Item: Citroen C5 Aircross
Rating: 3.5
Author: Simon Davis

22 February 2019

Citroën has taken longer than most of its European rivals, but it has finally got what you might loosely call a range of family-friendly proprietary SUVs into showrooms on this continent.

Having launched its Aircross SUV sub-brand with the Mitsubishi-based C4 Aircross in 2011 (a car that never made it to the UK market) and then developed it with the pillarless, coach-doored Aircross concept car of 2015, Citroën followed up with the smaller C3 Aircross in 2017. And it has just partnered that supermini-sized crossover with this week’s test subject; and so, having been in production in China for more than a year now, the new C5 Aircross – a 4.5m-long five-seat SUV rival to the Volkswagen Tiguan and Mazda CX-5 – finally arrives in Citroën’s all-important home market, and in ours.

Citroën needs to return to fitting big Airbumps. On the original C4 Cactus, these cladding elements formed an integral part of that car’s style. Now they look a bit apologetic
Simon Davis
Road tester

The days of SUV experimentation, then – of spinning double-chevron-badged derivatives off borrowed Mitsubishi platforms – are clearly over for Citroën. Now’s the time to find out what a fully formed, family-sized Citroën SUV, designed from a clean sheet and based on the firm’s own platform architecture, can do differently from the class norm. ‘Different’ is, after all, what we’ve been led to expect from the Citroën brand by its various debutants of the past few years.

And while this car is a sibling to the Peugeot 3008, that doesn’t mean it can’t be different. With both comfort and practicality hailed to be at the core of its strengths, the C5 Aircross innovates from its seat design to its suspension specification; and, with a boot that’s almost 600 litres at its smallest and fully removable individual back seats, it should certainly be practical, too.

With three- and four-cylinder petrol engines and a pair of four-cylinder diesels on offer for now, and a plug-in hybrid derivative set to join the range in 2020, we have elected to test a range-topping BlueHDi 180 Flair+ diesel.

Verdict

Citroen C5 Aircross 2019 road test review - hero front

Model tested:

Rating: 7

Citroen C5 Aircross

Good

Funky interior design

Solid interior material choices

Underlying ride compliance

Bad

Ergonomic foibles.

Snatchiness at the end of the brakes’ travel

Not as relaxing to drive as Citroën would like us to think

DESIGN & STYLING

Citroen C5 Aircross 2019 road test review - hero side

The C5 Aircross cuts an unmistakable figure on the road, with its high bonnet line and sweeping grille, plus a headlight treatment that somehow captures the aesthetic of the Starship Enterprise.

There is nothing exceptional about its architecture. It uses the same EMP2 platform as – and therefore possesses very similar dimensions to – its PSA Group cousins, the DS 7 Crossback, Vauxhall Grandland X and Peugeot 3008.

As with the smaller C3 Aircross, the C5 Aircross’s light signature is made up of two elements. A narrow daytime running light sits atop a main headlight unit, which uses a halogen bulb
Richard Lane
Deputy road test editor

A choice of six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic gearbox are available to be mated to the transversely mounted three- and four-cylinder petrol and two diesels engines, although all models use a MacPherson-strut suspension setup at the front axle, with a torsion beam attached via trailing arms at the back. The big development for the car’s rolling chassis is Citroën’s new Progressive Hydraulic Cushions suspension, which aspires to do for the C5 Aircross something not unlike what Paul Magès’s hydropneumatic technology did for the original DS of 1955.

Truly superlative ride quality is absent from any rival C-segment SUV, says Citroën, to which end it has developed struts for the C5 Aircross, each with a pair of hydraulic bumpstops (one for compression and another for rebound) that replace traditional rubber ones. Rather than absorbing energy from the road and then partially returning it, they are able to dissipate it entirely.

The result, so the claim goes, is the freedom to tune the suspension more softly, as well as the manifestation of much less discernible rebound in the car’s ride and something of a ‘magic carpet’ feel.

With no four-wheel-drive model yet offered, Citroën’s familiar Grip Control electronic traction management is optionally available to lend the C5 Aircross at least a little rough-road readiness to go with a ground clearance of 230mm.

Designed to work with 19in wheels shod with mud and snow tyres, the Grip Control option takes the form of an additional layer of anti-skid software beyond the car’s standard ESP and works through modes including those for driving on sand and snow. In addition, the new Aircross features hill descent control and the latest raft of the PSA Group’s drive assistance technologies, including active emergency braking, active lane keeping and adaptive cruise control.

Later in its life, the C5 Aircross will become the first Citroën to feature a plug-in hybrid powertrain – comprising a petrol engine and two electric motors – with a zero-emissions range of just under 40 miles. Our test car is rather more traditional, and equipped with Citroën’s 1997cc BlueHDi engine – the most powerful turbocharged diesel offered. It develops 174bhp and 295lb ft and returns 47.1mpg combined on the WLTP test.

INTERIOR

Citroen C5 Aircross 2019 road test review - cabin

If you’re looking for an allegory for the C5 Aircoss, consider this: if you nudge the windscreen wiper stalk down for a one-flick wipe of the screen, you also activate – or deactivate, if they were on – the automatic wipers. So to give the windscreen a one-flick wipe but revert to the original automatic wiper state, you must push the stalk twice.

Similarly, want to turn up the temperature gauge by a degree while the bold, attractively designed central touchscreen is showing, say, the media or navigation? It’ll be four presses in different places before you’re back to where you started.

Cabin is decidedly monochrome. Standard-fit Advanced Comfort seats are indeed comfortable, but electronic adjustment of the passenger seat would be nice
Matt Prior
Editor-at-large

The Aircross’s infotainment system is what happens when you put an overdependence on touchscreens, even though there is a supplementary set of shortcut buttons beneath the 8.0in screen, and a row of real buttons below that on the dashboard, plus another couple on the centre console.

Given those supplements, you’d think it would be possible to contrive an easily navigable set of functions, but alas no. As a rule, Citroën’s menus are more complex to fumble around than, say, Volvo’s all-touch version, or our regular benchmark, BMW’s i-Drive. All you’d want – DAB radio, navigation, personalisable 12in instruments and so on – are present but the system is slow to respond, and if you’ve selected reverse to bring up cameras, it’s then impossible to bring up another screen until you’ve driven off forwards. And to put the temperature control in one of these menus is unforgivable.

Ultimately, what you’ll likely end up doing is finding a temperature that just about works and putting up with it, and mirroring your phone for everything else.

The C5 Aircross’s cabin, then, isn’t exactly a paragon of ergonomic excellence, which is a shame because there’s a lot about this interior that’s easy to like.

The seats are well positioned and comfortable, if flattish, and there are well-spaced pedals and a nicely aligned, small wheel. You get plenty of space in the front and three individual sliding and folding chairs in the rear, in front of a big boot.

Funky trims abound and material quality feels strong, too. Plenty of different surface finishes make it feel a busy interior, but for the driver, they’re soft under your arms, soft on the dash top and squidgy on the door tops, and the doors have metal handles. The buttons on the steering wheel are superior in feel, we’d say, to the latest output from Mercedes, although the cruise control stalk is as hidden and unfathomable and flimsy as ever, and right-hand-drive cars get only half a glovebox.

As a driving environment, then, it’s a conflicted place: at once frustrating yet also accommodating and pleasing, a theme that extends as far as the digital instrument binnacle. The big speedo is supplemented by a retro horizontal one that scrolls along the top of the display. Yet even if you put the customisable panel into ‘dials’ mode, the rev counter remains a tiny, undecipherable line that gives you only a vague idea of the engine speed. Which suggests that, if you’re interested in driving, the C5 Aircross might not be for you. So let’s see.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Citroen C5 Aircross 2019 road test review - engine

The straight-line performance of our test car was mostly in line with the claims. A 0-60mph time of 9.0sec falls about half a second behind the official take, but given that we test two-up, full of fuel and, this time, on a cold and low-traction morning, it’s not far from where you’d expect a tall, automatic 174bhp SUV to be; with the eight-speed auto seemingly hooking up quickly and shuffling through shifts briskly and effectively.

This 2.0 diesel engine is a quiet unit most of the time. At idle, lower speeds and cruising, you’ll not hear it often, although when accelerating gently, it becomes audible, and if you work it harder, there’s a notable and slightly irritating, albeit muted, top-end clatter. Step-off is smooth, though, and shifts on part-throttle are pretty much undetectable.

Torquey diesel engine was plenty capable of providing enough grunt to haul the C5 Aircross’s 1540kg mass uphill
Simon Davis
Road tester

You can take control of the gearshifts yourself via the column-mounted paddles, although it’s hard to imagine owners will particularly often. Ditto the variable drive modes. Push the Eco button on the centre console and responses get a bit treacly, and if you just adjust your accelerative style, you can achieve the same results.

Push the Sport button and you’d really have to be pressing on to appreciate the willingness of the gearbox to kick down and hold a lower gear; more so, again, than we can imagine any buyer being particularly inclined to. No, normal mode is where it defaults, where it’s at its best and where, we suspect, it’ll stay.

Braking performance is good and there’s decent feel through the pedal when you’re moving. Coming to a graceful halt, though, is another matter. As you’re decelerating to a stop and creeping gently towards rest, control of the deceleration is taken away from you over the last mph or two and the C5 snatches to a halt. Perhaps it’s the gearbox operation or perhaps the stop/start (certainly, it’s a touch better without that engaged) but it doesn’t seem to be an overzealous electronic park brake.

Either way, there’s no evident way to drive around it and, for a car whose drivetrain is otherwise mooching personified, it is exceptionally irritating.

RIDE & HANDLING

Citroen C5 Aircross 2019 road test review - cornering front

Much has been made of Citroën’s widely heralded Progressive Hydraulic Cushions, fitted here, but, as on the C4 Cactus, if you’re expecting a softness of ride quality that makes you think time has turned back 40 years, you’ll be disappointed.

What they do, though, is give the C5 Aircross a pliancy that’s missing from most of today’s rivals, although given our test car rode on 55-profile tyres, you’d have hoped that the generous sidewall would give it some anyway.

It rides with pliancy, but it’s not a ‘magic carpet’ - and the softness of the suspension means you’ll strive to be measured with your braking, steering and throttle inputs
Richard Lane
Deputy road test editor

Bump absorption is good, though, and there’s never any harshness regardless of what surface you’re cruising over. There’s a touch of road noise at speed but the moochability, the ease with which an Aircross goes about daily driving, is generally good.

Allied to that is a reasonable amount of lean, which is unsurprising – the point of the hydraulic bump-stops is that Citroën can soften the meat of the ride because there isn’t a harsh end to its travels – and, as a result, it pays to be smooth with the controls. Be harsh with the steering, brakes or throttle and you can get out of phase with the ride, so the Aircross is very much a car that’s best with measured inputs.

The steering is light. Perhaps it’s overly light, and although it firms up with a press of the Sport button, that only ever adds some extra faux weight. There’s nothing here that strikes you as genuine road feel or feedback. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in itself. Most cars of this type have only an approximation of road feel, and it’s accurate enough. But if it’s going to be remote, then a more consistent weighting and a freedom from steering corruption would be nice alongside it.

Instead, the first bit of wheel travel evokes nothing, and then there’s an over-quick response that, combined with the suspension’s softness, makes this car harder to drive smoothly than you’d hope. And if you’re on a moderate throttle or more, while there’s nothing you’d clearly define as torque steer, there’s definite corruption: sometimes pulling the wheel straight, sometimes pulling it into a corner, but more likely just making it feel stickier.

As a result, it’s not totally satisfying in either camp. Obviously it’s not meant to be one of the more dynamic SUVs, but in slight inconsistencies, neither does it go out of its way to smother your inputs into a relaxing whole.

Millbrook’s Hill Route wasn’t a happy hunting ground for the Citroën C5 Aircross. The track’s sharp, cambered turns and dramatic elevation changes often emphasise the inherent top-heaviness common to taller vehicles, and the Citroën was no exception. Body roll is abundant through tighter bends and hairpins, but it does at least build progressively and predictably.

More troubling is the C5 Aircross’s steering, which at times not only feels overly light but also inconsistent in its rate of response. Having to suddenly wind off or add on lock mid-corner to maintain your line isn’t a particularly enjoyable experience.

Front-end grip is as plentiful as you’d expect it to be, but no more. Attacking a corner at too great a pace or possessing an overly liberal approach to throttle application mid-bend will cause the Citroën’s nose to wash into easily curable understeer.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

The C5 Aircross looks a compelling option in a crowded segment. Not only is it more radical-looking than many of its generic competitors, but it also looks like good value on paper.

To drive our top-of-the-range 2.0-litre BlueHDi Flair+ test car off the forecourt, Citroën will require you to part with £32,725 before options or discounts. That sum will get you a full suite of standard kit that includes sat-nav, part-leather upholstery, 19in alloy wheels and a rear-view camera. But an equivalent Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TDI SEL (although it’s a four-wheel-drive option) is a near- £36,000 buy; an equivalent Mazda CX-5 (also a four-wheel-driver) near £35k and a top-of-the-range front-driven 3008 diesel likewise.

Won’t quite hold its value like the best-in-class Mazda CX-5 and VW Tiguan, but its punchy list price should still make it good value
Matt Prior
Editor-at-large

A forecasted residual value of 44% after 36,000 miles and three years isn’t particularly outstanding, but the Citroën trumps many of its rivals there, too. Meanwhile, the 47.8mpg touring fuel economy test result we recorded suggests the C5 Aircross shouldn’t be disappointing any owner for day-to-day frugality.

VERDICT

Citroen C5 Aircross 2019 road test review - static

Verdict

Model tested:

Rating: 7

Citroen C5 Aircross

Good

Funky interior design

Solid interior material choices

Underlying ride compliance

Bad

Ergonomic foibles.

Snatchiness at the end of the brakes’ travel

Not as relaxing to drive as Citroën would like us to think

On the face of it, there’s quite a lot to like about the Citroën C5 Aircross. It’s an interestingly designed car that’s good to sit in, with the right kinds of material in the right kind of place, and an intelligent interior design that provides lots of room in the rear and boot and a particularly versatile interior arrangement, too, thanks to a two-height boot floor and three individual folding rear chairs.

There’s plenty of space and quite a lot of comfort and interest for those in the front as well. Its fascia’s funky dials are cool, the seats are grand and it’s comfortable enough to drive. That its costs are reasonable makes it quite a compelling ownership proposition.

Attractive and interesting, though its style is better than its substance
Simon Davis
Road tester

From that point on, though, the case is harder to make. Inconsistencies in how it drives undermine what would otherwise be a relaxing, loping ride. It’s all very well being soft, but when that forces you to manage your inputs, it ends up no more relaxing than a firmer-riding SUV would be, and such an SUV might give something tangible back to the keener driver. Likeable though it is, the C5 Aircross doesn’t quite hit either note.