SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Many of the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

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Comfort zone: 2020 Citroën C5 Aircross 1.6 THP

Refreshingly different

Pics by Motorpress
Posted: December 13, 2019

The numbers
Prices: Feel @ R469 900, Shine @ R509 900
Engine: 1598 cc, DOHC 16-valve, four-cylinder turbopetrol
Power: 121 kW between 5200 and 6000 rpm
Torque: 240 Nm between 1400 and 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 10.5 seconds
Top speed: 189 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 8.8 l/100 km
Tank: 53 litres
Luggage: 520-720-1630 litres
Maximum towing mass, braked: 1500 kg
Ground clearance: 230 mm
Turning circle: 12.4 metres
Standard tyre size: 235/55R18
Spare: 215/65R17
Warranty: 5 years / 100 000 km, with roadside assistance
Service plan: 5 years / 100 000 km

We like:
•    Open, airy ambience
•    Space and comfort
•    Safety kit
•    Built-in mirror cam
We would change:
•    Gear lever and starter button placement
•    Two irritating “safety” features
•    Too-wide turning circle

After temporarily withdrawing Citroën products from its South African line-up while regrouping, but maintaining spares and service for existing owners, Peugeot-Citroën South Africa (PCSA) is gingerly re-introducing the flagship brand.

We currently have three model ranges – C3, C3 Aircross and C5 Aircross – each with one engine size and in two choices of trim; entry-level Feel and upmarket Shine. C5 Aircross Shine is South Africa’s halo model for the time being.

Ours come from Dongfeng-PSA’s plant in Chengdu, China, that also produces Peugeot 4008 and 5008 models using the same platform, engines and transmission. We get the familiar 1600 cc Prince engine, in 121 kW and 240 Nm form, coupled to the group’s six-speed EAT gearbox.

C5 Aircross is a medium sized SUV with French flair, some Gallic quirks, all the safety kit you really need, lots of luggage space and bags of comfort.

Rather than rubber bump stops that “thud” as your car’s suspension bottoms out in big potholes, Citroën fitted hydraulic dampers at each end of the shock absorbers’ strokes. These soften the impact, smoothing minor asphalt deficits to gentle ripples, although big ones could remain troublesome.

The retro-modern instrument panel is reminiscent of ‘sixties layouts with ribbon-style speedometer and rev counter. Yet it’s right up to date, being virtual, with a supplementary digital speed indicator in case you get frustrated with numbers floating to-and-fro within a window.

The car feels wide and spacious inside while opening the inner blind for the glass roof, standard on Shine, creates a garden-like ambience. Citroën doesn’t “do” the claustrophobic look that Germans favour.

Our tall tester found the back seat a little cramped because his knees touched the chair in front, although headspace was fine. The squab splits into three, rather than just 60:40, with each section adjustable back and forth by 150 mm. Backrests recline separately by a few degrees or fold down flat. To accommodate real people, the centre hump is low.
 
The cargo area’s 520 litres expands to 720 if all three seat sections are moved forward. The South African boot is smaller than other markets’ 580 litres because PCSA specified an equivalent-size spare wheel rather than a spacesaver.

Items we disliked: The gear lever placed for LHD, a long reach from the pilot’s chair, and the starter button half-hidden in front of it. Then, because it rained for most of our time with this car, we cursed the automatic wipers that defaulted to “off” every time the engine was restarted. The lane keeper reverted to “on” each time too, causing skittish twitches whenever it intervened to “correct” our driving on wet roads.

Standard safety kit: Six airbags; three iSize baby chair mountings; rear parking sensors; remote child-proof locks; ABS brakes with EBA, EBD, ESP and traction control; automatic locking; tyre pressure monitoring and cruise control with limiter.

Nice stuff: Automatic dual-zone air conditioning, hill start assist, automatic wipers and head lights, one-touch electric windows all around, folding mirrors, and acoustic glass in front. It renders your personal space quieter.

Shine level adds: Panoramic roof, active city braking, a “dash cam” incorporated into the rearview mirror, blind spot monitoring, keyless entry and start, front parking sensors, reversing camera, wireless charging and half-leather upholstery with electrical adjusters for the driver and mechanical  elevation control for the passenger.

In-cabin storage: Seatback map pockets, usable door bins, a huge armrest box and a couple of open trays.

The turbocharged 1.6-litre engine performed well and the autobox worked faultlessly. It’s perhaps slightly old-tech but six speeds is all anyone needs and this one proves that.

Flair, a few quirks and a couple of things we’d like to see changed but spacious, bright, comfortable and competent. In a world overfilled with same-old, it’s refreshingly different.



Test unit from PCSA press fleet

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads or goat tracks as well. As a result, my test cars do occasionally get dirty. It's all part of the reviewing process.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material.

If ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. There are no advertisers and no “editorial policy” rules. I add bylines to acknowledge sponsored launch functions and the manufacturers or dealerships that provide the test vehicles.  And, as quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so you can see I do actually exist.

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