Citroen C4 1.6 HDI EGS Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Citroen C4 1.6 HDi EGS range
Prices: £16,695-£17,495 - on the road
Insurance Group: 6
Emissions: 120/km
Performance: 0-60mph 11.2s / Max Speed 119mph
Fuel Consumption: 63mpg (combined)
Safety: six airbags, ABS, EBD, EBA.
Dimensions: [Coupe] Length/Width/Height 4274/1769/1458mm WHO TO SEE:

CLUTCHING AT FLAWS

Our Rating: 7.6 / 10

As self-shifting gearboxes get better, we’re running out of reasons not to buy them. Steve Walker looks at Citroen’s C4 1.6 HDI with the EGS system…

Automatic gearboxes used to be pretty unappetising things, only marginally preferable to a bad case of ‘clutcher’s leg’. This little-known medical condition occurs when a driver’s left leg becomes super-developed through prolonged and excessive use of the clutch pedal. The afflicted are sometimes to be seen hobbling around in circles on roadside verges or filling station forecourts. Although the automatic gearbox had the capacity to eliminate the accursed clutch pedal for a less strenuous driving experience, it also came with definite drawbacks in terms of economy, performance and control. Today, however, technological advances are addressing these issues to an increasingly satisfactory extent. Could sequential manual systems like Citroen’s EGS be about to consign the clutch to the history books?

It’s probably going to happen but the day when manual cars are in the minority in the UK is still some way off. Today, the best performance-orientated sequential manual ‘boxes can produce snappy shifts, imitate nifty heel and toe downchanges and achieve 0-60mph sprint times that would be beyond all but the most skilled drivers in the manual car. Self-shifting systems focused on economy now routinely achieve lower fuel consumption than equivalent manual models and the smoothest automatic set-ups deliver silky gearchanges that are all but imperceptible to the driver. The best of the modern self-shifting gearboxes have moved far beyond the role of mere labour-saving devices but none have yet pulled together the complete package at a price that will render them preferential to a manual in the eyes of the average buyer.

Citroen’s latest stab at self-shifting superiority is known as the EGS or Electronic Gearbox System. The French manufacturer confidently wheels out the oft repeated claim that their set-up combines "the convenience of an automatic with the driver involvement of a manual" and, to be fair, it has a fairly good go. There’s no clutch pedal or manual shift lever, at least not in the traditional sense. The cogs are swapped electronically by a computer and a robotised clutch but some element of driver control is maintained through the steering wheel mounted paddle shifters and a gearstick that, when flicked back and forth, also lets you hop up and down sequentially between the ratios. There will be many times when you just can’t be bothered with all this though and the EGS has a fully automatic mode, which replicates the smooth shifts of a traditional automatic, for just such an occasion.

When you do feel like pressing on, the ‘S’ button next to the gearlever puts the EGS into sport mode, a setting where the gearchanges are quickened up by a few important fractions of a second to create a livelier feel behind the wheel. Another clever component of the system is the hill-start assist function that prevents the car from rolling away when you’re trying to pull away up or down a gradient – a common problem with self-shifters of old. The system engages automatically when a gradient of 3% or more is detected; it then acts to hold the car stationary for two seconds after the brake is released giving the driver time to get on the throttle.

The EGS is available in Citroen’s C4 family hatch paired with the popular 110bhp 1.6-litre HDi common-rail diesel engine. It’s a powerplant that’s biased more towards economy than performance and the fact that it’s been mated to the EGS set-up tells you a lot about where the strengths of the gearbox itself lie. Citroen claim that the EGS achieves fuel savings of 6% over a manual C4 with the same engine: this translates into an excellent combined fuel economy figure of 63mpg.The presence of Citroen’s Diesel Particulate Filter System (DPFS) helps to make this an extremely clean car in terms of soot in the exhaust gases and CO2 emissions of 120g/km make sure that the taxation burden is agreeably light as well.

The economical nature of the C4 1.6 HDI EGS along with its clever features and performance figures that are identical to the manual car (0-60mph in 11.2s and a 119mph top speed) mean that buyers should be content to pay a premium to get their hands on it. The fact that the premium required is only £500 and that this includes the DPFS particulate filter that isn’t present on the standard car swings the balance even further in favour of the EGS. The range starts with the SX 5-door hatchback which you can also order in sportier VTR+ version. There’s also a VTR+ Coupe version for the same price.

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