THE little Citroen DS 3 will soon come under the company's new standalone DS marque as it tries to separate its more sporty and up-market cars from the rest of the range.

Don't really see the point myself, except for the emerging markets perhaps, because everyone in Europe will continue to call them Citroens. Old habits die hard.

The DS 5 has already had a major redesign, dropping the Citroen chevrons in favour of a new DS grill and I'll be writing about it in a few weeks.

But the DS3 still waits for its styling transformation, although that is unlikely to change anything major from the current cars in terms of suspension or drivetrain.

I recently had a blast of a week in the most powerful model - the THP DSport with no less than 160bhp under the bonnet and performance to beat the band.

It plastered a grin on my face every time I got behind the wheel and I came to the conclusion that it's a car I could easily live with full time.

That 1.6 turbo engine - now so much part of the Peugeot and Citroen line-ups - is a sweet, smooth gem, pulling hard from fairly low revs, and hitting the red line moments later.

But there's no need to use the revs most of the time, because it pulls so beautifully in the mid ranges that there is often enough urge for overtaking in higher gears.

The steering is taut and responsive, grip is fantastic and road holding brilliant. The whole car feels perfectly planted and wonderfully stable.

Even the ride is comfortable above town speeds, which is most unusual for a small hot hatch.

Equipment levels across the range are very good, with climate, stop-start, auto-folding electric mirrors, hip and back hugging sports seats, alloys, leather covered steering wheel, column stereo controls and a big infotainment screen.

The ignition key is unnecessarily big and bulky and takes up too much space in the pocket and although the boot is a fair size, rear legroom is negligible with a tall driver like me up front.