Car review: DS3 Crossback – just like Oscar, it’s a flawed gem

If Oscar Wilde were still with us and looking for a town car to go cravat shopping and to nip round to Bosie’s, the DS3 Crossback, petrol and in a high-spec trim, would be the thing to be seen in, reckons Sean O’Grady

Distinctive ‘shark’s fin’ styling kink aside, the DS3’s not that much classier than its in-house rival (Photos DS Automobiles)

By rights, the DS3 Crossback, despite the odd, unfamiliar, name, ought to do well. Conceptually, it has everything a new car buyer in 2019 might wish for. First, it is a “premium” product, or at least purports to be. DS has been spun out of the Citroen brand by parent Peugeot group (PSA) as their answer to VW’s upmarket Audi or BMW’s Mini marques, and this latest DS3 model is designed to attract wealthier/snobbier buyers away from the Audi A2 and Mini Countryman.

(DS Automobiles)

The “DS” and “DS Automobiles” labels are throwbacks to the classic Citroen DS saloons (1955-75), renowned for their futuristic looks, exceptional comfort, and Gallic elan. (Note the subtle pun on the French word for a goddess). Like Cupra for Seat and Polestar for Volvo, DS is an attempt to sprout an upmarket brand from the existing plant. Lexus did it for Toyota, after 30 years or so; but many more such attempts have failed.

“Crossback”, by the way, means nothing. It is just a made-up marketing word meaning little SUV. There’s no real Land Rover-style engineering integrity behind it. It’s got more ground clearance then the DS3 hatch it is replacing, but there’s no four-wheel drive. It is, as with so many others, a faux-wheel drive car – but much the better for it: no point in lugging round heavy 4x4 transmission gear for no reason.

(DS Automobiles)

Second, it’s a fashionable small SUV with a low coupe-style roofline. Especially with the “shark’s fin” styling kink along the side, it looks quite distinctive, at least from some angles. In the right contrasting colour scheme the roof appears to float, and the styling has a fairly extreme “chopped” look to it, again something that is designed to appeal to the style conscious, and those for whom a Nissan Juke, say, is a bit common and a VW Polo insufferably dull. If Oscar Wilde were still with us and looking for a town car to go cravat shopping and to nip round to Bosie’s, the DS3 Crossback, petrol and in a high-spec trim, would be the thing to be seen in. Yes, I am sure of that.

Third, apart from the style, the notion of a tall car that is easy to get and out of fits our ageing demographics well. The DS3 Crossback should be the ideal vehicle for downsizing pensioners on decent pensions but suffering the odd creaky joints. As is well understood in the car world, the ads for new cars may be full of funkadelic young families but the people with the funds to buy them are their grandparents.

Sadly, the DS3 Crossback doesn’t quite convince. The interior, for example, is pretty avant garde, with an overwhelming diamond theme absolutely everywhere. Air vents, buttons, seat patterns, graphics, buttons, levers, even the starter switch are all lozenge-shaped. Most of them merge in a piano-black miasma and, being touch sensitive, are more difficult to use than they should be. Maybe DS drivers will get used to them, but they do seem to be a triumph of style over substance. I’m just relieved they didn’t try to make the wheels square.

(DS Automobiles)

The materials are classy and expensive feeling – but only from about waist height upwards. So there’s lots of soft leathers and padded panels, but the further down you go the harder and more brittle the lumps of plastic become. That is not the “premium” way, where the best materials are supposed to be deployed even in places your fingers won’t venture. That’s the point of premium, and DS needs to embrace that.

As it does the relatively meagre levels of equipment offered as standard on the lesser models. Lots of customers like the idea of big-car luxury and a premium badge delivered in a compact package, but you have to really go for a top-of-the-range version of this DS to get anywhere near the feel-good feeling you get in the Audi or Mini Countryman.

(DS Automobiles)

Indeed, the DS doesn’t feel that much classier than its in-house rival the Peugeot 2008. You’d have to really lust after the DS brand to want one, which is tricky given that, so far, most people won’t have even heard of the DS brand, except maybe that it’s something to do with Citroen. Which it is.

The spec

DS3 Crossback

Price: £30,405 (as tested, range starts at £22,10 
Engine: 1.2 litre 3-cylinder petrol; 8-speed auto  
Power output (hp@rpm): 155@5,500 
Top speed (mph): 129 
0 to 60 (secs): 8.2 
Fuel economy (mpg): 41.7  
CO2 emissions (g/km): 114

That said, it has its merits. It’s built on the Peugeot group’s new Common Modular Platform, co-developed with Chinese partner Dongfeng, which means underpinnings will be shared with new Peugeots, Citroens and, now, Vauxhalls. The work Peugeot has done on its powertrains, some of the best in the world, is evident here. There is a choice of three petrol and one diesel unit, and the petrol ones do offer exceptional refinement and very peppy performance, and, so far as I know, no major issues in service from these three-cylinder units. The ride is soft and comfortable, though space is pretty mean.

I liked the door handles which pop out at a jaunty angle to meet you when you unlock it (like some Range Rovers do). I did, however, despair that there’s no catch or handle to open the boot – you have to fiddle with the key fob instead. That’s not premium. Not that the boot is very big anyway, and space is not well packaged all round: nominally it is a five-seater, but not in real life. Good for couples, I’d say.

(DS Automobiles)

So it’s a good try and there is a lot to like about the car, because it is innovative and stylish. It is, or could be, a diamond, were it not for a few too many obvious flaws.

If I were you, which I could be, I’d wait a little longer for the arrival of the DS3 Crossback E-tense, the silent, all-electric version with a 200-mile range. That might well end up being the jewel in the PSA crown.