You might not have noticed but Citroën and Renault have been battling for supremacy in the MPV market for more than a decade. The two French companies lead the field when it comes to practical family load-luggers that offer just enough style to keep drivers interested, and enough toys and cubbyholes in the back to keep the children happy.

In 2007 Citroën launched the C4 Picasso, an updated version of the Xsara Picasso. The new car combined the high driving position and voluminous interior of larger MPVs but wrapped them in a compact body perfectly sized for the supermarket car park scrum.

Available in two versions — a standard five-seater and a seven-seat Grand version with a longer wheelbase — the second generation Picasso was an instant hit with families. The Grand Picasso’s rearmost seats could be stowed in the boot floor, finally avoiding the need to remove and store them when not in use — a pet hate of most original French MPVs.

Today the Grand Picasso commands a premium of just £500 over the standard model, and with an extra 172 litres of boot space it still makes the better buy even if you rarely use all seven seats. Higher spec Exclusive models come with pneumatic rear suspension, meaning you can load the car to the gunnels and it will compensate for the weight by maintaining the correct ride height.

The Picasso engine line-up features the typical MPV mix of petrol and diesel power. The cheapest today is the 1.6-litre petrol (which replaced a less powerful 1.6-litre in July 2008) with a five-speed manual gearbox, while the award for outstanding economy goes to the 1.6-litre HDi diesel, which can comfortably achieve 50mpg in mixed motoring. Top of the range were a brace of 2-litre engines, one petrol — dropped in 2008 — and one diesel. Both came with a rather poor automatic transmission as standard.

But the genius of the second generation C4 Picasso is the car’s interior. Gone are the hard plastics and slightly conservative ergonomics of the first generation car and in comes a more adventurous, high-quality approach.

Few car cabins deliver the wow factor created by the C4 Picasso’s panoramic front windscreen. The sun visors slide back to reveal more glass than Kew Gardens. Everywhere you turn the car is packed with thoughtful touches to deliver the perfect practical travelling environment: there are cupholders, an air-conditioned glove box, seatback tables for children to doodle on and, depending on trim level, a DVD player, a glazed sunroof and four-zone climate control.

The Picasso scores five stars in Euro NCAP tests for adult safety, three for child and two for pedestrian safety. Standard features include vehicle stability control and front, side and driver’s knee airbags.

There is no shortage of used C4 Picassos on the market and with three-year-old examples changing hands for as little as £8,500 it looks like a lot of car for reasonable money.

Reliability and servicing

Three years on from its launch, the Citroën C4 Grand Picasso is proving a reliable workhorse for most owners, though there are a few niggles to look out for. The most significant of these is with the automatic gearbox. Not the best option in the first place, it has an ability to consume clutches, with some owners reporting clutch failure at just 24,000 miles. Such premature wear will be covered if Citroën’s original three-year warranty is intact, but without it this is an expensive flaw.

Owners’ groups report no more than the usual smattering of electrical problems, chiefly down to faulty sensors. The canny buyer would choose a two-year-old example from a Citroën dealer and negotiate for an extended warranty to be included in the price. A minor service costs from £195, a major one £295.

Residuals

Three years after its launch the C4 Picasso is a popular buy second-hand, helped by a design that is ageing well. An exception is the the 2-litre petrol model with its poor automatic gearbox, which struggles to find buyers.

The usual buying rules apply to the Picasso. High-mileage, tatty examples that have been worked hard for a living are best avoided. Better examples often cost only marginally more, yet represent much better value.