AUSTRALIANS don’t tend to buy diesel cars unless they’re big SUVs, utes or larger models from German luxury brands. They also tend to prefer automatic transmissions over manuals.

These facts were clearly not on the agenda of some Euro-focussed Parisian product planner while Citroen was developing the C4 Cactus, so Australian importer Sime Darby has had to pin its best hopes of a sales renaissance on a compact crossover only offered in automatic form with a diesel engine, while the arguably superior petrol option remains manual-only.

Worse, the transmission in question is an automated manual that, to be as kind as possible, adds a further layer of ‘character’ to the already characterful Cactus.

Did the rest of the quirky Citroen’s many charms conquer the driveline’s shortcomings after a week and many hundreds of kilometres? Read on to find out.

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