Citroen DS3 to be launched early 2014 in Malaysia

Citroen will be launching the DS3 by the first quarter of 2014 here in Malaysia. The Citroen DS3 is a premium 3 door supermini sized hatchback that was officially launched in January 2010. It has taken this long to arrive in Malaysia as during 2010-2011 the brand was technically in limbo here in Malaysia with Naza Euro Motors appointed as Citroen's local distributor, bringing both PSA group brands under one roof (the other being Peugeot).



Anyway, better late than never as the Citroen DS3 is actually a Mini competitor which means that it is technically a premium small car for people who are willing to pay more for the a smallish car. Compare this with the similar 3 door Peugeot 208VTi (which has the same chassis architecture beneath different looks) and you can see the difference in finishing. The Citroen is more lavish with its equipment and should be slightly quieter due to extra effort in NVH tuning. The 3 door Peugeot 208 is selling for RM95,000 and the Citroen DS3 is estimated to come in at the RM120,000 price range.

In fact, you get better switchgear, more premium plastics (but not by much as the Peugeot is newer and built to actually ensure that the 208 can compete with the Ford Fiesta and VW Polo in Europe) and that totally unique Citroen DS styling. Note that in Citroen terms the DS is a premium range of its cars

The only reservation I have about this car is the specification that they're bringing to Malaysia - the DS3 1.6VTi. This comes with a 1.6liter 4 cylinder engine that makes 120bhp like the Peugeot 208VTi. Torque is a high 160Nm for a 1.6liter. The other important details is that the car will achieve a combined fuel consumption of between 6.9-7.0l/100km and an urban consumption of 9.6-9.7l/100km. Not too shabby. 0-100km/h is a slow 10.9 seconds due to the transmission choice which I will get to after this. Top speed is 190km/h.

The DS3 for Malaysia is going to be sold with a 4 speed automatic. In the age of 6,7,8 and now 9 speed automatic transmissions Citroen decides to give a premium little hatchback an ancient 4 speed automatic.However, upon a bit of checking this is the only automatic transmission that Citroen sells this car with. 

But again, this is a premium brand. It should have a premium gearbox that should allow better fuel economy (from having a better spread of gears) and better driving pleasure to the owners (extra gears allow maximising the car's torque characteristics and allow better acceleration from a stand-still and also in-gear times). It isn't some small econo-hatch that one should budget about. Maybe I am just hoping too much, but sometimes a bit more technology should be included in if the car isn't run-of-the-mill, bread and butter models. Of course, over in Europe no one bothers running automatics. Everyone shifts on their own and it is only here and a whole lot of Asian countries where automatics rule. I suppose this isn't a large enough market for Citroen to engineer a DS3 to use a six-speed automatic. 

So the DS3 is a few years late and short of a few gears. It does look stunning, it should drive well and it was voted as TopGear's Car of the Year 2010. Those could be the car's redeeming qualities. Until the car is available for a test drive, who knows.