A number of our Citroen C3 Picasso lease cars have been recalled; Citroen are recalling twenty thousand in total, due to a problem with the brakes; it has emerged that the brakes can be applied by the passenger as well as the driver. The problem was reported to the BBC’s Watchdog programme. It would be surprising if Citroen were totally unaware of the problem, prior to it being featured on Watchdog.

The BBC said “It’s potentially very dangerous indeed” Well perhaps, although the problem is not that unusual and certainly not limited to Citroen. The Watchdog programme has recently highlighted the same problem with other French manufacturers.  The fact is that all the cars produced on the Continent for the UK market, have the braking mechanism below the passenger foot well. There have been many cases where the passenger can apply the brakes, simply by pressing on the floor. We have also experienced it with BMW ’s.

Obviously it is not ideal but generally is not the case that the passenger can slam on the brakes; they usually have to press quite hard on the floor to apply them at all. Perhaps a more serious problem would be if it were the accelerator that the passenger could apply.

In any event the problem is being resolved and it certainly hasn’t had the slightest impact on our Citroen C3 contract hire orders, the car is as popular as ever. If you are looking for a small SUV then this vehicle is an excellent choice; it has a surprisingly large cabin with lots of headroom for such a small vehicle and a good sized boot.

The C3 looks great, it is very comfortable to drive and economical to run. Citroen C3 leasing is a little more expensive than some of its rivals at £181 per month plus Vat but it is well worth paying the extra for this excellent vehicle.