New Citroen C5 Aircross SUV First Drive Review

Flying carpet? Were these exaggerated words from the company? I had to check this flying carpet claim the moment I got my keys to this SUV. And what better way to do that than by driving on Delhi’s potholed roads. Boy, I was stumped. This car did not drive, it kind of floated. How could any car drive so smoothly?

These have suspensions with progressive hydraulic cushions exclusively designed by Citroen for this model. It smoothens large bumps and minor road surface imperfections, which in turn lets you experience a flying carpet feel. And while doing so, it also ensures stability and dynamics.

Ordinary suspensions have a shock absorber, a spring and a mechanical bump stop. The New Citroën C5 Aircross SUV comes with progressive hydraulic cushions that provide specially designed suspension on either side for rebound and compression for the occupants’ comfort.  When big bumps are encountered, the hydraulic cushions keep suspension movement controlled and progressive. The child in me was screaming out in glee. Now it was time to check out what else could I enjoy inside its spacious cabin.

INTERIORS

Once you step inside the cabin you get see sophisticated interiors with grey grained leather and graphite cloth, gloss black details and chrome inserts. The centre console and dashboard top are in grey. The Citroen C5 Aircross comes in two variants. One is the Shine, the other is the Feel. The former is the top model with a panoramic sun roof with dual electric motors, LED headlamps and hands-free electric tailgate which you can simply open by moving your foot under the rear bumper and close with the touch of a button. The rest is kind of similar in both the models. We got the Feel variant to drive.

Now coming to the seats, well in order to experience top notch suspension comfort, you need to have seats to match it and Citroen has done exactly that with its seats, drawing inspiration from contemporary furniture. They are not just broad and cushiony with more than adequate under thigh and back support, but provide room for occupants to sit with extreme comfort. High density foam is at the heart of each seat and a thick, textured foam at the surface.

The driver seat gets electrical adjustments for all movement including height, but what sticks out as a sore thumb is the manual adjustment in the form of a rotary knob on the side of the seat to adjust lumbar support or lower back support. That’s strange; when all adjustments are electrical why bring in a manual adjustment that can actually sprain your back while attempting to move the knob.

Similarly, the co passenger seat in front, gets manual adjustments, which is kind of okay, but again it gets a large rotary knob on the side for adjusting the seat back recline position.

Now coming to the rear, you get three independent adjustable rear seats of the same width. These are relatively comfortable seats but the one in the middle can be a tad uncomfortable for an adult because of the AC vent unit protruding out and hampering your leg space.

But since these seats have multiple reclining positions and the ability to slide up to 150 mm, they are comfortably accommodating. The modular and flexible rear seat design offers fold-away rear seats that provide a perfectly flat floor for generous luggage-carrying capacity. You can reconfigure the roomy, flexible interior of the new Citroën C5 Aircross SUV to suit your needs. On board air quality system (AQS) enhances sense of well being as it automatically filters and purifies the air entering and circulating through the cabin.

The New Citroën C5 Aircross SUV has a roomy 580L boot, but when you move the rear seats to their furthest forward position and you’ve got up to 720L, giving you the most generous boot in its class. With the modular rear seats folded away, there’s an amazing 1630L of boot space. And not to miss are the several permutations and combinations you can have with the seats for your storage.

Talking of storage, there is plenty in this car.  The large compartment under the central armrest has a section that can carry a 1.5L bottle, whilst the glove box and door pockets provide ample storage. You also get large storage area at the front of the centre console.

Buttons & Switches

Once you are seated on the driver’s seat you actually begin to wonder where the start stop engine switch is. In many cars this start button is usually on the left or right side of the steering wheel on the dashboard. Sometimes it is on the centre console, it’s usually closer to the driver seat. But here this button is further away closer to the co passenger seat. I mean you really have to get used to new set up. Even the gear shifter is positioned closer to the co passenger seat. I feel the manufacturers have used the same centre console module made for the left hand drive vehicles and fixed it without any changes. It’s all about getting used to now in this car.

Before I get straight to the other switches and buttons, this car also has the hood opening lever on the left. This will mean that every time you drive in the car and enter a hotel or any other place that requires you to open your hood for security reasons, you have to either go across to the other side to tug at the lever or perhaps ask the person sitting next to you to do that or if there is no one, you may have to ask the guy frisking your car to do that. It’s a norm today all across the country that whenever you enter big malls, hotels and offices, you need to open your hood, your boot and sometimes even show what is inside the glove box, all for security purposes.

The steering wheel is adjustable for rake and reach. Just behind the steering wheel you have lever switches for windshield wipers on right, for the exterior lights on the left, with cruise controls at the bottom. The steering wheel comes with controls on the left and right along with paddle shifters.

Coming to the centre console, you have a neat looking gear shifter which can be operated by pressing on the unlock button on its right side and shifting modes to R, N and D as you wish. The shifter also has a button for P which is the Parking mode. At the bottom of the gear shifter you have a M or Manual button which can be engaged once you shift to the D mode. Once the green light on the M button glows, you can manually change the gears using the paddle shifters.

Just behind the gear shifter on the centre console you have the electronic parking brake.  Next to the Start Stop engine button you have switches for Eco Drive and Sport Mode and there is also one for activating and deactivating Hill Descent Assist. The Hill Descent Assist holds your vehicle at a low, controllable speed on steep slopes. It works in forward and reverse gears as well as neutral.

The large rotary knob on the centre console allows you to engage the various modes while you are either on Eco or Sports mode. These modes include Snow Mode, Mud Mode, Sand mode and ESP system deactivation mode.  This is a traction control system created to optimise front wheel grip for all kinds of road surfaces.

On the dashboard just above the gear shifter you get a USB slot and 12 V socket. Immediately above that you have switches for hazard light, switch for deactivating the start/stop feature at traffic lights, door opening and closing switch, switch for shutting down AC blower completely, switches for front and rear defoggers, switch for internal air circulation and the one on the extreme left is the volume control knob.

A level above these buttons are the touch buttons for various commands that reflect on the touch screen too. These include the likes of Bluetooth telephony, Mirror link, Android Auto settings etc. Then you also have touch buttons for changing driving functions and vehicle settings.  Driving functions include Park Assist feature for parallel and perpendicular parking with automatic steering control. Other driving functions that can be altered include parking sensors, under inflation initialization and setting memorised speed for both speed limiter as well as cruise control. Vehicle settings include that for parking, headlights, comfort and safety.

Along with the buttons and switches you get eight inches touch screen infotainment system and a 12.3 inches TFT digital instrument panel for clear display of vital vehicle information. The latest 8” touchscreen brings you instant responses and clear usability of your smartphone. It enables you to access and enjoy the features of your smartphone and stay connected with it on the road. This intelligent app uses the touchscreen to mirror your smartphone, displaying all driving compatible apps. Depending on your phone’s operating system, apps can be controlled by voice so you can keep your eyes on the road. The system is compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

With 3 Personalisation modes and 3 Ambience options of Brown, Blue and Red, the two digital displays are customisable for your taste and mood.

The car also comes with a unique coffee break alert. When it’s time to take a break, this system sends you a warning. It activates once you’ve been driving for two hours continuously at more than 65 km/h. We could not experience this feature as our drive involved a lot of stoppages.

As part of the safety feature, the vehicle gets a blind spot monitoring system wherein it warns you if there’s a vehicle in your blind spots, using an orange LED in the corner of the driver side ORVM.

EXTERIOR

The C5 Aircross SUV looks bold and beautiful. Upfront it gets a muscular stance with double chevron design. Apart from the chrome lines, it has a matte black upper grille. The car has silver anodized bumper and stylish barrettes.

While it is LED headlamps for the Shine variant, the Feel variant gets halogen with LED DRLs. The front fog lamps come with cornering function.

Move to the side and you get to see the dynamic chromed 'C' motif,  which is basically the big chrome surround around the windows. Then there are the body side moulding including the fender. It gets LED turn Indicators on ORVM. The vehicle also gets silver anodized airbump and roof bar Insert.  The vehicle sits on ‘’SWIRL’’ two tone diamond cut alloy wheels. The tyres come in 235 / 55 R18 size.

3D LED rear lamps greet you at the rear. The rear too gets fog lamps and an LED high mount stop lamp. An integrated spoiler and chrome dual exhaust pipes give the rear a very sporty appearance.

Engine & Performance

The all new Citroen is powered by a DW10FC 4 cylinder diesel engine with a displacement of 1997cc. It churns out around 175hp @ 3750 rpm and a peak torque of 400Nm@2000rpm. The engine is mated to an eight speed automatic transmission. The company claims that this vehicle gives a fuel efficiency of 18.6km to a litre of diesel . The fuel tank can hold around 52.5 litres of diesel.

You have access to keyless entry and start as you can lock and unlock the car without taking out the key. The New Citroën C5 Aircross SUV also recognises you as you approach the vehicle. 

The latest EAT8 automatic gearbox provided relatively smooth shifts between gears and when we were in the manual mode with the use of steering wheel mounted paddles, we felt the effectiveness of this gearbox.

Acceleration came easy for this machine, especially in the sport mode wherein it simply got into action when we floored the accelerator. The ride and handling too was perfect and when he hit some twisties, the car was planted to the road and gave some very perfect ride. The suspension as mentioned earlier, has been incredibly fine tuned for Indian roads and provided us with some great comfort,  far superior to very many expensive cars out there on the road.

Features like hill start assist and reverse camera add to the convenience factors.  The hill start assist is designed to prevent unwanted movement when you release the brake pedal on slopes. Hill Start Assist works on gradients over 3%. It holds the vehicle for about 2 seconds, giving you time to move from brake to accelerator pedal. As for the reverse camera, once you engage the reverse gear, the camera displays a 180° rear view on the 8” touchscreen with additional coloured lines that act as your guidelines.

With double laminated front windows and acoustic windshield glass, it’s a perfect cabin out there with wind and road noise being kept to an absolute minimum.

Safety features include front driver and passenger airbags (includes passenger airbag deactivation function), front seat side airbags and curtain airbags. Apart from some of the safety features explained earlier, this SUV also gets isofix anchorages, auto door unlock on crash and electric child lock for the rear door, among others.

VERDICT

The all new Citroen C5 Aircross SUV has set a benchmark among vehicles in India, irrespective of their size and price, for its absolutely brilliant suspension. To say that in Hinglish, “it’s like makhan”. SO what do we say to that? As for its performance, it’s got a very torquey engine and can cover long distances with great ease. The C5 Aircross has definitely raised the bar in the Indian SUV segment in terms  of its ride quality and performance. Say Cheese to that!