In keeping with DS’s stated mission to be avant-garde, the DS 4’s style is partnered by plenty of tech. Available features include a more user-friendly form of head-up display, a night vision system and an all-digital dash with new infotainment system and gesture control. There are also autonomous drive features that include adaptive cruise control with the ability to stop and restart in traffic jams, semi-automatic overtaking, speed adjustment for corners and a system that continually checks that the driver is awake.
Another DS priority is quietness and ride comfort, so expect plenty of what the firm calls “dynamic serenity” (rather than sporting dynamism, perhaps). Making sure those 20-inch wheels don’t destroy the calm is an active system of cameras that scans the road ahead in order to adapt the damping and get each wheel to smooth out the bumps.
And the cabin itself? DS describes it as calm and uncluttered and it appears that way, with an openness to it and with the hi-tech stiff largely hidden away – even the air vents are invisible. There are touch screens, ambient lighting and an air purifier. For trim and materials, think very DS things like Nappa leather, Alcantara, Clous de Paris guilloche, ash wood and watchstrap-pattern upholstery – in the best versions at least. It’s all in keeping with what DS likes to think of as a hand-crated interior (it obviously isn’t).