Citroen built its reputation on novel engineering and striking design. It seemed to lose that reputation for a while but the Citroen C4 Cactus launched in 2014 went some way to reversing the trend, with quirky styling inside and out, and thoughtful details like hard-wearing ‘Airbumps’ down the doors and at the car’s corners to shrug off car park knocks.
The model was revised in 2018 and lost some of the original’s offbeat appeal, but it was ultimately a slightly better car. Today it’s a frugal and practical used car that still stands out from the crowd, and shouldn’t cost much to buy or run.
The Cactus straddles the supermini and small family car classes (think VW Polo and Golf) in size, and also blurs the lines between conventional hatchbacks and taller crossovers in its design, so rivals are numerous - you could consider anything from a Nissan Juke to a VW Golf as a potential alternative.
The original C4 Cactus was the kind of car you might have bought purely for the way it looked - a car that made a sensible family car purchase feel more like a special occasion. It was available in bright colours, the interior was styled to look like high-end luggage, and the sides of the car were adorned with air-filled plastic panels called Airbumps that looked like a chocolate bar and helped shrug off minor parking knocks and errant trolleys at the supermarket.
In 2018 Citroen toned down the Cactus’s styling and bumped up the car’s price a little reflecting a slightly more upmarket approach. While the car did lose some visual character, the fitment of Citroen’s ‘progressive hydraulic cushion’ suspension, ‘advanced comfort’ seats, and other tweaks behind the scenes made it a better car, if not a more interesting one.
In size the Cactus straddles the VW Polo and Golf classes, so feels spacious by supermini standards but a little small both in the cabin and boot compared to a regular family hatchback. The design is novel, with a low-mounted dashboard with a large glovebox on top (the passenger airbag actually deploys from the roof, freeing up space in the dash), and a pair of screens that predated most electric cars doing the same. It’s a pleasant place to be, though parents, and kids, may not appreciate that the rear windows only pop out, rather than whizz down electrically.
Post-2018 Cacti ride better than earlier models though both generations tend towards a softer, more relaxed experience, so this isn’t a car for sportier drivers. It’s at its best driven smoothly and gently, and the engines play into this - they have decent performance (and very good economy) but you won’t feel the need to red-line them - not least as the Cactus doesn’t have a rev counter.
Conventional crossovers like the Renault Captur, Peugeot 2008 and SEAT Arona are better all-rounders than the Citroen and a regular family hatch like the Volkswagen Golf or Vauxhall Astra drives better, but the Cactus is competent enough that we could fully understand anyone buying one simply because they liked the look.
A Citroen C4 Cactus not for you? We've got 1000s of used cars for sale to suit all budgets and needs
Given we’re focusing on the post-2018 models here, our preference would be for one of the petrol versions. They’re not quite as frugal as the diesels but it’s a bubblier and more enthusiastic engine to use, while still offering good economy and thanks to the car’s relatively light weight, more than enough performance too. With just a single trim level offered before the car went off sale, that keeps things simple too.
If you’ll excuse us a moment of irrational enthusiasm though, we’re much more fond of the original C4 Cactus design offered between 2014 and 2018. It wasn’t quite as well-rounded a product as the later cars (and being older, used examples will naturally be higher-mileage and probably a little more tired), but with those door-mounted ‘Airbumps’ and some vivid colour schemes, it scores higher than its successor for pure visual joy.
Citroen C4 Cactus Puretech 110: The first of two 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engines made 110PS and with a standard six-speed manual gearbox got from 0-62mph in 9.3 seconds. Claimed combined economy was up to 51.5mpg.
Citroen C4 Cactus Puretech 130: The more powerful turbocharged petrol was auto-only, using a six-speed automatic gearbox. The extra power allowed for an 8.6-second 0-62mph time, and economy of up to 47.3mpg.
Citroen C4 Cactus BlueHDi 100: As with the petrol models, the lower-power diesel was manual only (a six-speed unit) and could reach 62mph from rest in ten seconds flat. Citroen claimed up to 63.4mpg.
Citroen C4 Cactus BlueHDi 120: The 120PS diesel used a six-speed automatic gearbox, and was just a shade behind the Puretech 130 in the 0-62mph dash, at 8.7 seconds. Combined economy was 58.2mpg.
Nothing says pragmatism like having just a single trim level, but that’s what you got on the second generation C4 Cactus. We’re not sure why Citroen bothered naming it, frankly, but it makes our job in this section easy anyway, and if you see any other trim levels, then you’re probably looking at the earlier Cactus with its distinctive ‘Airbumps’ down the doors.
The Citroen C4 Cactus Flair got a set of 17-inch alloy wheels, privacy glass, electric folding door mirrors, adjustable lumbar support for the driver’s seat, a 7-inch touchscreeen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, automatic air conditioning, keyless entry and start, cruise control with a speed limiter, and a suite of safety features including lane departure warning, and active safety braking.
The Citroen C4 Cactus’s dimensions are:
Length: 4170mm
Width: 1729mm (without mirrors)
Height: 1480mm
The Citroen C4 Cactus’s boot size is:
358 litres
1170 litres with the rear seats folded (to roof)
Relatively low pricing means no Cactus attracts the government’s VED or ‘road tax’ surcharge for expensive vehicles, so all post-2018 Cactus models will cost you the same flat rate, currently £180 per year for petrol and diesel vehicles. Before April 2017 - so earlier pre-update Cacti - will be taxed on their CO2 emissions, which is even better news, since their official economy figures were so good (and therefore their CO2 emissions so low) that most are either free or cost only £20 to tax.
Some naturally-aspirated 1.2-litre pre-update petrol models can be found in only group 9 (out of 50) for insurance, while post-2018 cars start in group 11. Diesels begin in group 14, while the 1.2 Puretech 110 starts in group 16. No Cactus should be too expensive to insure as a result, with these numbers on par with most superminis and small family cars.
What is the most popular colour for Citroen C4 Cactus ?
What is the most popular gearbox for Citroen C4 Cactus ?
What is the most popular fuel type for Citroen C4 Cactus ?
What is the most popular engine for Citroen C4 Cactus ?
What is the average mileage for Citroen C4 Cactus ?
37800