Alternative and devoted to its luxury remit but no show-stopper

★★★★☆

The DS 9 brings welcome variety back to the market for premium saloons. Its major failing may be that it is too studiously attached to the traditional mould of a classic French luxury car, and not innovative enough in either its design or technical specification to do justice to the memory of the original DS.

That particular albatross needn’t prevent us from recognising how refined and fit for purpose this car is, though. If you appreciate an enriching, genuinely relaxing executive car, it is quite easy to like in spite of its various stylised affectations.

The plug-in powertrain offers only lukewarm performance and poor electric range, and, quietness aside, it’s not the selling point that some might have hoped for. The interior, meanwhile, falls short of a really spacious limousine feel in notable respects, and the slightly contrived way it is presented frustrates as often as it delights.

Along with the successes, there are plenty of little misses, then, and perhaps the most significant is that this DS simply isn’t a car to point at on the street and say “wow”. As brand builder and icon, it probably should have been.