Ian Crawford tests the 2019 Citroen C5 Aircross with pricing, specs, ride and handling, safety, verdict and everything the over-50 driver needs to know.
Summary: A handsome new mid-size SUV with a big job to do in the most competitive and rapidly growing segment in the market.
2019 Citroen C5 Aircross
Pricing: $39,990 (Feel), $43,990 (Shine) plus on road costs (good value for a classy European)
Warranty: 5-years, unlimited kilometres, with five-year roadside assist (another company comes on board with longer warranties)
Safety: not tested
Engine: 1598cc turbocharged petrol four-cylinder
Power: 121kW @ 6000rpm
Torque: 240Nm @ 1400rpm
Transmission: six-speed automatic with paddle shifter
Drive: front wheel drive (no all-wheel drive option may hurt sales)
Body: 4447mm (L), 1826mm (W), 1624 (H)
Tyre size: 235/55 R18 (Feel), 205/55 R19 (Shine)
Boot capacity: 580 litres to 1630 litres
Weight: 1430kg
Turning circle: not stated (but we’ve asked)
Towing: 1200kg (braked), 550kg (unbraked)
Spare: space saver temporary
Fuel tank: 53 litres
Thirst: 7.9L/100km (combined, 95 RON or higher unleaded recommended)
seniordriveraus consumption: 7.6L/100km (on launch)
[review]
CITROEN’S NEW C5 Aircross is a handsome new mid-size SUV with a big-size job to do in the most competitive and rapidly growing segment in the Australian market.
The new French offering comes in two guises – the $39,990 (plus on-roads) Feel and the one-with-the-lot Shine at $43,990.
The venerable French brand has not had the best of times in Australia in recent years with cars like the C4 Cactus, the Berlingo and the C4 Grand Picasso all recording disappointing sales results.
As a result, they have been dropped from the local model family under a new Citroen Australia strategy that will see the C3, C3 Aircross and the C5 Aircross become the model line-up by year’s end.
To put the brand’s impact on the local market into perspective, it’s worth noting that VFACTS figures show that last month, Citroen’s 36 dealers sold just 51 cars in total, bringing the year-to-date figure to 221.
A long history in Austalia
It may come as a surprise to many Australians, but Citroen has a history in this country that goes back 95 years when a car wearing the French brand’s badge became the first vehicle to circumnavigate Australia.
The handsome new C5 offering shares its platform with its cousins, the Peugeot 3008 and 5008 and its big challenge is to spearhead Citroen’s brand acceptance and sales renaissance in this country.
Tough category: no all-wheel drive variant, no seven-seater, no diesel
What makes the new car’s task even more of a challenge is that it slots into the most competitive segment in the Australian market.
This means it takes on the likes of Australia’s biggest-selling SUV – Mazda’s CX-5 – Hyundai’s Tucson, its Kia Sportage cousin, the Subaru Forester, Honda’s CR-V, the Nissan X-Trail, Mitsubishi’s Outlander, the Toyota RAV4, VW’s Tiguan and its Peugeot 3008 cousin.
Admittedly some of the aforementioned are all-wheel-drivers and have seven seats while the C5 Aircross is a front-wheel-drive-only car with five seats.
Two trim levels
The C5 Aircross comes in two guises – Feel and the better-equipped Shine.
The new Citroen is powered by the French group’s proven turbocharged, four-cylinder, 1.6litre e-THP petrol engine that is good for 121kW at 6000rpm and 240Nm of peak torque that arrives at a relaxed 1400rpm.
The engine is mated with a six-speed torque-converter automatic transmission and even the cheaper Feel version comes with fun-to-use paddle shifters.
Despite being a front-wheel-drive SUV, drivers can choose from five transmission modes – standard, snow, mud, sand and ESP off.
While Citroen claims a combined-fuel-consumption figure of 7.9litres/100km, my co-driver on the national media launch drive came home with 7.6litres – and that included city, freeway and various country-road conditions and a bit of spirited punting here and there.
The fuel downside is that you need to fill the Aircross with 95RON premium unleaded
Famous for great ride comfort
The star attraction of the C5 Aircross underpinnings is its patented hydro-pneumatic “progressive hydraulic cushions” suspension that was developed for Citroen’s all-conquering world rally championship and Dakar cars.
It works by replacing the bump stops used by most vehicles with hydraulic units at either ends of the springs and dampers.
Up front there is what Citroen calls a “pseudo” MacPherson-strut set-up while the rear uses a deformable crossmember. Both the front and rear arrangements use the progressive hydraulic cushion dampers.
Stopping power is excellent and it is derived from 304 x 28mm ventilated discs with single-piston sliding calipers with 290 x 12mm solid rear discs with the same calipers.
Well-equipped, even in the base model
A generous standard-kit inventory on the bottom-spec Feel includes autonomous emergency braking (up to 85km/h) , active blind-spot monitoring, active lane-departure assist, four-mode grip control, a 12.3-inch full digital instrument display, Apple CarPlay + Android Auto + MirrorLink, a Bluetooth-compatible touchscreen for navigation and digital audio, automatic headlights and windscreen wipers with washing, an automatic-dimming rear-vision mirror and speed-limit recognition and The Aircross interiors – especially the top-spec Shine – really have been given a premium treatment.
While there is a degree of the ubiquitous hard plastic, this is more than counteracted by the soft stuff and the result is a more luxurious interior ambiance than the price tags suggest.
The seriously clever digital dash can be customised by the driver and it projects all the information you could ever need.
So far as storage cubbyholes are concerned, there are two front cup holders (but none in the rear), four big door pockets, map pockets behind the front-seat backs, a reasonable glove box, two open bins on the centre console and a huge deep bin beneath the split-lid/armrest between the front seats.
A roof-mounted sunglasses holder would be nice for this country.
Also on the standard menu is a “top-vision” 180-degree parking camera with front-and-rear parking sonar. keyless entry and ignition, halogen headlights with fog lights, privacy glass, roof rails, power-adjustable and folding door mirrors, automatic bi-zone air-conditioning with rear air vents, a fully-digital instrument panel, central touchscreen with navigation, DAB, mirror screen (CarPlay and Android Auto) and voice recognition, three individual second-row sliding seats (two with ISOfix and all with top tether anchors), six airbags, ambient interior lighting, LED daytime running lights and a hands-free, foot-operated electric tailgate.
Good luggage space
With the Aircross’ second-row seats occupied, there is 580 litres of luggage space. Slide them all the way forward and this rises to a handy 720 litres and if you drop the seat backs to their near-horizontal maximum, this rises to 1630litres.
All pretty impressive.
Move up to the top-spec Shine and you also get Citroen’s “advanced comfort” seats with an electric driver’s seat, combination leather- and fabric-covered seats, 19-inch alloy wheels (the Feel gets 18s), mobile-phone wireless charging, laminated windows and windscreen and sporty aluminium pedals.
The only two factory options are metallic paint that will set you back $690 or pearl paint that is a pretty rich $1050.
Speaking of paint, there are just seven colours on the pallet.
Reasonable running costs
To keep the new C5 in top condition there is capped-price servicing – $458 for the first, $812 for the second and $458 for the third.
Interestingly, the fourth service will again set owners back $812 before the damage falls to $470 for the fifth visit to the dealer workshop.
Service intervals are 12 months or 20,000 km, whichever arrives first and there is a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty.
From the inside
Climb in behind the wheel of the Aircross and are immediately aware of how comfortable the seat is – especially the Shine’s with its power adjustment and fancy memory foam. There is, unfortunately, no power adjustment for the Shine’s front-seat passenger.
Beautifully padded and supportive, the seats are as good or better than anything in the class – and even fancier classes.
Citroen has put a lot of work into the design and construction of the seats and it shows.
The handsome leather-wrapped, multi-function steering wheel is great to hold and with height-and-reach adjustment and very quickly you can lock in the perfect driving position.
What is annoying is that the start/stop button and the gear shifter have been left where they are in Europe – on the left-hand side of the centre console – just perfect for the front-seat passenger here in Australia.
Hit the go pedal and the C5 Aircross’ 1.6 litre turbo-charged engine will spring the car off the line in a quite impressive fashion.
Left to its own devices, the six-speed automatic transmission does a perfectly adequate job but flick it into manual mode and play with the paddle shifters, and it’s even better.
Out on the road the car is extremely refined with only minimal amounts of road-and-wind noise making it into the cabin.
The tricky suspension really does work well in smoothing out bumps and potholes and most of the time you can tell there’s something different underneath the car when you compare its ride with those with traditional suspension set-ups.
The softly-softly suspension does however mean that the car does roll somewhat when pushed hard into corners.
The C5 Aircross is clearly built for comfort, not speed and in this regard, it’s hard to fault.
We particularly like the car’s on-road refinement and comfort, its handsome, not quirky styling, the generous standard-kit inventory and the fact that the paddle shifters are on both models.
What we don’t so much is that old bug-bear, a space-saver spare, no electric adjustment for Shine front-passenger’s seat, the start/stop button, gear shifter and lights and wiper stalks not positioned for right-hand-drive versions.
And, given that the French do a very good diesel engine, it’s a pity you can’t specify one with the Aircross.
Summary
Citroen has high world-wide hopes for the C5 Aircross and 1500 pre-orders from its launch at the Paris Motor Show was a great start.
In Australia, it is vital that the car sells strongly and helps establish a strong foundation for the brand’s resurgence in this country.
Citroen and its Peugeot cousin have always done things a bit differently and while the Aircross styling certainly sets it apart from the mid-size SUV crowd, it sets it apart in a good way.
In fact, to this reviewer’s eye, it’s about the best-looking one out there.
As Citroen says, its cars are, and always have been, experimental and innovative and its owners very much individuals.
Given that that’s the case, the company has pretty-well nailed it with the C5 Aircross.