The Citroën C4 is very keenly priced to start with, but haggle hard and you can cut huge chunks from the price according to What Car?‘s research.
With a big discount it’s worth considering, but even then we can’t wholeheartedly recommend it. The C4’s most obvious weakness as a tow car is starting on a hill. It took a really firm pull on the conventional handbrake to stop car and caravan rolling backwards on a 1-in-6 slope, and plenty of revs and clutch slip to pull to the top.
Performance was quite steady on the flat, too, needing 17.1 seconds to accelerate from 30-60mph. Once above 60mph it took a long while to drag up to 70mph.
Stability was mostly good in still air, although some drivers found the Citroën moved around somewhat in crosswinds, and took a long time to recover from any short, sharp steering input. To give the C4 its dues, though, the lane-change test was dispatched without a problem.
As a solo drive, the Citroën isn’t in the same league as the best small family hatchbacks. The ride is wallowy, but despite this softness the suspension crashes and thumps into sharp bumps.
The back of the car is cramped compared with a Skoda Octavia’s cabin, although the boot is a reasonable size; it coped with all our holiday luggage bar one item. However, the towing electrics were fiddly to access.