Items such as the flush-folding air vents and polished aluminium door handles make the C5 look and feel unusually expensive for this class of car. The centre console itself has a solid, slightly stark but highly functional look and feel to it. We’re not so keen on the instruments, which aren’t especially easy to read at a glance.
The C5 is clearly a big car, both inside and out, and occasionally you do wonder where all the space has gone inside. But room is never an issue up front. The seats in this VTR+ version are excellent, adjusting in all directions at the press of various buttons.
Yet in the back, although legroom is vast, headroom is not especially impressive. It’s obvious that the designers’ desire to create a good-looking car came first, at the expense of a couple of inches of rear headroom.
Having said that, the boot is enormous at 533 litres, and that’s including a full-size spare wheel beneath the floor.
Equipment levels are so generous that it’s hard to think of what else Citroën could provide for the C5 driver. As standard you get climate control, electric seats, a high-grade CD player and a sophisticated computer. Options range from sat-nav to a back massager for the truly committed M1 warrior.
There is also a break from tradition with residual forecasts. According to trade predictions, says Citroën, the C5 will retain 12 per cent more of its value than a Vauxhall Vectra over three years/60,000 miles and is beaten only by the Volkswagen Passat in its market place.
We’ll see about that in three years’ time, but in the here and now the C5 is clearly designed to be a painless car to own. Insurance is extremely competitive, we managed 38.2mpg on test, service intervals are wide and competitively affordable when they occur, and Citroën’s reputation for aftersales is getting better by the hour. Even the CO2 rating isn’t too bad for a car of this size and power.
