Purists may frown at the mere thought of automotive badge engineering, but re-branding another company’s product could lead to a very competitive product. Seeing as Citroën didn’t have a mid-level compact SUV a decade ago, they knocked on Mitsubishi’s door for assistance. The result was a highly capable Citroën, even if it didn’t rack up massive sales.
Do not be deceived by the Citroën badges and minor styling differences, because the C4 Aircross was not actually a Citroën at all, and neither was its sibling, the Peugeot 4008. Instead, they were Mitsubishis through and through, being restyled versions of the Japanese company’s ASX. They were even assembled side-by-side in Japan, even though the ASX is now the sole survivor of this venture.
It’s strange that buyers didn’t take to the French-badged products, as the ASX is one of Mitsubishi’s biggest success stories in recent history. In fact, the ASX is still one of the best-selling Mitsubishis in South Africa, more than a decade after its first introduction, and also forms the base for the newer Eclipse Cross. And, as we found in numerous reviews, the ASX is still more than competitive in its segment, thanks to periodic updates and facelifts.
A French car with Japanese dependability
Under the ASX’s bonnet is Mitsubishi’s 2.0-litre petrol engine, good for 110 kW and 195 Nm in standard trim. Drive is either to the front wheels or to all four (the latter being unique to local PSA offerings), through either a 5-speed manual gearbox or a CVT. The former is definitely a lot livelier to drive, but the latter is very smooth in operation and suits congested traffic to perfection.
This drivetrain carried over to the C4 Aircross and 4008, giving buyers the same dependability as the Mitsubishi-badged version, although the PSA products also offered some sweet HDi turbodiesels, which were well-regarded in their time. Overall, the C4 Aircross offered the same kind of durability as its Japanese-branded sibling, but the possibility of an ageing diesel in some variants may set some alarm bells ringing.
International reports
Seeing as the ASX has been around for so long, it’s logical that Mitsubishi have ironed-out any glitches in the basic platform over time. Consequently, the US-market ASX (dubbed the Outlander Sport) is highly-rated for reliability by its owners.
According to the 2021 J.D Power owner survey, the ASX scores a “Great” 86% for quality and reliability. However, this score wasn’t always that high, rising from 78% in 2015 to 81% in 2017, indicating that the ASX got better with time. This unfortunately also means that the Citroën- and Peugeot- branded offerings date from the “pre-Great” area, since the French equivalents were discontinued in 2017.
Verdict
The issues reported for earlier, petrol-powered ASXs (and their PSA counterparts) were minor in nature, and don’t relate to the mechanical bits at all. The main hassles appear to be silly things like the rear hatch’s gas struts failing prematurely, and seizing wiper motors on very early examples.
These problems are easily remedied, though, with good parts availability either from PSA dealerships, or directly from Mitsubishi. And, with prices for petrol-fueled C4 Aircrosses hovering around the R 170 000 mark, they represent great value for money as well as 5-star Euro NCAP safety (for their era). We’d give the diesel versions a miss, though, because older common-rail turbodiesels may gobble up a disproportionate amount of money in long-term maintenance, quickly devouring any fuel- and purchase price savings.
Keyword: How reliable is the Citroën C4 Aircross?