[cludflare]

Dear BHPians,
It has been exactly an year since the deliveries of Citroen’s much awaited car for India, the micro-suv C3 ,began. I don’t know about experts, but I was heavily bullish on this product given the Indian obsession with SUVish design and the extraordinary success of Tata Punch from day 1.
This is easily a segment that will grow to 20 – 25K units a month with Hyundai’s Exter entering the space.

I know we can’t expect a new brand to generate trust right from the beginning, but C5 had been around for some time followed by C3. I admire the brand’s honesty (or foolishness?) to call out that C3 is not an SUV, it’s a raised hatchback. The country has been obsessed with anything followed by a UV all this while.

Through this thread, I intend to intiate some conversations like –
1. Can we write this product off now. The last few months’ sales figure of the C3 petrol certainly suggest so (April 2023 – 741, May 2023 – 600, June 2023 – 867)
2. Was it the marketing / branding / advertising that lead to this, or was it the multi pronged focus around EV, aircross etc ?
3. If KIA can enter and create havoc with a new brand and just a couple of products, where did the French brand go wrong – given the dismal performance of both C3 and C5.
4. Is this too early for new brands to play the EV game without safely establishing their IC products in India ?
5. I believe the urban customers were more open to taking chances with new OEMs with limited service centers in the country. The sales of C3 don’t suggest so.
6. If you are on a 8 to 10 lakhs budget, will you as a customer consider C3 over the likes of I10 Nios, Tata Punch, Swift, Kiger or Amaze?

Pardon the corporatish writing style using bullets and pointers.
I think this comprehensive product and its failure to shine deserves some attention.

[AYP]

The only reason I will even consider the C3 is the 1.0 turbo. While I am an engine guy, it does not mean that I will go for a box on wheels with a nice engine. There is a line, and the C3 with no tachometer while costing more than 10L rupees is on the other side of this line. The thing is that for the price of the C3 turbo, I'd rather get the Magnite Turbo or the Altroz diesel XM+ which shall not make me feel shortchanged while sitting inside the car. In fact it is not just the lack of features but the design itself which makes the car look and feel 'cheap'. I think that Citroen's approach of making cheap cars is hurting them. Indians want cars which offer them 'value'. We all know what happened to Nano due to its image.

A real dilemma will be choosing between let's say an Exter or Punch NA vs the C3 turbo. But considering the price of the C3 turbo, such a dilemma wouldn't exist for me since I don't mind going for the Magnite or the Altroz.

I see the same thing happening with the C3 AirCross(unless they price it exceptionally well) which though is better equipped than the C3, shall also compete in a higher segment. It does look swell though, that I acknowledge and the Turbo engine should be better to drive than the NA competitors.

While I don't want to explicitly state that C3 is gonna be out(since more competition is better for us consumers), I am unable to find any reason to not say the same.

[fhdowntheline]

You cant exclude basic stuff like RPM gauge, rear wiper( even as option, now corrected), climate control( higher trims) , electric ORVMs . Citroen is not Maruti to get away with it. When you are establishing yourself, you dont have much leeway. If pure engineering were to sell, then every 10th car in India would be a Jeep Compass.

[deep_bang]

I believe that the failure of Citroen in general is because there is nothing ground breaking in the product nor is it popular enough for people to trust the brand.

Kia definitely did a great job and although I don't know the investment in terms of numbers seeing their facility in Ananthpur (it is so Massive) and their dealerships, it seems like Kia invested a ton of money to make it work. Citroen on the other hand seems to be testing the waters. It's hard for anyone to put their money on a brand that is not invested heavily in India.

[ssoni.1411]

I believe Citroen in general failed because they did a lot of cost cutting, i.e. they didn't have a proper top model on launch. KIA had an instant success because they chose the right segment and gave every single feature, transmission and engine to the Indian customers and they also took advantage of the entire R&D done by Hyundai all these years. Even if you look at Seltos facelift, it was first spotted in April and launched in July weeks before Elevate started its media drives. Honda too is feeling the heat because of the features and competitive pricing of Seltos. Sonet facelift was spotted too testing and it will mostly be launched by Diwali at the time of Nexon Facelift. KIA has been working step ahead of other manufacturers to stay relevant and fresh in the market.
Anyone having a budget of 8-10 Lakhs will go towards an established brand who has been around for long.
If you look at the Exter, the fit, finish and features make it look more premium then Punch.

[GTO]

Citroen has terrific cars, but a complete dud of a strategy behind each of them. The French really don't get India. They thought India is a "low cost" market, tried an approach comparable to Datsun and launched the Citroen C3 without alloy wheels, a tachometer, reversing camera etc. No automatic transmission offered in a market that is greatly moving to ATs & merely 2 variants at launch (C3 Aircross apparently coming up in a single variant!!).

The C3 1.2 Turbo has a superb engine & lovely suspension. It's so much fun to drive . But with all the cost-cutting & features mess-up, it didn't have a chance. Same approach with the C3 Electric which doesn't even get a cooled battery & low power ratings - it makes the Tiago EV look like it's a full segment above in terms of tech & features.

Another grave error is Stellantis not forcing Jeep & Citroen to combine their dealership strength. Jeep has a limited dealer network in India, and so does Citroen. They are part of the same group. Split up existing showroom spaces between the two (70:30 ratio), or sell the two on the same floor. But both brands never agreed to it.

The C5 Aircross is such a brilliant product. Citroen should have sold it at a loss and written off the expenses as "brand building".

[buzzy_boy]

In my opinion, they entered the wrong segments. With the C5, they entered a segment where no one (not a significant number) considered anything other than the Fortuner. With the C3, they entered a segment where no one considered anything outside of Maruti, Hyundai, and maybe Tata.

The 10-20 lakh customer is the one who's likely to experiment more, and guess which brands are prominent by their absence until now! Citroen, Jeep, and Renault.

[revmaxx]

A Datsun moment looming for Citroen. Hope I am proved wrong .I want to own a C5 Aircoss though, but priced unreasonably high.

[Drdriver]

Originally Posted by cludflare

Dear BHPians,
It has been exactly an year since the deliveries of Citroen’s much awaited car for India, the micro-suv C3 ,began. I don’t know about experts, but I was heavily bullish on this product given the Indian obsession with SUVish design and the extraordinary success of Tata Punch from day 1.
This is easily a segment that will grow to 20 – 25K units a month with Hyundai’s Exter entering the space.

I considered the C3 when shopping for my car. The punch and c3 were the only ones in the micro SUV segment (not considering the espresso). I strayed from citroen because it was too barebones in the same price. I had everything from ASS to showroom for Citroen. So, that wasn’t a problem. I loved the ride quality on the test drive. Though it was nowhere close to the C5 but it was very Citroen. Still, the interiors and the price they were charging for it was a deal-breaker. Plus, with foreign manufacturers closing up shop and leaving customers stranded with the exception of Ford was always there in the back of my head.

[TorqueKnight]

Poor product planning kills the vehicle.If you look at other manufacturers like KIA, Hyundai, TATA they have wide variety of variants with different engine options and transmissions. They have vehicle variants based on consumer taste. Whereas Citroen lags in features and transmissions options. Nowadays Indians are most matured in terms of buying, they are clear about what they want. It’s not just price, they want features and value for money on any product.

Recently I went on a trip to Chitoor, Andhrapradesh from Chennai in a Citroen C3 as a rear seat passenger. I found the rear seats lags under thigh support. At the end of the journey, I was disappointed with the vehicle. I blame their Product planning team. I don’t know to whom they want to sell their vehicle.

[niranjanprabhu]

India is NOT a CHEAP market. India is a VALUE SEEKERS market. The failure of Nano should have opened the eyes of many. I cannot believe they are releasing even the C3 Aircross without an autobox for example! The C3 does not even have electrically adjustable external mirrors. What were they smoking when they thought of this? The lack of rear demisters or wipers is another terrible blunder. All in a car that is honestly class-leading in terms of ride quality!
The Indian customers rewarded Kia for giving them brilliant options and feature richness which even Hyundai was shying away from but later learned from when speccing the 2020 Creta! Kia will move from strength to strength whereas the Europeans will at best settle for what the VW/Skoda twins seem to have done. That is if they are lucky. Citroen even positioned the C3 not as a 4-meter SUV (which it is) but as a competition to the Tata Tiago. Never have I seen such harakiri.

[Gurudatt28227]

The C3 has a great exterior design and good powertrains too. It had the potential to be the next Polo with the power and torque that its turbo engine makes. However, they were let down by their barebones interiors, no Automatics in a largely urban market and I guess prospective customers are also cautious about their service and maintenance. The recent Brazilian spec C3 based on the same platform scoring 0 stars in Latin NCAP has also discouraged a few urban customers who were considering C3 seriously as their next car purchase.

[evilminstrel]

I think some information is missing here. I bought C3 Shine model July 2023. It has all the missing features. It has ORVM, rear wiper, defogger, rear camera, CAR play, Android Play (wireless included).

Anyway, just drive this car and you will forget what is missing! This has amazing suspension, pick up, great AC, approach angle, departure angle. Atleast Shine is good package.

PS: I rejected this car before Shine launch due to lack of essentials and was not looking for a car in this segment due to lack of good options. However, just within a month after launch of Shine model, I booked it.

[Mat095]

I think the main reason behind it’s failure is the excessive cost cutting on features which are offered on cars from a segment below. I mean you don’t offer wheel caps on a top-end variant and then make alloy wheels as an optional accessory, these kind of tactics don’t play well with an Indian consumer. While I agree the car has an amazing turbo-petrol engine, there is absolutely no USP of the N/A petrol apart from the wireless Apple Carplay that distinguishes the product from its rivals.

Having said all that, I still believe Citroen can revive the product with a facelift and rectifying their mistakes and focusing first on their ICE products before moving on to electrics.

[evilminstrel]

Originally Posted by evilminstrel

I think some information is missing here. I bought C3 Shine model July 2023. It has all the missing features. It has ORVM, rear wiper, defogger, rear camera, CAR play, Android Play (wireless included).

Anyway, just drive this car and you will forget what is missing! This has amazing suspension, pick up, great AC, approach angle, departure angle. Atleast Shine is good package.

PS: I rejected this car before Shine launch due to lack of essentials and was not looking for a car in this segment due to lack of good options. However, just within a month after launch of Shine model, I booked it.

Originally Posted by Mat095

I think the main reason behind it’s failure is the excessive cost cutting on features which are offered on cars from a segment below. I mean you don’t offer wheel caps on a top-end variant and then make alloy wheels as an optional accessory, these kind of tactics don’t play well with an Indian consumer. While I agree the car has an amazing turbo-petrol engine, there is absolutely no USP of the N/A petrol apart from the wireless Apple Carplay that distinguishes the product from its rivals.

Having said all that, I still believe Citroen can revive the product with a facelift and rectifying their mistakes and focusing first on their ICE products before moving on to electrics.

Please refer to my previous reply. The Citroen C3 Shine model includes all the feature necessary. I mean if you are looking for Sunroof or climate control, that certainly is not in C3, but otherwise it has all the necessary eseentials for a good car.