Citroen C5 Aircross Review

The C5 Aircross is the biggest SUV in Citroen's lineup although, despite its size, the brand hasn't tried to shove a vestigial third row of seats into the cabin. Instead, you're left with two rows of seats and a vast, square cargo space behind them. For most buyers, this setup is probably more useful because you don't compromise the boot floor for a pair of seats that aren't that useful anyway.

At the front, the C5 Aircross looks fairly conventional. The front grille and headlights are dominated by horizontal lines that meet at the brand's chevron logo, and there are subtle bulges in the bonnet to imply a sense of power. Styling down the car's flanks is a little more interesting, mainly thanks to the prominent chrome surround that frames the passenger windows. This helps break up the bodywork, as do the 'airbump' details at the base of the doors, while also helping avoid parking dings.

SUVs like the Ford Kuga and Mazda CX-5 disguise their weight and height on the roads. The big Citroen, however, doesn't quite pull this off. You're constantly aware of the car's body rocking about as you accelerate, brake and turn. This is mainly because Citroen's fitted it with 'Advanced Comfort' suspension that aims to mimic the magic-carpet-like ride the brand's older models were known for. While this setup does blunt the handling, it mostly accomplishes its softly sprung billing and glides over bumps and scruffy road surfaces.

With a stated focus on comfort, few buyers will be expecting lots of firepower under the C5 Aircross' bonnet. Appropriately then, most of the choices are fairly pedestrian. Citroen's 1.2-litre PureTech turbo petrol engine is popular and widely available on the used market, and should work well for most drivers. Elsewhere, you'll find diesel and plug-in-hybrid power, plus a new self-charging-hybrid engine if you're shopping brand-new models. Whatever engine you pick, they will all happily propel the Aircross' weight up to motorway speeds, but don't expect any kind of thrills if you bury the throttle.

You'll find lots of evidence in the cabin that the C5 Aircross is an affordable car. There are large plastic panels and simplified details throughout, without any of the bells and whistles you'll find in the mechanically related Peugeot 3008.

Thankfully, it feels cheap because it is cheap – undercutting most rivals in the class by thousands of pounds. This affordability also translates to temptingly low prices on the used market. Even nearly new C5 Aircross models can come up priced between £16,000-£20,000 – far below most family-sized SUV rivals.

The C5 Aircross' dash is blocky and upright, with that look emphasised by the vertically stacked air vents on either side. Pre-facelift cars include the centre infotainment screen in a housing flanked by more vertical air vents, while post-facelift models swap this out for a glossy screen that sits proud of the dashboard with slim air vents and touch-sensitive shortcut buttons beneath.

There's a lot of plastic in the cabin, especially lower down on the dashboard and centre console, plus large unyielding panels on the doors – although these have oval-shaped indentations to give them the bare minimum of visual flair. You mostly forgive the C5 Aircross, however, primarily because of its low price, but Citroen's also included a couple of thoughtful touches that help lift the cabin like the stitched detailing on the passenger airbag cover, or the segmented seat upholstery that puts you in mind of a luxurious sofa.

The 2022 facelift brought a new, larger infotainment screen. It certainly looks nice, with bright, colourful graphics embedded in a glossy black housing that almost feels like you're on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. However, the software itself is frustrating to use. On-screen buttons seem to be randomly placed with no real attempt to group similar functions together, and every menu's layout is impacted by persistent dual-zone climate control settings that take up about a third of the screen's real estate even if you're not adjusting the temperature.

Citroen also loses some marks for ditching physical climate control knobs and buttons in favour of a purely screen-based setup, which feels fiddly to use. At least the touch-sensitive shortcut buttons beneath the screen let you jump between everyday functions with just a tap. And the standard-fit Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity means you can bypass most of the annoying stuff by simply connecting your phone.

Buyers flock to big SUVs for their practicality, and the C5 Aircross scores well here. There's lots of space up front for tall adults but, more importantly, each of the three separate seats on the rear row can slide forwards and backwards. This means you can set the cabin up for carrying tall passengers in comfort by sliding the seats all the way back, or shuffle them forward to dramatically increase the boot space without losing the second row completely.

The decision to fit three separate rear seats is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the C5 Aircross is one of the very best SUVs in this class for carrying three across the rear row, giving the centre-rear passenger more width to work with than most rivals. However, fitting a wider centre seat also means both outer seats have become more narrow. That means they're not quite as comfy to sit in compared to rivals that give more priority to the outer seats at the expense of the centre position. It's worth noting, too, that the full-size centre seat doesn't have an Isofix mount, so you'll have to look elsewhere for a car that fits three car seats.

Purely engine-powered C5 Aircross models have 580 litres of cargo space with the rear seats pushed all the way back, and 720 litres with them pushed forwards. These are very competitive figures in the class, but more important than the measured volume is how useful the space is, with the Citroen's square body permitting a tall, wide and deep load area that's ideal for pushchairs or a portly pooch. Plug-in hybrid models lose the under-floor storage found on engine-powered versions, but you're still left with a small spot to store your charging cable.

The cargo space is very useful thanks to its sheer size, but it's missing some of the more thoughtful features you get in some rivals. For example, there are tie-down points for a cargo net but no hooks on the side of the boot to hang grocery bags. We also missed a button or lever to fold the rear seats from the boot, instead having to make the arduous journey around the car to fold them through the side door. Finally, a few more points are docked as the C5 Aircross continues to have a laughably small glove box – a hang-up from older Peugeot-Citroen models that's since been addressed on newer cars.

For most of the C5 Aircross' time on sale, it's been offered with a choice of turbo petrol or diesel power. By far the most popular is the 1.2-litre PureTech petrol with 130hp – paired either to a six-speed manual or an eight-speed auto – and this is perfect for most buyers.

It's a willing little engine that delivers much more low-down grunt than you might expect for such a small unit, allowing it to make light work of the C5 Aircross' heft. Stir the gearbox and you can easily ride the PureTech's mid-range torque all the way up to motorway speeds without much difficulty. The only real drawback is that it's quite a noisy engine, with a noticeable three-cylinder thrum that remains audible even when cruising. Citroen's recently phased this unit out in favour of an updated version paired with a self-charging hybrid setup.

Both new and used C5 Aircross models can be found with the brand's 1.5-litre turbodiesel engine, too. Handy as more and more brands abandon the black pump. Both performance and refinement are a little dented compared to the 1.2-litre petrol option, but the diesel will score mpg figures in the high 60s, making it a great choice for long-distance drivers.

If you want a little more power, there's a rare 1.6-litre petrol model with 180hp, but you're much more likely to find one of the plug-in-hybrid versions. Earlier cars had a 225hp setup, which made them the most powerful models in the range, but Citroen added a 180hp version to the lineup later on. Citroen reckons you'll be able to cover between 33 and 40 miles on a full charge, or average more than 150mpg if you make the most of both power sources.

If you want your family SUV with a side of driver appeal, the C5 Aircross probably isn't the car for you. The soft suspension brings plenty of comfort benefits, which we'll cover in a moment, but it means every single input you make – a turn of the wheel, a press of a pedal – causes the body to rock fore and aft, or side to side. That means hard cornering or quick direction changes will have your occupants wobbling about, and you'll have everyone's heads nodding if you're too sharp on the pedals.

All of this is to say… the C5 Aircross is a car that rewards you for driving calmly. Keep your inputs measured and the car's soft setup makes much more sense, as it gracefully glides over road undulations and absorbs the impacts from potholes. You might even start to enjoy the sensation of guiding the big Citroen down the road – its roly-poly ride, tall seating position and bulbous bonnet all put us in mind of the charming old-school off-roaders that inspired today's wave of SUVs and crossovers.

Refinement is a fairly mixed bag. Considering how hard the suspension is working to mediate the relationship between the car and the road surface, you don't hear many thuds or thumps as it soaks up bumps. Nor do you hear much tyre roar as you approach motorway speeds. There is, however, some noticeable wind whistle around the windscreen and side mirrors, plus a distant but ever-present grumble from the 1.2-litre petrol in our test car.

The bulky bonnet makes it a little hard to gauge where the front of the car is, although most models have front parking sensors in addition to the standard-fit rear ones to make manoeuvring easier. More importantly, however, the C5 Aircross is one of the very best cars in this class for visibility, with thin windscreen pillars, large side windows, a broad upright rear windscreen and – unlike almost every other car in this class – respectable over-the-shoulder visibility thanks to the large quarterlight windows behind the rear passenger glass.