THE advertising catchcry for Citroen`s C4 is "Alive with technology".

In Europe, a slick TV commercial featuring the C4 transforming into a dancing robot made of carparts is quite possibly the best car ad ever produced and was last year`s most downloaded ad from the internet.

And, locally, renowned car magazine Wheels has just given the little French number its Gold Award for Outstanding Automotive Design in its inaugural Wheels Automotive Design Awards (WADA).

The C4 arrived in Australia in sedan and coupe forms in April this year, opening at $25,990 for both the Citroen C4 hatchback and the Citroen C4 Coupe with the 1.6 litre engine and a manual gearbox.

The automatic version of the C4 hatchback is priced at $27,990. The range-topping hatch is powered by the 2.0-litre engine and has a recommended retail price of $33,990. The top C4 is Coupe VTS, with a wealth of standard equipment and the performance of a 130kW engine, it is priced at $36,990.

What a lovely little piece of engineering this car is. Not only does it drive magnificently (we tested an auto 103kW 2.0l hatch and the 130kW 2.0l VTS in manual), an unbelievable amount of thought gone into its design.

Take the scented air freshener, styled to match the dashboard design, for example.

Customers receive a kit with three fragrances (Vanilla, Mint and Musk, Ylang and Bamboo) on delivery of their car, with another six scents available.

Placed on the central air vent, the scented air freshener diffuses the fragrance selected through the air conditioning system. A knob lets the user switch the system off or adjust the quantity of perfumed air.

The Citroen C4 has not just got five stars for occupant safety in the EuroNCAP tests; it also has the highest ever score for saving the lives of pedestrians with innovative bonnet and bumper design. Even the windscreen wipers are designed to protect pedestrians.

While the VTS has the performance of a 130 kW engine, it also has a speed limiter that allows the driver to set the car not exceed speed limits, allow the driver to concentrate on the road and not the speedometer.

Standard on the Coupe VTS and an option on the 2.0 litre hatchback are steerable headlights allow the Citron C4 to literally look around corners at night.

It`s a little odd, to say the least, to have the headlights move when you turn the steering wheel, but it makes an amazing difference to visibility; after all, when you are turning a corner you are looking around it, not straight ahead, which is traditionally where headlights are pointing mid-corner.

Set to become an option later in the year, the innovative Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) warns drivers that they suffering from fatigue or distractions that are causing them to wander across highways.

Also coming later in the year is the C4 HDi. Powered by a 1.6-litre turbo diesel direct injection common rail engine, it has 80kW and a whopping 260Nm of torque. Unofficial figures have the fuel consumption at just 4.0l/100km on the highway.

The C4 comes with ABS with EBD and EBA, standard variable assistance power steering, power windows and mirrors, remote central locking, CD based audio system with automatic sound control, cruise control and speed limiter, air conditioning with climate control in the 2.0-litre versions and six airbags.

Another unique characteristic (at least in modern cars) is that the hub of the steering wheel is fixed, so the wheel moves around the outside of the fixed centre.

This was a feature of the original Citroen 4C back in late Twenties.

It makes more sense than trying to adjust the stereo volume with the steering wheel upside down and therefore the controls as well, but then again, should you really be playing with the volume when cornering anyway?

But I digress....

The only issue with this is that the horn is not in the centre of the hub, but a thin strip around the bottom edge of it instead.

I realised this to my horror when someone changed lanes at 110km/h without checking and nearly drove the Corbet family into the centre ditch.

What I was most perturbed about was that the other driver went on blissfully unaware that anything had even happened, rather than getting the horn and a "hey dopey, turn your head and look, that`s the main benefit of having a neck" ... or something vaguely familiar.

If only we could get the human engineering and thought on the same level as the C4.