A FRENCH FACELIFT
THE popular C5 Aircross from Citroen has moved firmly upmarket with a more mature makeover, but it still retains its distinctive French looks. The comfortable sports utility vehicle has been given a New Year facelift plus upgraded tech, but without messing with the essentials that make it a practical family-friendly proposition.
Key stylistic changes include new headlights and running lights and its original curves replaced by more ‘structured’ lines, to make it look more grown-up, confident and imposing.
The refined and refreshed dashboard features a new 10 in main central infotainment touchscreen — up from 8 in. A more discreet, flushsitting gear-selector replaces the original grip-style version.
Orders open in a few weeks ahead of the first UK deliveries in June.
Meanwhile, stock of the existing run-out model is being sold off. Priced from £24,630 for the petrol manual and from £34,375 for the impressive plug-in hybrid (PHEV), there may be haggle-hard bargains to be had.
Citroen won’t be changing the petrol, diesel and PHEV line-up for now, nor its engineering.
Handy, as I’ve been driving the existing PHEV e-EAT8 PureTech 180 in Shine Plus trim with £2,500 in ‘extras’ including black Perla Nera paint (£545), raising the price to £38,250.
Riding on 19in black alloys, it’s a smooth yet engaging drive, with flexible seating, sat-nav, privacy glass and a big boot.
Its 181hp 1.6-litre inline fourcylinder turbo-charged petrol engine and 81kW electric motor together create 225hp, linked to an eight-speed automatic transmission. It does rest to 62mph in 8.7 seconds. Top speed is 140 mph.
Charging from my home wallbox takes a couple of hours for a claimed pure electric range of 34 miles, also boosting hybrid fuel economy to between 157 to 222mpg, with low CO2 emissions of between 32 to 41g/km.
I’ve driven it on all manner of roads, and loaded it up on trips to the rubbish dump and Ikea. It proved a very flexible friend.
I suspect the smart new upgraded version will be, too.