New Citroen SUV is dressed to impress
CITROEN is making a play for a piece of the action in the booming medium SUV market with its new C5 Aircross flagship.
Competitively priced and complete with exclusive features, Citroen says its new model is all about comfort.
The C5 Aircross is fitted with Citroen’s latest suspension system, specially designed seats and has plenty of room throughout the cabin.
The result brings a ‘magic carpet’ ride to the mainstream SUV sector and in this league the French car maker is out on its own.
On some shocking road surfaces in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco the new C5 Aircross proved itself a champion, protecting all on board from jolts and jarring. Only vehicles with air suspension – and costing thousands of pounds more – could have acquitted themselves is such capable fashion as the C5 Aircross.
The SUV will be on the road in the UK early next year and priced from £23,255 most models will come in cheaper than its sister ship, the Peugeot 3008.
The 13 model C5 Aircross range tops out at £30,725 for a petrol powered 1.6-litre PureTech engined version or £32,725 for a 2.0-litre diesel.
Both of the range toppers have 180bhp on tap giving the car more than enough performance and both are fitted with eight speed automatic transmissions.
Officially there’s less than half a second between the two when it comes to 0 to 60 times with the PureTech model marginally quicker at 8.2 seconds and the BlueHDi diesel 8.6. Top speeds are 134mph for the petrol and 131 for the diesel but the real difference comes with fuel economy which is rated at 60.1 to the gallon for the oil burner with the PureTech version coming in at 49.6.
Entry level Feel models feature 130bhp engines with a 1.6-litre diesel rated at 68.9mpg and a 1.2-litre PureTech petrol model – both with manual gearboxes – at 54.3.
Those are commendable figures for a car that tips the scales at some 1.5 tonnes and on our runs in the two higher powered versions of the C5 Aircross we saw averages of 39mpg for the PureTech and 43 for the diesel – both impressive given the conditions.
The C5 Aircross is a hugely important vehicle for Citroen – its first model in this class of SUV since 2013 – and not only is it dressed to impress but comes kitted out with no less than 20 safety and driver aids.
Those include Citroen’s first semi-autonomous driving set up that will hold the vehicle’s position on the road automatically and – on the auto transmission models – an adaptive cruise control system which can stop the vehicle and move off without driver intervention.
All in all, the C5 Aircross is quite a package and its ride quality is second to none in this class of SUV.