By Citroen will officially launch the much-awaited new C3 Aircross automatic version on January 29th. The model was spotted at the dealership before the launch as the French manufacturer started dealer dispatch of the initial batch last week. Ever since the launch of C3 series products, we have been waiting for the introduction of automatic gearbox and the company took its own time to introduce the model as most of the competitor products offer automatic gearbox as it is very convenient for the customer.
The C3 Aircross automatic variant comes with a 6-speed torque convertor and it is sourced from Japanese manufacturer Aisin. This same gearbox is also used for C3 hatchback in Europe. In India, we have already seen this gearbox on the 1.0 L turbo petrol variant of Volkswagen Virtus, Volkswagen Taigun, Skoda Slavia and Skoda Kushaq. So we are not expecting any reliability concerns with this gearbox as it has performed well on all other models but the driving performance is likely to be different.
Citroen will use the same 1.2 L turbo petrol engine and it produces 190 PS of power and 205 Nm on the manual variant but in the Indonesian model, the torque output is 205 Nm, which is 15 Nm of torque more than the manual. We expect this same tuning to be on the Indian version too. The automatic variant could be offered only on the top-end variants but the pricing is going to be key for the success as reports suggest that the Citroen C3 Aircross is likely to undercut most of its competitors.
