Our motoring correspondent Brian McDaid shares his views on the Citreon Grand C4, and shares a few stories from his family’s 1950s road trip to Cork.
You can get a whole view of St. Eunan’s Cathedral into the 2016 Citroen Grand Picasso. Photo Brian McDaid
The Citroen Grand C4 is certainly large, I managed to get a whole St. Eunan’s Cathedral into it! Well… I got a view of the cathedral inside it, thanks to the massive windscreen in this award winning people carrier for 2016.
The windscreen reminds me of my receeding hair line… there is more forehead there now than hair. Sit behind the wheel and I don’t think you will find another more unobstructed view, even the pillars for the roof are very fine in size! The view out through the front of the Citroen makes the road ahead look impressive. The driver and front passengers seat are massive, complete with captain’s chair centre armrests. If there is such a thing as too comfortable they probably fall into the that category, as on couple of times sitting at junctions when I went to take off I stalled the car sitting in the wrong gear. Then in a panic I instantly reached for the key to restart the car only to remember it was a stop/start button! I think the ultimate Grand C4 Picasso would be the one with and automatic transmission for someone like me to really enjoy driving this.
Are we nearly there.. ARE WE NEARLY THERE?
The Grand C4 Picasso is a seven seater with the two rear seats folding down completely into the floor area with small solid mats that cover over everything to give the people carrier a dual purpose of being a great load carrier. With all seven seats up is a case of the first class travel for the passengers and the drive – the middle row of three seats have enough space for three enemies to live beside each other in some sort of harmony for the summer holiday road trip.
A view into the rear of the car. Photo Brin McDaid
Two of them will have their own fold down tables from the back of the front seats and the man in the middle will have to settle for the great view through that huge front window. Things are a bit tighter in the rear row of seats, and when them lovely little children find out who got what, it could spell war. Only one has a cup holder but the other has a power outlet, so it could be a case of power sharing for the back benchers for their journey.
Easy on the earth
If this people carrier is massive inside it doesn’t look that big outside. It’s lower to the road than its predecessor which give this car a more settled feel. You would expected it to be heavy on fuel but that is not the case.
The Exclusive model which we drove comes with the latest Eco Blue HDI 1.6 litre diesel engine. O-100km in just over 11 seconds, and a top speed of nearly 190 kilometres per hour and a 70 mpg claim just hits all the sweet spots for the perfect driver’s car.
Do we like it?
This people carrier is just lovely to drive, especially looking through that massive window, which also can be closed back if you don’t like it with two binds attached to the movable sun visors.
The blind spots that roof pillars cause on most people carriers are not a problem in this well-designed car. Because of the vastness of the front window, the position of the cars speakers away out in front of the driver makes the radio sound like a live concert.
For anyone that learned to drive in a rear-wheel drive car like myself, I found front-wheel drive cars were disappointing in the amount of a cut they had in their steering because of the transmission drives etc.
No such problem in this front-wheel drive, what a great cut the car’s steering has which just makes judgement when turning or parking so reassuring. Citroen have always produced different cars, ever since I seen the 1st GS arriving arriving into Letterkenny in the 1970’s.
They always looked as if the comfort of its passengers were paramount. The Citroen still look a little quirky and this car people carrier should keep the quirkiest of families happy.
Road trip 1950s
I came across an old photo of my granny while I was getting my column ready for the road this week. When my uncle arrived home one evening from work in the post office and announced he wanted to join the priesthood in the early 1950s his parents didn’t think he was cut out for it. A local priest, Fr. O’Callaghan, then reassured them that he
would make a good priest. And so his late vocation to the priesthood began in Cork with the Capuchin Order.
My Granny all ready for the road. She is pictured at the door of her family home “in the row” Ballymacool Terrace, Letterkenny as she prepares for the long journey to Cork in the I950’s to visit her son, Neilus (Fr. Mark) who was going for the priesthood. The photo was taken by her daughter , and my mother, Mary Ellen Coyle.
My granny is pictured at the front door of her home in Ballymacool Terrace in her Sunday best getting ready to go visit her son in Cork. On weekdays my grandfather who by now was retired from the Irish shell, started a clothes run with the costumers that he once sold oil to. His wine coloured Ford Van would be unloaded at the weekend and converted into a people carrier with pillows – the nearest thing to airbags. Mineral boxes doubled up as seating and cold boxes for sandwiches and bottles of cold tea.
My granny didn’t drive but they say she was the driving force, the driving was shared by my grandfather, Pop, his son-law Miah Deeney and his other sons Charlie and Johnny.
God knows how long it took them to reach Cork, but they made that journey manys a day in the eight years of so that their son Neilus was preparing for his vocation and was to take the name of Fr Mark. When he became a priest in the summer of 1958.
The Grand Picasso C4 pictured parked in Ballymacool Terrace in Letterkenny 60 years after granny’s picture near the same spot – although our people carrier is of a different era. Photo Brian McDaid
Made for Extra-Strong Boys (ESB)
A people carrier of a different kind was the hand made crew-carriers that the ESB had for their workers, these were made to measure trucks made in Donegal by Doherty’s Coachbuilders in Lyford. They made their trucks and pickups to suit the needs of the workers. The truck in the picture was made in 1968 on a Ford D Series chassis. Most were
designed to carry a crew of six workers.
A view of a ESB crew back in the 70’s. They are pictured in front of a Ford truck which was hand built By Doherty’s Coachworks, Lifford. included from left my father, the trick driver, Fred Mc Daid, Peter Marley, (Glen), Martin Scanlon, supervisor, Tom Mc Ginty, Manorcunningham, Jim McDaid, Ramleton and Shaunie Scanlon. Martin Scanlon’s son. Photo by Rodney Roulston
Included in this photo was the driver, my father, Fred McDaid, Peter Marley who was a labourer, Martin Scanlon who was the supervisor or charge hand, Tom Mc Ginty, Jim Mc Daid and Shaunie Scanlon all of who were linesmen. They are pictured in the waders , boiler suits and donkey jackets which was the standard clothing issue of the ESB in them days. Like my grandfather’s van this truck doubled up as our people carrier on the occasions when my father took the lorry home.
This truck KIH 459 was the first thing that this motoring correspondent ever test drove. It happened on a very quiet section of road in Glendowan. When I say drive, it was more a case of steer. The truck could crawl along and my father would slide over to the passenger’s seat and I would jump in from the crew cab from the rear. I might
have only steered this truck for a minute but it seemed like a life time. “Keep her over a bit”, my father would say as he checked the mirrors.
Years on I often head up that same mountain road every so often and look at the power lines and poles that were erected by that crews to supply electricity into that area for the first time. And think of some of the great times we had in a different world all them years ago.
Happy motoring folks.
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