Ds4 eta 2024-12

General Discussion Introduce Yourself
1

Hi.
First time DS4 “owner” (company lease car).
Background - 42 years old Male, living in the countryside of the Swedish capital Stockholm.
Always loved driving and loved being in cars, my earliest memories is from when car travelling with my family :slight_smile:
I’ve been working as a delivery guy (own company), drove taxi for a while, worked as a field technician etc. Always been working from a car until a few years ago when I started working at the company office.
Been driving roughly between 4-100000km a year for the last 22 years in everything from Mercedes, Volvo, VAG, family cars, vans etc. But never owned or driven a french car for a longer period of time.
I’ve never really liked the feeling or looks of them.
I’m coming from a Volvo V60CC 2020, before that a Skoda Superb L&K 4x4 DSG6, and before that and still our private car a XC70 D4 MY15 (the old glorious straight 5).

Upon the end of my current lease I looked at SOOO many different cars, from Kia EV6 to Tesla, BMW, Mercs and everything in between.
To be totally honest, none of these cars had (for me) the combined quality’s that are important to me!
First criteria is a silent cabin - even the new Mercs are quite loud in the cabin, Audi A6 was really quiet. The Kias (also tried Sportage) was really loud.
Second criteria - A comfortable seat, I’m yet to find a car with as comfortable seats as the Volvos (The Superb i had for three years was one of the worst).
Third Criteria - A plush ride while still keeping control of the wheels, none of the cars that I rode had a plush ride, everything is about trying to be sporty.
Fourth criteria - A decent stereo, I’m not looking for a stereo that makes the neighborhood wake up at night, I’m looking for a more natural sound, closest reference is the sound that Sennheiser produces in their headphones, a little emphasis of the bass, airy mids and highs and some midbass. All systems I’ve listened to (Kias was worst closely followed by Skoda Canton), either has only bass and treble or sounds flat and lacking dynamics. I’m the person that rather listen to Volvos High Performance than the H/K system because the H/K sounds so overly processed.
Other criterias - Towing weight+1500kg, ventilated leather, Android auto, electric seats, heating of the cabin, heated steering wheel and last but not least - my two dogs (Golden retriever and French bulldog) must fit in the luggage.

Almost giving up I took a test drive in the C5X and found that I actually liked that car a lot! But - talking to the sales guy and finding out that he had no clue whatsoever of what he was selling made me walk out the door. Existing the building a remembered seeing a DS dealership close by where I was.
Jumped into my trusty V60CC and headed to the dealership.
Walked into the dealership and laid my eyes on the DS4 - I was hooked! :slight_smile: Took me a while to take the whole thing in, I really liked the esthetics of the car, sat in the driver’s seat and found it to be really comfortable. Talked to the sales guy (he was only a temp and sells delivery vans on a daily basis), he didnt know much but he wasn’t afraid of letting me know about his shortcomings, he also offered me to get back to me as soon he had collected all the requested information - really good customer service!
Took the demo they had for a spin - 2023 DS4 E-tense Executive. First thing that caught me was the way it handled the road, nice and soft without being an old American car. Second was how quiet the cabin was, third the steering, not at all as artificial as in many other cars. Then I connected my phone and tried the stereo (Focal), I couldn’t believe my ears, it sounded really really good! While travelling on the freeway, listening to some old high quality recordings I found the massage function :slight_smile: What a great feature, especially compared to VAGs rolling lumbar support!
This car really ticked all the boxes for me, even the head up display was really nice and easy to get used to. But could it be better!? What about the DS active suspension, would it make the ride even better? Actually I still don’t know if it makes a difference, but within a short period of time I’ll know :slight_smile:
Arranged a two day loan of the demo car so that my wife could approve to my new love, also to see if the dogs would fit. I got an approval and my dogs did fit even if they looked a little bit cramped compared to the V60CC.
Next day I placed an order for a DS4 E-tense Executive with the addition of the active suspension.
Delivery will take place (hopefully) in the beginning of December.
I don’t know if we have the same specs all over Europe? I see a lot of Tivoli, Tivoli and other weird specs, in Sweden we only had standard and executive, I think opera also exist now, it didn’t when I place the order.
Anyway - Executive contains amongst other things - Heated and ventilated electric seats with massage, HUD, Navigation, HiFi (focal stereo), ambient lighting in the cabin, heated steering wheel, DS drive assist something, Adaptive cruise, towbar, two tone paint, Black roof and in my case some white pearl something paint.
I really hope that this car will be everything that I’ve looked for, also hope that the quality is on par with my Volvo = no major faults over 130 000km.

That was my presentation :slight_smile:

1 Like
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I’m sure You will be satisfied with the car.

I own 2022 DS4 180HP Performance Line+ and I was with my family for a vacation in July this year in Stokholm.

I think I saw DS dealership near the road from Sudertalje (sorry if I wrote it wrong) to Stokholm and even my son saw one DS4 on the other side of the road :slight_smile:

Beautiful country, especially the road from Kopenhagen to Stokholm trough Jonkoping.

I don’t have active suspension, Focal and electric seats - unfortunately, electronic components shortages in years 2021/2022 but beside that, car is great and has everything that I need.
I was so amazed by the car that I took what was on the stock in june of 2022, because my order from october of 2021 couldn’t be realized till may of 2022.
I’ve order 130HP 1.2 Pure Tech and I have to say that 1.6 180HP is so much better in terms of power and potential problems with 1.2 Pure Tech engine which are well known in other Stellantis cars.

Yours will be even quieter than my because with Focal You have double acoustic windows in front and rear doors which I don’t have, still, the drive is smooth and quiet.

Car is really lovely in day to day usage and my wife likes it very much.

Soon I will upgrade the audio system with Morel/Audison/Focal elements (other topic on this forum) so audio quality will be also improved in compare to stock audio.

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Hi.
Nice to hear that you’re satisfied with the car! Sweden can absolutely be quite beautiful, the scenery around Jönköping is amazing!
Södertälje is absolutely correct, I believe that you saw the dealership in Sätra, right after Kungens Kurva (Kings curve, got its name from our former king, the road turned but our king decided to go straight ahead :slight_smile: )

I’ve read all of your posts about the morel speaker upgrade from standard. It’s really nice of you to share both thoughts and information about how and why. Will be interesting to get your thoughts after the upgrade.
In my opinion the Focal system sounds far better than Volvos H/K system, only listened a short while on the B&W system but I was less impressed by that than of the Focal.

I haven’t driven any DS4 without laminated glass, but both of my Volvos has laminated all around. Makes a huge difference when driving, especially the noise/sound from cars passing or getting passed by you is better dampened with the laminated windows. Also wind noise from rear view mirrors is non existing in my cars compared to V60 and XC70 without laminated glass.

There’s two things I’m really curious about.

  1. In comfort mode, how will the hybrid drivetrain work? All gasoline, electric until it runs out, or will it use both after demand.
  2. Does the active scan suspension only work in comfort mode? That’s how I’ve understood it reading through all material I’ve found. If it’s like that it’s kind of a weird decision by Stellantis for the hybrid anyway…

Really excited and can’t wait to get my hands on the new car :slight_smile:

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Yup that was that, I remember that sign to Kungens Kurva :slight_smile:

Well I can’t tell how hybrid works since my is pure petrol (without hybrid) and also mine doesn’t have active suspension but as far as I know from reviews it works all the time in every mode the difference is how the fluid is “controlled” by the valve which is connected to shock absorber and that affects the suspension stiffness.

About the car, love with for what it can do, don’t hate it for what it can’t do :slight_smile:

The trunk capacity sometimes lacks (mine has 420L since it’s not a hybrid, Your will have 390L) but we’ve managed to pack everything for our 2 week trip with daughter and son from Poland, trough Denmark and Sweden.

Space in the back is enough for people to around 180/182cm height, above that they will be lacking room for knees.

Overall great car, with GREAT interior quality (especially in performance line+ with alcantara - in my opinion) for the price and the head-up with map on it rocks!

About the disadvantages that I’ve noticed:

  • Parking sensors has too slow polling, in mean they update the state much slowly than VW AG cars so You have to park slowly;
  • Car doesn’t have emergency brake while manouvering at the parking lot at low speeds (below 6km/h) so if You lost Your concentration it’s easy to hit something;
  • I don’t trust active brake system. Sometimes it gives info “BRAKE!” when it detects an obstacle but after 49700km I really don’t believe that it would stop in time if I wouldn’t notice the obstacle/deer or something like that;
  • Smart touch (that screen near the armrest) looks great but I’d prefer if it worked like in the new 308. Sometimes I’d like to turn the panoramic camera quickly while parking and it takes a while till it reacts for the touch and then You have to swipe into one of six shortcuts. Maybe it’s not that big of a deal but that screen could be utilized better, especially since it’s a normal LCD/IPS and it’s NOT monochromatic;
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It makes a lot more sense that the active suspension is active all the time as you wrote. Maybe it’s just most noticeable when in comfort mode. I really hope it’s better than VAGs lower end DCC as I had in my Superb. The DCC didn’t have the active scan part but was supposed to close or opening the valves according to current driving situation. In that car the standard suspension was a lot better with more control of the wheels.

Slow polling from the sensors is ok, at least compared to VAG that in my world is overly sensitive, almost aggressive. If it’s comparable to my Volvo or even if a little slower its all ok.

I don’t have the auto brake system in my current volvo either, when I ordered my volvo I actively didn’t choose any “smart” driving aids as I don’t want to put my trust in a computer :slight_smile: With the DS I had no choice, everything was included. According to my sales guy the driver assist systems is possible to turn off by one or two clicks on the steering wheel buttons.

Trunk space is a little bit limiting, also towing weight will be a lot less then I have now. But it’s something that I’ve taken into consideration.
95% of my driving I do by my self without any passengers or load. The few occasions where more is needed I’ll use the XC70 instead. But - compared to most smaller hybrids 1500kg towing weight is really good. Our caravan weights 1900kg and I really don’t think it’s a good idea to tow it with a petrol hybrid anyway :slight_smile:

Hmm, haven’t seen how the little screen is implemented in the 308. Never gave the screen much thought as it looks like a “design gimmick”. But now you are saying that it’s actually usable?
When using the navigation, is it possible to use that little screen to write letters on? If so - is it working good or does it have a hard time “understanding” input?

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About the smart screen - writing letters in navigation is possible however it’s much simpler and easier to just write it using on screen keyboard. In navigation I use it for zoom-in/zoom-out feature since navigation is on the head-up, on the infotainment I have “bird like” map from up above with north facing top of the screen to have overall view where I am comparing to the whole trip;

Touch screen gives You option to set 6 shortcuts to functions like calling a contact from phone book, panoramic camera, heating/cooling of seats of heating of the steering wheel. Generally You may set there many shortcuts but to specific car functions but there are plenty to choose from so this function is OK but when You want to use that screen, first hold and swipe to desired shortcut get’s thing a bit laggy (it takes time) but the functionality is there and we have 1 more shortcut comparing to 308 :slight_smile:

Safety functions can be turned off by ADAS button on the dash (button with car on it) but they enable automatically on every start of the car so disabling them every time may be annoying.

Personally I would set their sensitivity to minimum and it’s like they’re not there - at least the front assist system.

Other options don’t have sensitivity.

Another option that was introduced in new updates was that You may assing which systems do You want to turn off by holding the ADAS button for around 5 seconds and You may in that way disable everything if You like :slight_smile:

You’ll figure it out.

About VAG / AG DCC – I also like more comfort than stiffness so lowered by default DCC suspension is also a disadvantage for me.

7

Got a test ride in my colleagues new Cupra Formentor 245 PHEV yesterday which gave me some new thoughts about the DS.
For Shure there’s two different animals, the Formentor and DS4, totally different experience :slight_smile:
The Formentor was s fun drive, not overly harsh except when hitting potholes which made a loud “crash” in the car (big difference compared to my V60CC). I hope the DS4 handles potholes s little more subtle.
But - In the DS4, is it possible to lower the brightness of the screens, cockpit etc to a level where it doesn’t interfere with your “night” vision? The Formentor was way to bright, almost a little bit blindingly when driving in the dark.
There was quite a lot of torque steer in the Formentor, also it didn’t align well with the wheeltracks (don’t know the English word for it), the two tracks where most people drive, where the asphalt is a little bit lower than the rest of the surface, this caused some serious tracking issues - how does the DS4 behave on the road? I’ll be running 19" 215 width.
In the Formentor there’s almost no buttons, everything needs to be handled via the touchscreen. In this regard I really think that the DS4 is more well thought through.

8

Torque steering is noticeable when there is too much power on the front wheels.

I think that If you “floor it” it may also loose traction due to lack of grip on the tires however I haven’t noticed it in my 180hp 1.6 petrol but I can’t tell You how it’s going to be on PHEV since You may get “at start” a lot of torque from electric motor.

My car has 205/55 R19 tires.

My brother has Peugeot 308 225 PHEV but he has 225R18 tires and he is not complaining on torque steering issue.

About other thing that You wrote – road-rut or wheel-rut that’s how it’s called in English I believe, I haven’t noticed it however roads get better and better around me so I haven’t driven that kid of road for a long time, however You should always drive not IN the rut but NEXT to it. I think that if You get over the rut and fall into it – which is going to happen eventually – every car will start to “drive its way” a little bit but it’s manageable if You don’t fall into it with too much speed.

Potholes happen and it drives over them smoothly even with my basic suspension, there are no worrying noises etc.

About the screen brightness, it’s very easily accessible, You may drop down the notification area from the top of the infotainment screen and there is dedicated brightness button. If You click it, two sliders with brightness settings appear, one for the infotainment screen and main cluster and the second one for the head-up display so it’s very easily adjustable depending on the conditions.

You may also disable the head-up display with one click by dropping down the same notification area from top of the screen.

I’m personally very often putting the brightness down to minimum while driving at night so it won’t glare my.

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When deciding for the DS4 I had many hours of internal dialogue about going from AWD and studded tires to front wheel drive and friction tires :slight_smile:
I think it will be fine, but in the beginning I will surely be a little bit frustrated :rofl:

I remembered tire width incorrectly, 205 on mine to.
Yeah “road rut” sounds correct. I’m well aware of not driving into the ruts :slight_smile: I’ll try to explain what I experienced - V60CC has no tendency at all to be affected by the ruts, it’s really easy to keep the wheels on either left or right side of the ruts.
The formentor felt like it actively tried to get into the ruts which required frequent contra steering to not end up in the ruts. Nervous behaviour, I believe that the formentors 245 tire width has a big role in this also.

Sounds reassuring that you don’t have any issues with potholes!

Good to hear that dimming is both possible and easily accessible! One follow up question on that - Does it automatically lower the brightness when it changes from DRL to dipped beam?

10

Yes it does, there is separate brightness for DRL and main beams and depending on light conditions like tunnel or dark areas it dims automatically - headup also.

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Hej Fredrik!,

I have a very similar car to yours; E-Tense Rivoli, same colours by the sound of it too. I’m really happy with it too for the same reasons as you. I had an original Citroen DS5 before that which I also loved although it had well-documented drawbacks. Unlike you I’m a low mileage driver, probably 90% of my journeys are around the city, but we do go on holiday by car on quite long runs, in recent years to the Baltic coast, so a hybrid suits me, and I’m quite interested in the consumption and battery life. I got mine in Christmas last year, and by the summer I was able to squeeze out 50kms around town on a single battery charge but that is starting to drop now as winter approaches. On longer motorway runs I get between 5.5-6.2 l/100;That’s a bit better than the DS5, and should improve as the car gets some mileage done.
The other thing I’d mention is that it’s very quick, and I often don’t notice. I’m not a fast driver and stick to the limits but driving north on holiday on the autobahn, a camera flashed me and I saw that I was on 143km/h in a 120km/h zone, and sure enough a few weeks later I got a nice holiday souvenir in the post, complete with foto :grinning:
Overall on holiday on the autobahn we really appreciated the quiet cabin (and efficient aircon when it was 35c outside). It’s a car that creates a calm environment, and of course it is really lovely inside - that’s the big DS brand thing which compares well with the Germans and Skoda. I tend not to use Drive Assist much so far, I just stick with adaptive cruise control. I haven’t really got anything out of that touch screen thing, and I’m not sure I’m going to bother. Seems like bad tech gimmick to me. But everything else works very well - people say that when I call on cellphone from the car it is not obvious I am driving, so that’s praiseworthy too.
I see neither of you have mentioned the DS app…oh my, what a useless pile of junk that is. Apparently it’s a Stellantis cross-platform job, and loads of Peugeot drivers complain of the same thing. The Czech DS people are embarrassed aboit it but they were just not getting any help for me from “Paris”, so I’ve given up, for now. Sooner or later they’ll have to fix it. I’m due a recall for software upgrade (takes 5 hours apparently) so that may be the fix it needs.
Otherwise, it’s a wonderful car, and everyone who has seen/been in it, agrees.

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Agree :slight_smile:
About the app - I’m using it only to check if there is some service recall for the car, besides that it’s useless.

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@PragueAddick - Hi, nice to hear that you’re satisfied with the car.
Do you have the updated E-tense or the one before update? I believe they made some optimizing to squeeze a few extra km out of the test cycle :slight_smile: In real world driving I guess there’s no big difference…
But - to achieve sub 0,6 consumption on a motorway journey is fantastic for a petrol (hybrid)! That’s almost on par with my diesel.

Really good to hear that you perceive it as quiet even on motorway - that is something really important for me! Call quality is something that I didn’t think about, I should have thought about it as I do a lot of phone calls when driving.

The app, I figured that the app might be useless, a real shame! Volvos app has worked almost flawlessly over the last three years. Of course there’s been moments or some days that it didn’t work properly.
Skodas app wasn’t something to be proud of either, never really worked. It still seems like VAG sub brands have difficulties with their apps. My colleagues Formentor app doesn’t work at all…

What parts of the app doesn’t work for you guys?

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It doesnt update trips so the car doesnt know where it is on the map and no service info is added to electronical service book after visiting my dealer every 20000km.

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Yes, I have the same complaint as @AvatarPL re the supposed "find my car"feature. A mate who has a Mini says that feature works perfectly. It should on the DS, because once, just once, it did. In an IKEA car -park, and it really helped me find my car again. Mainly it tells me where the car was before the most recent journey, which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. :wink:
It often misses records of individual journeys so it’s useless for tracking your fuel/battery consumption over a given period of time.
It is supposed to offer you the ability to pre-heat or pre-cool your car before a journey (useful in Scandi, I’d imagine), but so far it only offers me an option to pre-set it for the same time each day. Well I don’t need it every day, and certainly not at the same time.
It is supposed to show you the progress of the charging. I generally find it shows me 0% and “in progress”, and then suddenly 100%, it’s done.
It failed to tell me anything about the major software update.
The one thing it does seem to do well, is pre-programme an address for your journey into the SatNav. so you are ready to go.
Really for a “premium” brand, it ought to be an embarrassment but they don’t seem to care, in Paris HQ.

As for the up-date, well that’s an interesting question. My car was built around this time last year and I took delivery just before Christmas. When I took it for wheel-change last week they told me there was a “recall”. (the app, of course, did not tell me). Apparently it’s a major software update which takes 5 hours to install, and it was announced back in May. So I wonder if it’s the same update you are referring to? I’m going to get it done in January with the first service.

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After these two post I read through a lot of reviews about the app. It seems like some people has almost fully functional apps, others have apps that doesn’t work at all…
This will be interesting, I use my Volvo app daily, especially now when winter is coming - never cared for setting a timer for the heating as I’m sometimes a slow starter in the morning and sometimes a little bit faster.

Are you guys using Android or Apple? Could it be bad network coverage (for the car)? Shitty carrier in you countries?
When I travel to Finland I have big problems with the network. Our Swedish carrier roams via the cheapest carrier in Finland= bad to almost non existent 3G/4G network connection…

17

As far as I have noticed, without etense application is using only Bluetooth connection not the 4G which I really dont understand.
Many problems comes from this solution.
Position of the car in app isnt fixed by the car but by the Phone app when it dusconnects from the car however 80% of the time it doesnt work so if You want to use it, You have to set it manually in the app.
Im using Android.

18

Sounds like a really bad solution to let the phone set positioning. It opens up for a load of non car related errors.
For me the positioning wont matter as i wont use it.
But the “start climating now” function just have to work! I`ve gotten used to it over the last 10 years not having to remove ice from the windows…
Will see - I hope I will be one of the few that doesnt experience any problems :slight_smile:

19

Now I discovered that I wrote 2024-12 as ETA, should have been 2023-12 :rofl:
Sadly I just got news about my car being postponed due to lack of components for the Active Scan Suspension.
Now maybe and hopefully I’ll get deliver late January 2024.
I was offered a discount on an identical car without the Active Scan, I rejected the offer as part of the reason going for a DS4 is the Active Scan Suspension.
I haven’t driven a car with that suspension so I don’t know what difference it makes. But I’m stubborn in that way, if I’ve ordered a car with that option I want a car with that ootion :slight_smile:
They have offered me a loaner car that is equal to the DS4 for the prolonged waiting time.
A really good dealership and sales guy!

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Agree, it doesn’t happen to often to get a loaner car for extended period of waiting time