Citroën SA has unveiled examples of the award-winning C3 Pluriel. The company plans to launch two derivatives in South Africa around December this year, but how much will they cost?
Citroën SA has unveiled examples of the award-winning C3 Pluriel. The company plans to launch two derivatives in South Africa around December this year.
The model has been described as a five-in-one vehicle that “can easily be transformed from its saloon guise into a 2+2 coupé, a cabriolet, a spider, or even a spider pick-up”. It’s won a star in the 2003 Design Observer, an event organised by the French Agency for the Promotion of Industrial Design, been named L’automobile più bella del mondo in Italy and voted cabriolet of the year 2003 by 17 of Europe’s motoring journalists from 11 countries.
When the Pluriel’s material sunroof is closed, it looks like a compact three-door convertible. The driver presses the buttons controlling the roof and windows to turn it into a spider. The roof folds down on to the rear window and disappears into the false floor of the boot.
The rear seat of the Pluriel is designed to retract into the floor. The load area of each variant can be extended and the vehicle turned from a four-seater into a two-seater. The boot hatch opens downwards, extending the load floor and making it easy to transport long objects. The boot does not have to be emptied to reach the false floor. A sliding plate is provided for this purpose.
Indications are that the entry-level C3 Pluriel will be fitted with a 1,4-litre fuel-injected powerplant, which produces 54 kW and 118 N.m of torque, mated with a five-speed manual gearbox. At the current rate of exhange, the 1,4 derivative would cost R185 995.
The flagship will be powered by an 80 kW 1,6-litre 16-valve engine mated with Citroën’s SensoDrive five-speed robotised manual gearbox, with a choice of two gearchanging modes, as standard. At the current rate of exhange, the 1,6 derivative would retail for R209 995, which would undercut the R212 900 price tag of the popular Peugeot 206 CC 1,6.
The C3 Pluriel, first shown to the South African public at the Auto Africa motor show at Nasrec last year, will “be at Citroën dealers in South Africa before the end of the year”, the manufacturer said.
