The new Citroen C4 2.0 My father, owner of a couple of Citroens in recent times, was quick to offer a positive opinion on the styling of the C4. "It looks rather like a Ford Focus," he said.

That is probably no bad thing when you are hustling for a slice of the car market dominated by Ford's best-selling hatchback.

But it's not just the exterior styling which moves the C4 into a position to go head-to-head with well-built, neatly styled and competent competitors such as the Focus, Volkswagen Golf, Vauxhall Astra and Renault Mgane.

This is simply the best-constructed, neatest handling modern Citroen yet, wearing one of the French car maker's most stylish exteriors, which cloaks a shed-load of technology.

Not that you would guess that from the clean-cut dashboard, which is startlingly free of buttons. It is only when you sit behind the wheel that you realise where all the controls have gone.

The steering wheel is unusual in that while the rim spins, the centre hub stays fixed, with an array of no fewer than 13 buttons and four roller-wheel controls, allowing fingertip control of everything from hi-fi and cruise control to speed limiter and on-board computer.

The quiet riding, six-airbag C4 also offers plenty of other useful features, such as automatic illumination of the headlamps, rain-sensitive automatic windscreen wipers, a tyre pressure detector, and is the first in the sector to offer a Lane Departure Warning System, which warns if the car is drifting across lanes.

Prices range from just over £11,000 for the three-door 1.4i 16V VT up to £18,395 for the top-of-the-range five-door 2.0HDi Exclusive.

The test model, the 138 horsepower range-topper, was remarkably refined and bulged with high-tech toys from front and rear sensors to directional headlamps, which operate on both dipped and main beam settings, swivelling the headlamps in tune with the steering wheel to significantly improve the field of vision at night.

In short, the C4 is an impressive mix of styling, build quality, technology and safety that is certain to ensure the French car maker cuts a slice of a sector that accounts for roughly one in three of all new cars sold.