Citroen Basalt Review: Worth Its ₹10 Lakh Price Tag?

Citroen Basalt Review: If you are planning to buy a car under ₹10 lakh, which is comfortable, safe, and has a punchy petrol engine, then you can consider the Citroen Basalt. It is a coupe SUV, which scored a four-star safety rating in the Bharat NCAP, offers a good feature list, has two engine options, and comes with a reasonable amount of boot space. Regarding the feature list, it has a wireless charger, automatic climate control, and others. Talking about its competition, it stands against the Tata Curvv in its segment.

Recently, we got our hands on the Citreon Basalt turbo petrol variant paired with a 6-speed MT gearbox for a few days. We drove it for 700 kilometres in the city, checked its fuel efficiency, tested its comfort, and its features.

Here are our thoughts and experiences, whether buyers should consider the Citroen Basalt around ₹10 lakh or not:

What’s Good

Safety

Since the Indian buyers are becoming aware of safety features and cars are becoming safer, they tend to consider a safe car while buying a new one. The Basalt is a safe coupe-SUV as it scored a four-star safety rating in the Bharat NCAP crash test.

Regarding the safety features, the Basalt comes with six airbags, ABS with EBD, traction control, lowline TPMS, hill hold, and more. The door thud is strong, and seeing the competition, we feel ADAS was a missing feature in the Basalt.

Performance

The Citroen Basalt comes with a 1.2L naturally aspirated petrol engine, paired with a five-speed manual gearbox. Further, there is a 1.2L inline three-cylinder turbo petrol engine, which makes 120 bhp and 190 Nm of peak torque with the six-speed manual gearbox and 205Nm of peak torque with the six-speed automatic gearbox.

We drove the 1.2L turbo petrol engine, paired with a six-speed manual gearbox. The first highlight was the performance. The engine is responsive to the throttle inputs, and there is ample grunt on offer. However, there was low-end lag, which we felt, and required a downshift. Talking about the clutch, it is on the longer side, and getting used to the right biting point can take some time, and sometimes we even stalled the vehicle during peak traffic jams.

Moreover, once it crosses 2,000 RPM, there is a torque rush, and the car picks up pace quickly. The mid-range is the juiciest, and in the top-end, it does feel flat.

Comfort

The seats of the Citroen Basalt are pretty comfortable. The cushioning is on the softer side and offers good support and comfort. Citroen offers a semi-leatherette seat upholstery, which we feel is something that could have been upgraded to full leatherette upholstery. Since the automaker uses light colour for the seat fabric inside the cabin, it becomes quite difficult to avoid it getting dirty. One good thing we felt in a hot climate was that under direct sunlight, the seats did not heat up because of the light colour fabric material.

Regarding the rear seat space, our experience with the Basalt was good. It has good knee room, leg room, and shoulder room. Three adults in the rear seats were comfortable, and despite it being a coupe-SUV which has a sloping roof line, there was decent headroom for six-foot-tall passengers.

Ride Quality

One thing that we liked about the Citroen Basalt was its ride quality. The suspensions were tuned on the softer side, and as a result, the cabin experience over bad roads was enhanced, and it glided over bad potholes and bumps effortlessly. Though there was some suspension noise present, which did filter inside the cabin. Further, at speeds around 100-120 km/h, there was some vertical movement, which we felt was present, and the ride quality was bouncy on the expansion joints and unevenness of the road.

The steering wheel is lightweight and offers decent feel and feedback. In city driving, you’ll feel it's easy to turn and manueuveur, but when we were driving the Basalt on the highway and were around 100-120 km/h, it felt a bit disconnected.

Design

The design of the Citroen Basalt is quite different in the segment. It has a similar front face as the other Citroen models in India, but the projector headlamps are a differentiator. The throw of the LED headlamps was good, and the halogen fog lamps provided good illumination during our night drive experience.

On the side, the Basalt still runs on 16-inch alloy wheels, which we felt are a bit on the smaller side. Citroen could have offered at least 17-inch alloy wheels in it. Further, Citroen offers the traditional door handles, which give it a retro touch.

The rear of the Citroen Basalt continues to come with a halogen setup for the taillamps. Regarding the boot space, it is good, and we did not feel it was less and stuffing luggage inside it was also not that difficult. However, the competition offers a powered tailgate, which could have been offered in the Basalt.

What’s Bad

Fuel Efficiency

The Citroen Basalt 1.2L turbo petrol engine with a six-speed manual gearbox has a claimed fuel efficiency of 19.5km/l. During our drive of 700km, we expected slightly better fuel efficiency from the Basalt. It gave us a fuel efficiency of 16.3km/l. Since it depends on your driving style as well, by driving it calmly, you can achieve more fuel efficiency.

Features

The feature list on the Citroen Basalt comprises automatic climate control, a 10.25-inch infotainment screen with wireless connectivity for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a reverse parking camera, a wireless charger, and others. Additionally, it comes with a 4-speaker and 2 tweeter music system, a lowline TPMS, a digital instrument cluster, and more.

During our experience, the response from the infotainment screen was decent, and while using the Apple CarPlay, the iPhone connected immediately. Further, the reverse parking camera has decent quality. It is pixelated at night and we expected better unit and visibility. 

However, it is certainly missing on a lot of features, which the competition SUVs and cars prices lower than Basalt offer in the market. Some of the features which are missing in the Basalt and could have been offered are cruise control, a sunroof, a 360-degree parking camera, front parking sensors, better music system.

Low After Sales & Service Network

One of the reasons for the low sales of the Citroen Basalt is the very limited dealership network. Adding to this, the dealer and service network is extremely limited, especially outside metro cities, making buyers hesitant due to concerns over after-sales support.

Verdict

Now, one of the key factors of buying the Citroen Basalt is the price at which it is offered in the market. It starts at ₹9.44 lakh (on-road, Noida) for the base Pure MT variant, and the price of the top-spec Max 1.2 Turbo Petrol MT variant is ₹14.83 lakh (on-road, Noida) for the Dark Edition.

If you are planning for a comfortable SUV having a punchy engine, that is safe, has a comfortable cabin experience, then you can consider the Citroen Basalt. However, you have to compromise on some features, like a cruise control, which can be a dealbreaker for people. Further, the after-sales experience can be a bit of a problem as the dealership and service stations are quite low compared to other automakers, but if you prioritise comfort and good road presence, the Basalt is an underrated option in the segment.

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