The DS3 is the first of three new DS-badged cars Citroen will introduce in the next three years.

Citroen's DS badge conjures up a host of much-loved historic brand values, but unlike BMW with the new Mini and Fiat with the new 500, the French manufacturer is making a concerted effort to avoid doing 'retro'-styled cars for its DS model line. The result, in the case of the DS3, is a car that is a deliberately modern take on how a supermini should look, but which is still stylish as well as appearing both sporty and desirable. .

The DS3, available only as a three-door car, is based on the underpinnings of the Citroen C3, which is only sold in five-door form. However, externally at least, the two cars look completely different. There are differences internally, too - the upper dash is new for the DS3, as are the sporty seats - but here there's a lot of carry-over from the C3. Citroen is, however, encouraging buyers to individualise their cars with a multitude of interior and exterior styling and colour combinations, including different roof, wheel and door mirror options. While the company hasn't issued any statistics on the number of possible combinations, our simple calculations show there are thousands of variations possible. And that's before Citroen allows fleet customers to order business-branded colour combinations.