The promotional photographs published by car manufacturers typically feature empty rural roads, remarkably glorious sunshine, highly dramatic architecture and implausible couples engaged in mountain biking, snowboarding or paragliding.

So the snaps accompanying Citroen’s latest upmarket DS3 special edition are unusually honest, for picturing a woman using her car to nip to the shops.

OK, so we are still in the la-la land of marketing, which means the young lady in question has popped out to buy something small and chic from Louis Vuitton rather than something bulky and cheap from Lidl. But still. Little steps.

Actually, you probably do need to shop in LV to contemplate owning a DS3 Ultra Prestige, given that it’s a French supermini that costs the wrong side of 20 grand. With Citroen’s reputation, I assume that breakdown cover must be thrown in along with all sorts of other sweeteners to prise the likely clientele out of their Germanic Minis.



For about £2,800 over the cost of the current poshest DS3 trim level, the DSport Plus, the Ultra Prestige adds lots of fine leather. There’s a strip of white hide artfully applied to the dashboard, and yards of former cow also swathe the doors and central armrest, and cover the seats in a chunky watch-bracelet pattern. The hide on the seats fades gently from dark at the base to light at the top, which is presumably attractive to people who frequent West End boutiques.

Two engine options are available – a 155bhp petrol model at £20,700 or a 110bhp diesel at £20,900. The latter will be handy for those who find they tend to blow their congestion charge cash on frocks and shoes. With a 99g/km CO2 rating courtesy of its stop-start engine, the DS3 e-HDi Ultra Prestige can swan in and out of Central London toll-free.

The slight snag with the diesel option being that I can’t imagine anyone who might feel inclined to buy the DS3 Ultra Prestige wanting to handle a dirty, smelly diesel pump nozzle. No doubt the somewhat less frugal 139g/km petrol edition will be the bigger seller.