► Citroen MPV name changes
► Brand ditches Picasso moniker…
► …for SpaceTourer
Among the buzz around the new C4 Cactus and Berlingo, Citroen quietly confirmed that its Picasso MPV range will no longer be called so. From now on, it’s SpaceTourer.
Hang on, don’t people associate Picasso more with MPVs than art?
It does seem a little unusual for Citroen to ditch the Picasso tag for its remaining pair of MPVs some 19 years since the egg-shaped Xsara Picasso made its debut. But, despite having a few years of their product life-cycle still to run, the French marque’s car-based people movers have been renamed C4 SpaceTourer and Grand C4 SpaceTourer.
The smaller C3 Picasso disappeared at the end of 2017, its place in the range taken by the more fashionable C3 Aircoss SUV.
Officially, the name change reflects the more practical nature of Citroen’s MPVs that the brand wants to focus upon, hence adopting the moniker of its van-based people carrier range. As halo models go, it’s not especially sexy.
However, it won’t have escaped Citroen’s bean-counters how much has been paid to the Fundacion Picasso over the past two decades for the right to use the Spanish artist’s name and signature…
Has anything else changed other than the name?
Not particularly, although talking of the name we were amused how the elongated SpaceTourer badge wraps around the tailgate edge.
The new C4 and Grand C4 SpaceTourer will be in the UK in late spring 2018, but save for a few model year detail changes there’ll be little new to discover.
What that means is the spacious, flexible and airy cabin remains intact, with power coming from an efficient range of three-pot PureTech and four-cylinder THP petrols, as well as a suite of BlueHDi diesels that offer decent real-world economy.
Check out our Citroen reviews