Citroen C5 Tourer 2.2 HDi Exclusive (2008) CAR review

The Citroen C5 has certainly attracted its fair share of attention recently thanks to that annoying advertising campaign. However, despite marketing that’s brimming with premium Teutonic rhetoric, it’s actually a capable slightly off-beat addition to the Passat/Mondeo scrum in the office car park.

The C5’s appeal has recently been widened considerably with the arrival of the estate – which, true to Citroen’s upper C/D segment aspirations, has been branded Tourer. Still, the two-box styling scheme builds on the saloon‘s ruggedly handsome looks, and takes the upmarket theme just a little further, even if some of the chrome detailing has been applied haphazardly.

The Citroen C5 Tourer might be big, but is it clever?

Yes and no. Without doubt, there’s enough eccentricity to keep the Citroen faithful happy. They’ll love the fluid suspension, now known as Hydractive 3+, fitted to the Exclusive model – and no doubt the mixture of analogue and digital for the instrumentation will also strike a chord.

Citroen is a traditional master of the large estate car – and this experience at feeding a customer base it knows so well is evident as soon as you fire up the electrically powered tailgate of the Exclusive and peer in. There’s innovation aplenty – such as the addition of a button in the boot to raise or lower the rear suspension.

It’s a practical load space, too. The rear seats fold down completely flat and the loading lip is agreeably low.

However, the Tourer falls down in its role of load-lugger in one important area – in terms of absolute volume, it’s not that big. Limited to 1462 litres with the rear seats folded down, it’s way behind the Vauxhall Vectra and Ford Mondeo. Considering the sheer bulk of the C5, that’s doubly disappointing.

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