A drizzly drive warms us to the Picasso
12 August 2000: by Brian Byrne & Trish Whelan.
Brian: If there's a good way to try out any of these compact MPVs, it's an early-morning run from one side of Ireland to the other. And this is just what we did with the Picasso, managing in the first instance to avoid the westbound trucks out of Dublin that can muck up your journey time (and your car) if you don't get away from the east by 6am.
Trish: It was, unfortunately, a drizzly drive. But that didn't take away from the high degree of driving pleasure we got in the high-up driving position of the Picasso (Citroen insist on putting a Xsara badge on the back to denote its origins, but it is never going to be known as anything else than a Picasso. Rightly so, it is an individual car in its own right, and deserves its originality).
Brian: A detour from our journey ... isn't the current TV ad for the car a honey? You know, the one where the robot painting machines are being whimsical and painting Picassoesque drawings on the body before being warned by a remote sensor of the imminent arrival of a human, without a sense of humour, of course.
Trish: But back to the road west, and the first thing we appreciated was the superb visibility from the car, both because of the large expanse of glass and the curving down of the side window line so that you can easily see the roadside itself while being driven along. The deep scuttle and the fitting of the instrumentation into a central pod out of the way also help here, and we found the digital readouts easy to assimilate and clear to see. That same deep scuttle has been neatly used to provide oddments storage for things like the mobile, and those storage areas have essential rubber mats.
Brian: Small potential gripe, though: the steep rake of the screen and a refractive 'mirrorising' from the reflection of the front fixed side window means that side markings on the road flicker by in the peripheral vision. Some might find this intrusive, though we quickly got used to not noticing it.
Trish: The review car had the 1.8-litre petrol engine, and some upgrade specs that included aircon. That last is rapidly becoming an essential in this country as we are no longer prepared to put up with the muggy conditions of our weather. It is particularly so in MPVs with lots of glass, even when, as in the case of the Picasso, there's a special glass used that cuts out 70% of the sun's heat. On our drizzly drive, the high humidity was kept nicely in check.
Brian: The 1.8-litre unit ihas to pull a fairly heavy car, and the long climb from Mullingar to Foxford required a fair degree of fourth gear work to make steady progress. And we felt there's not a lot of extra oomph there for fast overtaking. But once you know the limitations, it is a pleasant engine to drive. And in a substantial vehicle, it returned around 38mpg on the trip, quite respectable economy in these machines. There's a 1.6-litre petrol at the entry level, and a 2-litre HDi diesel with a lot of low-down torque, that last which I believe will really make the Picasso a great family car.
Trish: The controls are well thought-out ... the gearshift mounted on the dash itself is a joy to use, though there's a little query about the clutch pedal shaft, on which those of us with larger feet can catch our tootsies. Takes a bit of getting used to, and we've noticed it before in Citroens; their designers must have small feet.
Brian: Never mind, there were other nice touches, not least the good loud click of the indicator. A steering wheel really nice to hold and which provided good tight control of direction, even in a long-nosed machine as it seems to be from inside because of the steep screen rake. As front passengers we found ourselves in armchair comfort, literally, as there's a drop-down armrest on the inside that is well set for its purpose.
Trish: The road rocks and rolls from the Shannon onwards, and the Picasso suspension seemed to soak up much of the unevenness, though there's no doubt more roll than in an equivalent-sized saloon. Nothing wrong with that, we always figure it's better to sway a bit than judder with too-stiff underpinnings. After all, these things are not road racing machines ... they're for carrying people in as much comfort and safety as possible.
Brian: On the safety thing, Picasso comes with four airbags and ABS. So far we've not had to use either and so can't comment on their efficiency. Hope we never have to.
Trish: But we quite hope we'll drive the Picasso on a long distance again. Dublin to Naples and back would be nice.
Picasso facts: 1.6- and 1.8-litre petrol & 2-litre HDi TD; 5-speed manual; MPV; price range £16,600-£20,500.
