MY wife looked genuinely shocked as she peered out of the bedroom window at the white-roofed test car.

“Someone’s thrown black paint all over it,” she said, before realising that what she was looking at was a zebra stripe graphic.

Quite why someone would want to cover a perfectly good paint finish with sheets of carefully-cut material beats me, but ‘personalisation options’ are the name of the DS3’s game.

Long gone are the days when all small cars were bought by people simply as cheap and cheerful runabouts. No longer is it enough for a car to be durable and dependable, now it has to be desirable.

And that’s certainly the case with the DS3, which this month beat off competition from the likes of Bentley, Jaguar and Bugatti to take Top Gear magazine’s Car of the Year award.

The rise of so-called ‘premium’ superminis like our own Oxford-built Mini, the Fiat 500 and Alfa Romeo MiTo has produced a range of cars more at home on a couture catwalk than a city street.

Citroën has joined this glittering fashion parade with leather, chrome, dazzling paintwork and the latest gleaming automotive jewellery accessory, eye-catching strips of LED daylight running lights.

Citroën says by allowing you to specify exterior and interior colour combinations, materials, finishes, trims and equipment, you can design a bespoke car to suit yourself.

And what you will get, whatever colourful combination you choose, is a car that will get you noticed.

From the low-slung waistline, to the eye-catching shark’s fin-shaped B-pillar and the chrome trim sparkling on the door mirrors, door handles and side rubbing strips, this is a little dazzler.

With ‘diamond-tipped’ 17-inch alloy wheels and dark-tinted rear windows, the DS3 struts down the High Street like a high-heeled 20-year-old who’s ready to party.

There’s little let-up on the designer onslaught inside, where glowing needles spin around the dials, before returning to zero when the car is fired up. The top of the dashboard, complete with chrome-finished, integrated air-freshener, is finished with a soft-to-the-touch, tactile covering that contrasts with the lacquered effect of the dashboard strip.

The steering wheel is a small, sculpted, flat-bottomed, racing-style model, complete with chrome or aluminium inserts.

Cruise control with speed limiter is standard, and big-car extras range from automatic digital air-conditioning, rear parking sensors and automatic headlamps to widescreen colour satnav and eight-speaker hi-fi.

Enough of the fashionista flam, what’s it like to drive? It’s a little cracker. Like the brilliant new C3, this Citroën matches a quiet refined ride with a dynamic and thoroughly engaging drive.

With five seats, plenty of interior space, 60:40 split-folding rear seats and the biggest boot in the segment, it is also thoroughly practical. It’s safe too with a host of electronic safety systems, six airbags and a five-star Euro NCAP award for occupant protection.

Priced from below £12,000, the DS3 comes in three trim levels with a range of five engines – three petrol models co-developed with BMW and two modern diesels. The DS3 is available with a fixed price servicing offer, priced at £199, covering all recommended and scheduled servicing, and brake fluid replacement for up to three years/35,000 miles.

This is the first model in Citroën’s sassy new DS line, and there is much more to come, with the DS4 set to launch in 2011 and the DS5 in 2012.