In 2009, the public was presented the city car Citroën DS3, built on the basis of the C3 hatchback. By the way, DS for Citroen name is not new. That was the name of the icon of the French automotive industry, which was released in the 50s of the last century. Having revived the abbreviation DS, the company decided not to indulge in nostalgia: the followers of the legendary Citroen DS19 will have nothing in common with their predecessor.
By the way, the French concern plans to release several models of different segments under the new brand. Following the compact Citroen DS3 will appear DS4 and DS5, respectively, related to the C- and D-segment. "Antiretro" - under this slogan presents the manufacturer DS3. If we talk about the technical characteristics of the car, then the indicators of length, width and height are 3.95 m, 1.71 m, and 1.46 m, respectively.
The size of the trunk - 285 liters, and the glove box - 13 liters. The front seats with developed lateral support are comfortable enough, and the rear passengers will be cramped, the space in the knees and above the head is clearly not enough. Well, do not create such cars with an eye on family values. To the street could not see the inhabitants of the second row, the French, even the rear windows tightly toned. Citroen DS3 has a stylish, very dynamic body, decorated with a monumental bumper. The manufacturer provides a great opportunity to configure the appearance of the car.
A large variety of colors for body painting and four shades for the roof are added up into 38 vehicle color combinations. In addition, customers are offered a color-matched “glossy” front panel trim and two-tone 17-inch alloy wheels. Citroën DS3 offers chrome or body-colored exterior mirror housings, as well as proprietary roof stickers (for example, with zebra or polka dots). The interior is distinguished by high-quality finishing, informative instruments and logical controls of various functions. There are eight types of front panel decor, seven variations of the gear lever trim, three colors of leather trim.
In order not to get lost in this variety, you can use a ready-made solution: the designers of Citroen have come up with seven win-win storyline combinations of decoration. Orienteering DS3 manifests itself in the line of power units (the fruit of cooperation Peugeot-Citroen and BMW). The DS3 line for Russia has a 1.4 liter petrol.
(95 hp.) And 1.6 l. (120 hp.) Engines, 5-speed manual transmission or 4-speed automatic transmission (only 120 hp.), As well as the 1.6-liter turbocharged version. (150 hp.) With a 6-speed manual transmission. Diesel versions will not be delivered to us. The standard equipment of the car includes ABS, the stability control system and traction distribution system, as well as six airbags. Instead of an expensive independent rear wheel suspension on the DS3, a variant with a semi-independent suspension on the longitudinal levers was used.
In 2010, an extreme version of the Citroën DS3 Racing was presented, equipped with a turbocharged 1.6 liter VTi 200 hp. On the basis of DS3 prepared a specialized version of the car, designed to participate in the World Rally Championship. The power of this version is more than 300 hp. In the wake of the popularity of the DS3 hatchback, the French manufacturer decided to expand the range of bodies of this model, as the DS3 cabriolet version, which was presented at the Paris Motor Show in September 2012, saw the light.
The appearance of the cabriolet is almost completely similar to the hatchback version, if you do not take into account the presence of a folding fabric top, which may differ in color from the main body color. Another small difference from a hatchback cabriolet became modified rear lights. Citroen DS3 Cabrio has a large number of personal tinctures, for example, the potential owner has more than nine different design options for 16- and 17-inch alloy wheels. Also, the potential owner is available three new unique body colors black, blue and Infini DS Monogramme.
Citroen DS3 Cabrio is a cabriolet not in quite the usual sense, as its cabin racks are stationary, and only the roof is folded. The DS3 Cabrio fabric segment occupies almost the entire central part of the roof. By means of servo drives, he is able to drive back, gathering in an accordion, in 16 seconds.
And this procedure can be performed at speeds up to 120 km / h. The roof allows three folding positions. For example, you can free up space only above the front seats. The second option is to free the rear passengers from the roof.
And finally, the third - to move the soft top completely, until the trunk lid. As for the hatchback, the manufacturer offers for the convertible several different options for the design of the roof. Their total is ten. Of course, the choice of this type of folding roof is dictated primarily by economic factors. The unification of the Citroen DS3 Cabrio and the base hatchback is maximized, which means you can reduce production costs. But there is a similar design of soft top and other significant advantages. Among them is the absence of the need for serious body reinforcement and the installation of a bulky folding drive mechanism.
For example, for a Citroen DS3 cabriolet, it was necessary to change only the structure of the power cage in the back of the car. This is the key to the fact that the weight of the car remained at about the same level: the weight gain in the Convertible was a modest 25 kg, which is three-quarters less than it usually turns out when transforming a hatchback into a convertible. Almost did not reduce the open Citroen DS3 2013 and in practicality. When installing a sliding curtain, it was not necessary to give up the five-seater cabin, and the boot volume is only 40 liters smaller than that of the hatchback (245 liters).
Interior design, match the appearance of the car, a wide selection of materials and colors allow you to almost completely customize the cabriolet for yourself. The salon is distinguished not only by its stylish design, but also by the convenience of landing the driver and the wealth of settings for the driver's seat and steering wheel, which provides comfort control even on long trips. Special attention deserves the new monitor in the central panel, which is responsible for managing multimedia, as well as for the navigation system.
Maintaining the base mass and dimensional parameters of the model at a constant level made it possible to apply a standard suspension and a set of power units on it. Therefore, in terms of the rest of the technical stuffing, the DS3 Cabrio is generally similar to a hatchback. The convertible is available with three petrol engines: 1.2 l / 82 hp, 1.6 l / 120 hp and 1.6 l / 156 hp, which are paired with 5 and 6-speed manual transmissions. And one 1.6-liter diesel engine producing 92 hp.
DS3 Cabrio is a worthy competition in its segment to such cars as the Fiat 500C, Mini Convertible and Opel Adam Cabrio. In August 2014, a public debut of an updated version of the Citroen DS3 hatchback took place at the motor show in Moscow. Global changes did not happen, but the made point improvements brought the Citroen DS3 to an even higher level, especially in terms of design. All changes came to the front of the car, almost nothing has changed behind. The main feature of restyled cars is the new combined headlights with xenon lenses and three LED "guns".
Such headlights consume 35% less energy in the low beam mode and 75% less in the long-distance mode, they work longer - up to 20 thousand hours. It is noteworthy that the new headlights are available only in the top versions of equipment. In addition, Citroen DS3 has received new LED "running" direction indicators, as well as stylish rear LED lights with a 3D effect and an integrated chrome DS logo. The hatchback length of the Citroen DS3 is 3948 mm, of which 2464 mm fall on the wheelbase, and 824 and 660 mm respectively on the front and rear overhang.
The width of the hatchback is 1715 mm, and the height is limited to 1458 mm. Ground clearance (clearance) Citroen DS3 - 130 mm. Vehicle curb weight varies from 1075 to 1165 kg, depending on the type of configuration. Salon Citroen DS3 is designed for five passengers, taking into account the driver and can not boast of an abundance of free space. The interior continues the dynamic notes of the exterior, offering neat lines and a wide range of trim options to give the car an individual style.
If earlier it was possible to choose only the design of the roof, now buyers of the DS3 model may also think over the stickers for the rear window and engraving on the front panel. The cost of the basic equipment CHIC includes ABS and ESP, front and side airbags, electric and heated mirrors, air conditioning, cruise control, leather steering wheel and alloy wheels. The top-end equipment is distinguished by the presence of a central armrest, heated front seats, climate control, light and rain sensors, as well as a two-color exterior design. The technical component for the Russian market has remained unchanged.
The car is offered to choose from a 1.6-liter gasoline engine with 120 horsepower or a 150-horsepower THP turbo engine of the same volume. As for the engine range for Europe, it has a new 1.6-liter turbodiesel in two forcing options - 100 or 120 hp, respectively. Motor meet the standards of Euro-6.
