DS 3 Crossback review

DS aims to bring a little slice of French chic to the compact crossover market with its DS 3 Crossback.

Pros: Striking design inside and out, excellent seats, sweet 1.2 petrol engine

Cons: Quite pricey for what it is, firm ride, poor touchscreen and digital instruments

DS, if you’re wondering, is the luxury brand of what was PSA Peugeot-Citroen, but what is now Stellantis — the European car manufacturer born out of the merger of PSA and Fiat. DS takes its name from the classic 1955 Citroen DS saloon and wants to take on the dominant German brands in the premium car market. This DS 3 Crossback is a five-door compact crossover.

DS 3 Crossback Design

If you’re thinking that the DS 3 Crossback looks a bit quirky, you’re not alone. Indeed, DS seems to be setting out to make deliberately odd-looking vehicles (odd in a good sense) that seek to shake people loose from their straight-lined and sober German cars. At the front, you get those sculpted headlights, while on the side you’ll find the ‘shark’s fin’ — that’s a hangover from the original, three-door Citroen DS 3, which looks a little odd on a five-door car, although the handsome alloy wheels do help to distract a little from that. Around the back, there are very slim taillights. Overall, it’s quite striking — not pretty, perhaps, but a car that grows on you, visually. 

DS 3 Crossback Interior

The interior of the DS 3 Crossback is as striking as the outside. The dashboard is covered with touch-sensitive buttons in a diamond pattern, meant to evoke the expensive quilted leather of posh French handbags. Those buttons are shortcuts for the touchscreen, a seven-inch unit, which is actually a bit disappointing — the graphics look quite nice, but the menu layouts are fiddly and awkward to use. Ditto the seven-inch digital instrument panel in front of the driver, which looks small and under-fed compared to the instrument screens of some rivals. Space is quite good, though, and our test car came with optional ‘Bastille’ leather seats, which are wonderfully comfortable and really lift the ambience of the cabin. The boot, at 350 litres, is a little on the small side for a crossover, but not out of step with many of its competitors, and can be expanded to 1,050 litres if you fold the split rear seats down.

DS 3 Crossback Performance & Drive

With the familiar 130hp 1.2-litre PureTech petrol engine, the DS 3 Crossback was always going to have decent performance. We’ve driven this little three-cylinder turbo engine in many other Citroen, Peugeot and Opel models and it’s a gem — free-revving, with plenty of power, but also good fuel economy. It combines well with the optional eight-speed automatic gearbox, which is just as well, as the standard six-speed manual gearbox feels a little too loose-limbed for a premium model.

The DS 3 has sharper, weightier steering than you might expect, which makes it entertaining in the corners, but it is hampered by a ride quality that’s a little too firm for our tastes — surely a luxury French car should ride as if it has pillows for springs?

DS 3 Crossback Pricing

DS 3 Crossback prices start from €27,995 and, with the optional leather seats and the automatic gearbox, our Elegance specification test car clocked in at €33,950. Not overly expensive then, but one has to remember that you can have exactly the same mechanical package in the Peugeot 2008 and Opel Mokka, and both of those cars are more affordable. Does the DS 3 play its premium card well enough to justify its extra price premium?

Carzone Verdict: 3/5

The DS brand is one that still seems to be finding its feet, but it is also turning out new models that are ever-more appealing. The DS 3 Crossback is a pretty solid effort — it’s nice to drive, interesting to look at and comfortable inside — but it’s also quite pricey for a small crossover and a car from a brand that’s still very much building its image. If you want something different to the mainstream, though, it’s worth a look. 

Find DS dealers Used DS for sale