Fire up the... Citroen DS3

THE hot hatch hits of yesteryear have been remixed and re-released by pop pickers Citroen for the first of the firm's new luxury lineup.

Check out the company's sporty DS3 hatchback and it's obvious that the styling's definitely straight out of 2010, and defiantly not retro like its MINI and Fiat 500 rivals. It's got some clever styling cues, like the way the side pillars never quite reach the roofline, but it's not a car you could ever mistake as something that's escaped from a motoring museum.

Citroen want you to think of it not as a conventional Citroen, but something with a bit more punch and prestige altogether, because it's an £11,700 entry ticket to a whole new brand being launched by the company. The pretty five-door DS4 is set to arrive in showrooms next year, but for now it's the three-door DS3 which is hoping to bring in younger and trendier buyers.

Anyone used to the old C2 or Saxo VTS is going to be in familiar territory the first time they take the new arrival to a twisty corner - it's a blast, in the same way the best hot hatches are. The too-light clutch takes a little time to get used to and you always seem to sit a little higher than you'd like, but these are minor gripes with a grippy and involving Yorkshire Terrier of a car which snaps at the ankle of much bigger motors.

But cast your eyes back to the cabin itself and you'll find you're in a very different world, with swathes of metal giving the dash a shine of quality, and plenty of space for you and your passengers. It's clear Citroen is determined not only to take on the MINI with the DS3, but the likes of Alfa's MiTo and Audi's A1 too.

Whether launching a brand-within-a-brand to entice the trendy twentysomethings is going to work is something only history will tell us; Mazda tried a similar trick twenty years ago with the Xedos lineup, and never quite pulled it off. But if the DS3's a sign of things to come, Citroen could be onto a winner. It's that rare thing; a Citroen that's cool.

If you want to charm people with retro chic, get a Fiat 500. But if you want something that's funky and fun-to-drive in a thoroughly modern way, you've got to have one of these.

As published in The Champion on September 8, 2010