and now even Fiat and Jeep models.

That's compounded by Citroen's fifth-place finish in the 2024 Driver Power survey and the C4 hatch coming top of the 2023 survey.

Citroen offers a three-year, 60,000 mile warranty with the C4 X, which is the same as most European competitors such as the Peugeot 2008 or VW Golf.

Citroen has an ace up its sleeve, though, as it now covers powertrain-specific components - the engine and gearbox, namely - for eight years.

A Kia xCeed has a seven-year warranty on the entire car, though, while a Toyota C-HR has up to ten.