Citroen C3 Aircross Review 2025: Price, specs & boot space

If you want to pack a lot of practicality into a relatively compact footprint and for an extremely reasonable price, the Citroen C3 Aircross is well worth a look. If the seven seats are of use to you, there's not much else that can compete at the expected price tag, but if you don't really need the third row, it's worth noting this is a hotly contested area of the market. The value for money here is probably enough to make it stand out, though.

The main choice from launch will be between a petrol and electric version of the Citroen C3 Aircross. Which is "the best" is going to come down to the kind of driving you're going to do because 

we're not anticipating a great deal of price difference between the 1.2-litre, 100PS petrol and the electric C3 Aircross. 

Our preference would probably be the electric one. Citroen's 1.2-litre, three-cylinder engine isn't the most refined, so the EV is going to be the more relaxing thing to drive. Only the smaller battery pack is available initially, though, so if you're likely to be covering great distances, the EV won't be ideal. It's the same story if charging at home will be difficult or impossible for you.

As Citroen is part of the expansive Stellantis Group of brands, there's another car sitting on the same Smart Car (not to be confused with that Smart car) platform - the new Vauxhall Frontera. It too can be specced with seven seats, and given the prolific nature of platform sharing within Stellantis, it wouldn't be a surprise to see other brands like Peugeot producing other mechanically similar alternatives to the C3 Aircross. The new Fiat Grande Panda also uses the Smart Car architecture, but it's smaller than the C3 Aircross and only available with five seats. 

Away from Stellantis, the expected low price of entry for the C3 Aircross combined with its ability to seat seven pitches it against the Dacia Jogger. Until now, it's been unchallenged when it comes to the transportation of seven humans for not a lot of money.

It's a very different body style to the C3, though, being more of an estate crossover. Closer to the shape of the C3 Aircross is the Mercedes-Benz GLB, which also seats seven, but being a car from a premium brand, it's considerably more expensive than the Citroen, with the cheapest weighing in at over £37k.

Ignoring the seven-seater angle for a moment, there are plenty of compact SUV rivals for the C3 Aircross, including the Skoda Kamiq and Volkswagen T-Cross.

This is a mixed bag overall for the C3 Aircross. There are plenty of nicer bits and pieces, particularly the fabric covering for the dashboard, but that's offset by an abundance of cheap-looking plastics, particularly what's used for the door cars. It's all put together just fine, though, with perfectly acceptable build quality. And that's not something you've always been able to say about Citroen products.

All Citroen C3 Aircross derivatives get a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system which is angled towards the driver, although only Max-trimmed versions get navigation with it. In any case, many drivers will prefer to use the wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity and beam their preferred mapping app onto the display. 

There are two USB-C sockets in the front row, another pair in the second row, and a single socket in the third row on seven-seater versions. On Max-trimmed cars, you don't need to plug your device in at all if it has wireless charging capability, as there's a 15W charging mat in the centre console.

Exactly how much clobber you can chuck in the C3 Aircross boot depends on whether or not you've specced the seven-seater. If you have, and all seats are up, you'll have a mere 40 litres to play with. That's not a huge surprise - squeezing a third row into such a compact car is going to lead to compromises. With the third row folded away, there's 330 litres of capacity.

This pales in comparison to the five-seat model, which can take up to 460 litres of luggage in its boot. The second row is also 65mm further back, meaning it'll be noticeably roomier back there than in the seven-seater. Drop the second row, and there's 1,600 litres of load space to play with. Plenty for an Ikea shopping spree.

Knee and headroom in the second row are decent, while the third row of seats is more useful than you might expect. Given the car's compact footprint, we were thinking the rearmost seats would only be of use for kids, but shorter adults should be able to fit. I even managed to get my six-foot frame into one of the third-row seats and still had a little bit of head and knee room to spare, although there wasn't anywhere for my feet to go...

From launch, the range will be very simple, comprising two petrol options and one fully electric, but other derivatives should join eventually.

On the petrol front, there's a 100PS, 1.2-litre three-cylinder engine which is hooked up to a six-speed manual gearbox. If you want an automatic, you'll need the 136PS Hybrid 136, which combines that same 1.2-litre engine with a small electric motor and a dual-clutch gearbox. 

The fully electric C3 Aircross uses a 44kWh battery and a 113PS motor. There will be a version with a larger battery pack joining later in 2025, substantially increasing the range of the car. 

Here's where the C3 Aircross starts to feel its low price. There's quite a bit of both wind and road noise at motorway speeds, becoming particularly noticeable in the electric version that doesn't have the 'benefit' of an engine to compete with external sounds. And in versions of the C3 Aircross that do have an engine, you have a not particularly smooth inline-three engine passing vibrations into the cabin. 

The 44kWh battery currently available has a range of 188 miles, Citroen says. Official figures like these need to be taken with a pinch of salt for any EVs. Even in optimal conditions, around 150 miles of running is going to be a stretch. We couldn't actually find a way of checking the electrical consumption on our test car, so until we're able to test one over a longer period of time, it's hard to say what sort of 'real world' range you might get.

If 150 miles is not enough for you, a larger battery C3 Aircross will be joining the range later in 2025. Citroen says this one will have a range of "over 250 miles". Again, in the reality, it probably won't go as far as that - around 200 miles is a more realistic expectation.

The C3 Aircross hasn't yet been tested by Euro NCAP, nor any other vehicles on the Smart Car platform, but we'd be surprised if the Citroen didn't come away with the full five-star rating, just as its predecessor managed. 

You certainly get plenty of safety technology, along with six airbags. There's lane-keeping assist, a driver alert monitor, speed limit sign recognition and blind spot detection, plus a head-up display that'll help keep your eyes on the road. 

Being such a new car and one on a brand-new platform, it's difficult to tell how reliable - or indeed not - the new Citroen C3 Aircross will be. For what it's worth, we've heard of a few different problems with the outgoing C3 Aircross, including high oil consumption and glitches with the infotainment. 

Citroen does seem to be improving in the reliability stakes, but the brand hasn't covered itself in glory in the most recent HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, where it placed fifth from the bottom of the chart of least reliable manufacturers. It wasn't the worst-placed Stellantis brand, though, with Fiat and Peugeot even lower. 

The standard flat rate of £190 will apply to both the petrol and electric-powered C3 Aircross models. While EVs have long been exempt from paying Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), they'll be liable for the same yearly fee as combustion cars from 1 April 2025. 

Choosing which C3 Aircross to go for shouldn't be too difficult a decision, as there are only two trim levels to choose from. The entry-level Plus trim comes with the 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system, all the safety gizmos mentioned further up this page, rear parking sensors with a camera, electric windows all round, Advanced Comfort Seats, LED headlights and 17-inch alloy wheels. 

Go for the Max, and you get an extra sense of snazziness in the form of 3D LED rear light clusters, a white or black roof (this will depend on which colour you pick) to give a two-tone look, wireless phone charging, blind-spot detection icons on the mirrors, front parking sensors, an electrochomatic interior rear-view mirror (this darkens automatically to reduce glare), and best of all, a winter pack including heated seats, a heated steering wheel and a heated windscreen. Toasty.

Other than the seven-seater option, there aren't many ways to inflate the price of a C3 Aircross in the configurator. The main way you might further lighten your wallet is with colour choice, as only one hue - Monte Carlo Blue, is free. The others - Perla Nera Black, Mercury Grey, Elixir Red, Polar White and Montana Green - range from £275 to £1,020. Some of these cost more on the Plus.