Fourth report - 1,000 for the road

The prospect of a mammoth road trip from London to Bordeaux and back was teed up at the end of our last report. With four people on board, plus a full boot and roof box freshly attached, we wanted to see how the comfort-oriented Cactus, and this version's three-cylinder 1,199cc petrol engine in particular, would cope with long motorway sessions, twisty hill roads and more. 

The first headline to relay upon our return is that the comfort boast from Citroen's marketing department is no idle one. Driving for many hours at a time, I never once felt achy of back from a lack of seat support. Wide-backed and soft, without ever feeling saggy, Citroen's top-level Advanced Comfort Seats were a real boon, a sentiment shared by all three passengers. 

The new standard suspension system, with Progressive Hydraulic Cushions, did a good job at ironing out road imperfections brilliantly while cruising too. The only downside to all this cushioning was a slightly wobbly feeling around some corners, if taken more briskly than passengers were expecting (exacerbated no doubt by carrying extra weight in the roof box). That latter item created predictably greater wind noise at high speeds, but was nonetheless an essential addition. Given a basic boot space of only 358 litres, plus the time away and the number of people to lug luggage for, the £460 Citroen roof box option safely avoided boot overloading and rear-view obstruction.

The small petrol engine was perhaps the most surprising winner from the trip though. Well able to cope with traffic at French autoroute speeds, it never whined or missed a beat, despite doing a steady 130kph (81mph) for a long time. Over 1,000 miles, economy was not up to diesel standards - 37.2mpg was the last fill-up figure and typical of the trip as a whole and of course the roof box won't have helped. But, hopefully, its lower other emissions, and the fact that it spends most of its time in the city, make the petrol engine a better overall bet for this driver's usual missions.  

Third report - A succulent swap

You may have noticed there are two Cacti in these pictures. But fear not, this is no error. And I haven't got greedy either. The Polar White Cactus was in fact a stop-gap while we waited to swap into the Tapenade Grey version - the latter being the vehicle we originally specified and had built to order - but which took a little longer than expected to arrive, partly due to making sure the same three-cylinder 1,199cc petrol engine falls in line with new Euro 6.2 emission regulations. As it's already small and frugal, I'd like to think it couldn't have been that hard. 

Both models pictured are PureTech 110hp five-speed manuals in Flair trim, so the base price is the same, but the devil is in the optional details. Working out that the Tapenade Grey exterior flat paint colour was included in the basic price - and rather liking its stealthy vibe - that box was quickly ticked and by so doing garnered an immediate saving over other flat colours (like £250 for Polar White on the departing Cactus), metallic finishes (£495) or indeed pearlescent paint (£730 on the Flair trim). That saving was invested towards an upgraded cabin to top-level 'Hype' Red half-leather interior with Advanced Comfort Seats (£800), to which we added keyless entry and start (£250), front parking sensors (£100), 17in black 'Cross' alloy wheels (£100), and a  dark roof box and bars (£460) to complete its air of readiness for undercover adventure. 

And as it so clearly does now look the part, we're going to test its mettle on a big mission through to the south of France, four-up, plus luggage, and then back again, hopefully even more fully loaded with French goodies (the roof box will be perfect for extra-long baguettes for instance). Given the Citroen brand's roots and comfort-oriented approach this feels like an entirely appropriate test. We'll discuss how it went in the next report.

Second report - Cactus gains comfort seal of approval

Whenever I'm due to pick up my dear 92-year-old relative for a family mission, I'm always worried that the car I'm currently driving might not meet expectations. She's not backward in coming forward about any issues with her latest minicab, minibus or private lift, from how easy or otherwise it is to get in and out of and once inside, how comfortable or not the seats are. It's got to such a point that whenever she brings up the topic I find myself repeatedly reminded of the narrative of the classic kid's book Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell: "I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet. and they sent me. an Elephant. but he was too big. I sent him back. So they sent me a Giraffe. but he was too tall. so I sent him back." And so it goes on. I paraphrase slightly, but you get the picture. In automotive terms, the 'elephant' was the recent old Mercedes limo, the leather seats of which were so big, soft and shiny that she almost disappeared into them and slid off into the footwell. The 'giraffe' was the too-tall MPV sent by the minicab service that she failed to climb into. and so sent back.

Luckily, for me, she likes the Citroen C4 Cactus's seats a lot. They're at a good height to get in and out of - they offer fine ingress and egress if you want the fancy technical terms - and once in, they make her feel comfortable. 

That's because they're unusually wide, inspired by furniture design in case you cared, and use high-density foam at the heart of the seat and textured foam near the surface to provide a great combination of softness and support. It's easy when you're able-bodied to take getting in and out of car seats for granted but there's a significant proportion of the population that isn't. Indeed, unlike so many other car models that claim to be 'dynamic', 'sports tourers' or some other marketing guff when they're nothing of the sort, the tag line for the latest Cactus - 'Comfort is the new cool' - is refreshingly honest and right up my very cool 92-year-old's street.