Test drive | The new Citroën C5X nicely continues the legacy of the French “big cats” – the suspension is so soft that it’s like riding on an air mattress

Contemporary the most popular body model in cars is the well-established crossover, i.e. a passenger car with some characteristics of an SUV. Nissan Qashqai is generally considered to be the start of the trend.

With its new C5X model, Citroën is now redefining the concept of a crossover. Just under five meters long, Sitikka is a combination of so many different body models that it is hard to say from which it has borrowed the most.

In a way, it’s a kind of raised station wagon, but a hatchback. There is more than 20 cents of ground clearance, but the car doesn’t really have the DNA of an SUV. The C5X is low overall: the roof is less than one and a half meters above the ground. The accentuated long hood, on the other hand, brings thoughts to upper-class sedan models. So this is really literally a crossover, i.e. a mixture of all kinds.

Be that as it may, the whole is refreshingly successful and the C5X takes its place nicely as a kind of flagship model of Sitika’s collection. It continues the legacy of the discontinued C5 a few years ago and manages to be a “big cat” in the way we’ve come to expect from big French cars in recent years. However, it is no longer the gas-liquid suspension that brings softness to the ride, but a new type of active shock absorption system.

With the softest setting, the C5X is downright incredibly smooth to drive on the road. It’s like riding on an air mattress.

Price range is 40,000–50,000 euros. At the starting price, you can get a 130-horsepower gasoline model, and the 225-horsepower plug-in hybrid model that is currently running goes from the store with basic equipment for 48,000 euros. All models are only front-wheel drive, all have an eight-speed automatic, and no diesel engine is coming to the range at all. It tells about the end of an era.

The plug-in hybrid power line is already familiar if you have followed the development of the Stellantis group in recent years. There is enough power, and with one charge you can go about 54 kilometers purely on electricity. And of course, you don’t have to run out of electricity all at once: in hybrid mode, when driving with a full battery, the energy charged from the wall helps to comfortably reduce gas consumption.

As standard equipment, the car’s internal charger is a cold one, with an output of only 3.7 kilowatts. This does not matter when charging at home, because the 12.4 kilowatt-hour battery is needed during the night anyway. But if you want to get significant amounts of power from the transaction charger during shopping trips, you have to buy a 7.4 kW charger available as an accessory for 600 euros.

From within The C5X is surprisingly conservative for a French car. Nowhere are there any incredibly strange solutions, which now requires a little getting used to using the information system smoothly. Conventional switches have been nicely saved for the air conditioning, and there is no need to fiddle with any vague touchpads in the cockpit to adjust basic functions.

Only the exceptionally wide and glossy plastic underside of the steering wheel is a bit annoying, when driving on the highway I’m used to resting my left hand at six o’clock.

This has also been done for the road. Iso Sitikka swallows kilometers in its price category remarkably smoothly and quietly. Even in the basic model, the suspension is focused on comfort, but this plug-in hybrid gets adjustable shock absorption, where the car adjusts the damping according to the road surface with the help of acceleration sensors. When you choose the softest comfort as the driving mode, the car wobbles on bumpy roads so much that you almost laugh while driving.

Someone may find the ride uncomfortably loose at times, but few cars offer this kind of suspension softness, so I don’t use anything other than the comfort setting during the test drive. Let’s enjoy now completely side by side.

On the other hand, Sitikka is not a heavy-duty cornering machine, not even if the shock absorption is tightened to the sport position. The Sport setting is actually completely useless in this car.

The steering feel has been enhanced to be quite poor in the modern style, and you hardly pay attention to it. The operation of the eight-speed torque converter automatic transmission is occasionally a little angular, but the smooth torque of the electric motor alleviates this.

The electric motor alone produces 110 horsepower, which is enough for easy driving even at highway speeds. The range of the electric drive is stated to be 54 kilometers, and in the summer weather it was achieved. The reading represents something of a golden mean for current plug-in hybrids. Based on general experience, the range in winter could be assumed to be 30–40 kilometers.

Empty with the battery, the C5X consumed 6.5 liters in combined driving, measured when refueling, which is quite a reasonable reading for a car of this size. I drove one longer trip also in hybrid mode so that the battery was full when I left. In this case, the car uses gasoline and electricity alternately, depending on which is the cheapest in the driving situation. The average fuel consumption for the 140 km trip was 3.7 liters per hundred, and the battery was completely empty when we arrived.

The charging hybrid therefore offers cheap kilometers if you just understand how to keep the battery charging.

The interior is spacious, although in the charging hybrid model, the battery takes up a little space in the rear trunk. There is still 485 liters under the hat shelf, and with the rear seats folded down, you can fit large items.

The front seats are moderately comfortable. Personally, I would still like extendable thigh support and better lateral support. The benches are quite slatted in the front and back.

The importer’s test model was fully equipped as usual, but even the second-level Shine equipment seems to offer everything necessary, including a fairly clear windshield display. Sitika’s navigator is not the best in terms of usability, but you can replace it with Google: C5X perfectly supports Android Auto and also Apple Carplay.

Sitikka positively surprises. For around 50,000 euros you can already get all kinds of cars, but the C5X at least fills its own corner on the market with personality.

The car also arouses interest during the test drive week. There aren’t many of these in Finland yet. In the parking lot of a small shopping center, a young man with his child unexpectedly comes to ask if that is the new C5X. Can I come and see?

Yes, yes, and of course you can. I present the car and its features, but the man seems to already know about them. The reason will become clear.

“I just ordered this for my next car. We are waiting for it to arrive.”

So nothing but ilometers for the steering wheel of the new Sitika.