Citroen DS3 at Frankfurt

 

We already knew that the Citroen DS3 would launch at Frankfurt, but Citroen has decided to release more detail today ahead of the official reveal.

The DS3 – a MINI competitor – is the first model in Citroen’s DS range, designed to be an upmarket range of cars based on their more prosaic ‘C’ siblings. We can expect to see the Citroen DS4 in 2011 and the bigger Citroen DS5 in 2012.

The DS3 is based on the new Citroen C3 – which will itself only be launched in November – and is slightly larger all round than the MINI. It has kept very close to the DS3 Concept we saw in Geneva, and as we revealed a few months ago, the Citroen DS3 Configurator shows just how much you can spec-up the little luxury Citroen.

Engines will consist of two diesels and three petrols. The 1.6 litre HDi lumps come in 90 or 110bhp flavours, and the petrols come as 95bhp, 120bhp or 150bhp. All come as standard with either a five or six speed manual box.

Citroen is making big play of the DS3’s interior space which, as it comes in a bit bigger than the MINI, is no surprise. Citroen reckons the DS3 will have proper space for five and have a boot capacity equal to the Fiesta but better than the rest in its class.

Details are still limited, but we’ll get you more as soon as we can.

Update: Citroen has now sent us a pile of decent size images you can see in the gallery below, and we’ve posted the Citroen DS3 Launch Press Release so you can read all the bumph.

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