Mercedes-Benz Citan (2013–2021)
What's good
It may be based on the Renault Kangoo van but the Citan is different enough to justify the Mercedes-Benz badge. Refinement is much better and noise levels lower. It's also better to drive.
109 CDI BlueEfficiency is impressively economical with an official figure of 65.7mpg and emissions of 112g/km. That's better than any other small van this size.
What's bad
The standard stereo looks like a cheap aftermarket unit and with its small button it's quite fiddly to use. We think a proper integrated Mercedes-Benz unit would look much neater.
The unusual handbrake is awkward to use and seems like a case of form over function. A standard handbrake would have been much better. Doesn't work well either.
Given the price, the interior lacks quality and design. A Transit Connect does it much better.
Only a three star Euro NCAP crash safety rating. It was retested in 2013 and awarded a four star rating with a 79% adult occupant safety rating, 81% for child safety, 56% for pedestrian safety and 70% for safety assist. These figures are for the Kombi version.
3500 Citan vans recalled by Daimler in Europe because of faulty airbags, shortly after the model scored only three out of five stars in a crash survey conducted by the Euro New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP).
Daimler recalled Citan vans built between September 2012 and May 2013 to check whether brake lines were incorrectly installed.
Real world tests by AIR Index found the Citan 109 Dualiner 1.5 diesel to emit almost nine times the official level of NOx. Air Index claims the Citan emitted 902 mg/km NOx, which was significantly higher than its 105 mg/km limit.
23-7-2017: MB issued a voluntary recall to apply software upgrades to diesel engines in a bid to cut nitrogen oxide emissions on three million vehicles. All Euro 5 and Euro 6 standard diesel engines registered in Europe between January 2011 and September 2015 are affected. (Only the new two-litre turbodiesel fitted to the latest E-Class saloon and a new V6 turbodiesel in the soon-to-be released S-Class are exempt.) A Mercedes-Benz spokesman said that the “software upgrade” would be carried out by dealerships when customers visited for a service or other maintenance work and would take around an hour to complete. MB “did not expect” the upgrade to have any effect on the performance of Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Many Mercedes-Benz diesel vehicles have already had the update applied after work to apply the changes to compact vehicles and the V-Class MPV got underway in March. It was reported in The Times in July that while Daimler, which manufactures Mercedes-Benz, had not been found to use the same type of software for cheating emissions tests discovered in Volkswagen vehicles in 2015, it is the subject of an investigation by the German authorities into the possible manipulation of exhaust controls in cars with diesel engines.
