2021 Citroen C5 Aircross Shine 1.6 Turbo Review

Here’s a fun fact: the longest continually-sold automotive brand sold in Australia is not Ford, Holden, Toyota or Mercedes-Benz – it’s actually Citroen. That’s right, since 1923, the French brand has sold its products in Australia, either through importers or directly from its head office. The brand has gained a small but extremely loyal following – just look at its social media posts to find how much owners love their cars – and it’s easy to see why with such innovative products in its lineup. Today’s automotive market is saturated with mid-size SUVs, so what’s Citroen’s attempt like? Enter the 2021 Citroen C5 Aircross. 

Based on the same platform as the excellent Peugeot 3008, the C5 Aircross is offered in two specs in Australia: the $42,990 plus on-road costs Feel and the $46,990 +ORC (around $52,000 drive away depending on your location) Shine that we tested. Just one engine is offered and there are no options aside from paint colour.

Price & Equipment: 6/10

Standard equipment on the top-spec C5 Aircross Shine includes 19-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, auto lights and wipers, dual-zone climate control, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and gearknob, half-leather/cloth upholstery with an eight-way power adjustable driver’s seat with manual lumbar adjustment, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation, digital radio, a wireless charging pad, a 12.3-inch digital driver’s display, keyless entry and start, cruise control with a speed limiter, heated and auto-folding mirrors with puddle lamps, a foot-operated electric tailgate and sliding and reclining rear seats. 

Safety kit includes six airbags, auto emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning with lane keep assist, driver attention monitoring, speed sign recognition, blind-spot monitoring, a reversing camera with front and rear parking sensors and tyre pressure monitoring. 

Available colours for the C5 Aircross include the no-cost ‘Bianca White’, while ‘Nera Black’, ‘Artense Grey’, ‘Platinum Grey’, ‘Volcano Orange’ with our test car’s fetching ‘Emerald Green’ are $690 extra. A platinum ‘Pearl White’ is $1,050. The grey/black colour combination is the only option available for the interior.

What’s the 2021 Citroen C5 Aircross missing? Well, features such as adaptive cruise control with stop and go functionality, auto high beam, auto parking, heated front seats, a black Nappa leather interior ambience and a panoramic sunroof should be included or at least optional – all of them are available overseas.

A more advanced AEB system with pedestrian and cyclist detection is also available on overseas C5 Aircross models and we think all of those features should be offered here for a superior value equation than what’s currently on offer.

Competitors to the C5 Aircross include the $49,570 drive away Volkswagen Tiguan 132TSI Life, the $51,752 drive away Mazda CX-5 GT and the $50,990 drive away Peugeot 3008 GT. All four cars share broadly similar equipment levels – the CX-5 features leather upholstery, a sunroof and a 12-speaker Bose sound system, while the Tiguan offers a strong suite of active safety kit, along with more power. The Peugeot offers the most luxurious and high quality interior. The Mazda and Volkswagen are also all-wheel drive in these specs, if that’s what you’re looking for. 

Performance & Economy: 7/10

Like its Peugeot 3008 cousin, the Citroen C5 Aircross uses a 121kW/240Nm 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine that’s mated to a six-speed automatic transmission. Like the petrol-powered 3008, it’s front-wheel drive only – plug-in hybrid versions sold overseas can be all-wheel drive, though they’re not offered in Australia for the time being.

The engine itself has been around for a long time and many local Peugeot Citroen models have used it. It’s totally fine for solely-urban duties, and can handle a road trip such as ours with ease – but there’s no sparkle, it’s just fine. It’s got a rorty note when you’re revving it, but it’s not quick – the 0-100km/h sprint time is a leisurely 9.9 seconds.

The six-speed automatic transmission used in the C5 Aircross is much like the engine: totally fine. It shifts smartly and intuitively, though it’s not especially quick. You can put it into sport mode for a slightly sportier drive setting, but we’d not bother as the C5 Aircross is not an especially sporty car – and that’s fine! 

As for fuel consumption, Citroen claims 7.9L/100km on a combined cycle and on our mostly-highway roadtrip, we achieved 7.4L/100km – not brilliant, in our opinion. The C5 Aircross also needs minimum 95RON fuel. 

A better engine option exists in the NZ-spec C5 Aircross (and the Australian 3008 GT Sport): a new 133kW/250Nm 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine. The increase in outputs isn’t much, but it’s mated to an eight-speed auto that makes it feel quicker and helps drivability significantly. The fuel consumption is also much better – in the 3008, it drops from 7.9L/100km combined to just 5.6L/100km, which is only 0.6L/100km above the optional 2.0-litre diesel.

Ride & Handling: 9/10

In an age where manufactures are obsessed with marketing their SUVs are razor sharp and sporty – in an almost two-tonne SUV, really? – it’s refreshing to see Citroen marketing the C5 Aircross as the comfortable option in the segment. What makes it so comfortable? Well, the seats have 15mm of soft foam for greater padding, but the suspension is unique in offering hydraulic upper bump-stoppers, which basically smoothens the ride and limits bigger hits from entering the cabin.

It’s a fantastic system that gives the C5 Aircross a genuine unique selling point in the segment. Its low speed ride quality is definitely better than its competitors, while the highway ride is just excellent. What would make it better is smaller wheels – the large 19s that come standard on the C5 Aircross do take away some of the softness brought on by the innovative suspension system. Try out the cheaper Feel and its smaller 18s before committing to the Shine.

Despite being aimed more at comfort than sportiness, the C5 Aircross still handles well. The steering in particular, offers a reasonable amount of feel and its conventional location in the cabin – versus the Peugeot’s futuristic ‘i-Cockpit’ low-mounted wheel – makes you feel more in sync with the car’s dynamics. Despite acoustic glass, the C5 Aircross can be reasonably loud for road noise – blame the large wheels – but its visibility is excellent thanks to large windows.

Interior & Practicality: 8/10

Like many Citroen products of the past, the 2021 Citroen C5 Aircross offers up a different and intriguing interior full of character. While it doesn’t hit the same luxurious vibes of the 3008 or the same tech-heavy feel as the Tiguan, it’s good quality, relatively practical and an enjoyable cabin to spend time in. Material use is solid without being flashy – soft touch materials line the front door tops and dashboard facia, though the dashboard itself uses hard materials. It’s certainly much more interesting to look at than the Tiguan’s cabin, and its driving position is much better as well – there’s no minivan feeling behind the wheel here.

Centre of the C5 Aircross’ cabin lies an 8.0-inch touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation and digital radio. It’s the same software used in the 3008, though the screen is mounted more conventionally in (not on top of) the dashboard and with a few more shortcut keys mounted below such as a button to turn the HVAC system off, which helps with usability.

As in the 3008, the screen quality is not great and it can be slow to use – a sharper screen and quicker processor as in the Tiguan would do wonders for the in-car tech. The menus can also be confusingly laid out – turning off the auto-folding mirrors is labeled as ‘blocking of the automatic mirror fold-in function’ and not simply ‘auto-folding mirrors’, for example.

The C5 Aircross’ cabin is quite practical with reasonably-sized cup holders, a big tray with a wireless charger, a humongous centre console bin under the central arm rest and reasonable door pockets – though they lack shaping for bottles. The glovebox is typically French – as it is in the 3008 as well – and is tiny thanks to the placement of the fusebox not being moved for right-hand drive cars.

The back seat of the C5 Aircross lacks a centre armrest and isn’t great for legroom, though those are its only downfalls. Headroom is excellent, even for taller folk, and practicality is strong – the seats are split into three and each can be slid back and forth, as well as reclined for greater bootspace or passenger comfort. The rear seat also features rear vents, reasonable door pockets and a single USB-A port. 

The boot of the C5 Aircross is excellent, and measures a minimum 580-litres (up to 720L with the rear seats slid forward) with the seats up and 1,630L with the seats folded flat. The boot offers a few hooks and tie down points, as well as a dual-level floor height. The spare wheel is a space saver unit.

Service & Warranty: 7/10

Like its competitors, the Citroen C5 Aircross comes with a five-year/unlimited km warranty with five years of roadside assistance – competitors offer the same warranty duration, though if you don’t service your Tiguan with a VW dealership, you lose out on roadside assistance inclusion. Like the Peugeot with the same drivetrain, servicing the C5 Aircross occurs once yearly or every 20,000km, whichever comes first and five years or 100,000km of servicing costs a high $3,055 ($611 per service) – strangely $114 more than the Peugeot 3008 with the same engine over the same time period.

But CX-5 servicing over the same time period (but only to 10,000km thanks to the Mazda’s short intervals) costs $1,969 ($393 per service) – do more km and that will easily increase. The Tiguan 132TSI Life costs an insane $3,703 ($740 per service) over the same five-year period and it needs to be serviced 5,000km earlier each year as well. 

The 2021 Citroen C5 Aircross Shine DiscoverAuto Rating: 7.4/10

While it’s not a common sight on Australian roads, the 2021 Citroen C5 Aircross is a unique mid-size SUV that has quite a lot going for it. It’s funky to look at, rides and handles well, is practical, well-featured and is brimming full of character. We think that it’s a big shame as to how slowly these cars sell in Australia as mid-size SUVs are everywhere, but lots of them have faults, and the C5 Aircross fundamentally features less faults. 

In our opinion, what needs fixing is how the car is positioned in Australia. While it’s priced around the same level as its competitors, it needs to offer more standard kit – particularly in terms of safety kit such as adaptive cruise control – that is offered overseas, such as the New Zealand-spec car. We’d also welcome introducing the higher-rated yet more efficient 1.6L turbo petrol engine as it is much more modern. Finally, lowering service costs would help more Australian buyers consider the C5 Aircross as while it doesn’t score that high, it would definitely be the mid-size SUV that this writer would be considering.