2023 Citroen C5 X Shine Review

French brand Citroen has a long and innovative history with some of the most beautiful and advanced cars the world has ever seen, like the DS and C6. Naturally, the brand has a loyal following and it’s actually been on sale in Australia since 1923 – yep, it’s been here for 100 years this year. It’s been through a bit of a mediocre period prior to the past few years, and Australian sales have not been kind as a result. But now there’s new life at the local arm of the company, with a whole host of new products. Is the 2023 Citroen C5 X Shine good enough to turn the company’s fortune around? Let’s find out.

Instead of a regular sedan and wagon duo this time around, the C5 has been launched globally as the sharp styled ‘C5 X’ that, according to the brand, combines the best parts of an SUV, a wagon and a sedan. That means that the C5 is now solely available as a lifted wagon to be branded as the ever-fashionable SUV and competes with a wider range of cars, including the Subaru Outback, Volkswagen Passat Alltrack and Volvo V60 Cross Country, as well as mid-size SUVs like the Mazda CX-5 and Toyota RAV4.

Price & Equipment: 8/10

Priced from $57,690 plus on-road costs (around $63,000 drive away), the 2023 Citroen C5 X is offered in Australia as a single model – the Shine – which is fully loaded with equipment.

Standard kit includes 19-inch alloy wheels, automatic all-LED lighting with front and rear LED daytime running lights, auto wipers, keyless entry and start with a hands-free electric tailgate, a panoramic sunroof, heated and auto-folding mirrors that dip in reverse, leather upholstery with heated front seats, a 12-way electrically adjustable driver’s seat with memory and a 10-way electric front passenger seat, dual-zone climate control with rear air vents, four USB-C ports (one in the centre console, one in the centre box and two for rear passengers), a 12.3-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, digital radio, satellite navigation with live traffic, an inbuilt SIM card for live services, voice control, a 7.0-inch digital driver’s display, an eight-speaker sound system and a wireless phone charger.

There’s a new myCitroen app too, which debuted in Australia with the C5 X. It allows owners to check various parameters about the car – fuel level, location and locking and unlocking – from their smartphone. The first three years of the app are included in the price of the car.

The C5 X is yet to be testing by ANCAP for safety, but was given a four-star Euro NCAP rating. Safety kit includes six airbags, auto emergency braking (AEB) with low light pedestrian and cyclist detection, adaptive cruise control with stop and go functionality, lane keep assist with lane trace assist, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, auto high beam, driver attention monitoring, traffic sign recognition, automatic parking, front and rear parking sensors and a 360-degree parking camera.

The only no-cost colour option for the C5 X is ‘Magnetic Blue’ with all other colours costing extra. These colours include ‘Steel Grey’, ‘Amazonite Grey’, ‘Nera Black’ and our test car’s ‘Platinum Grey’ which are a $690 extra, while the special ‘Pearl White’ is $1,090. Black leather is the sole interior option.

There are two main competitors to the C5 X Shine: the Subaru Outback Touring XT (priced from around $62,000 drive away) and the Volkswagen Passat Alltrack 162TSI Premium (around $69,000 drive away). Both the Subaru and Volkswagen feature all-wheel drive as standard, and more power and torque too. But the Citroen has healthy equipment otherwise – a larger touchscreen with live services, a panoramic sunroof and ‘long range’ blind-spot monitoring are the C5 X’s highlights.

Performance & Economy: 8/10

Under the bonnet of the 2023 Citroen C5 X Shine is the same 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine that is used in the C5 Aircross, though it features the updated more powerful and more efficient version. It makes 133kW of power (at 5,500rpm) and 250Nm of torque (at just 1,650rpm), uses an eight-speed automatic transmission and is solely front-wheel drive. The claimed 0-100km/h time is 8.1 seconds, which isn’t hugely fast but more than enough for everyday use.

The engine itself is fairly unremarkable – but in a good way. It’s quiet, produces its peak torque low in the rev range – just 1,650rpm! – and is a generally pretty good companion. What would make it even better, however, is if it had the 165kW/300Nm tune of this engine that features in its cousin, the Peugeot 508 GT – or a plug-in hybrid variant too. Just a bit more go would make it that bit more entertaining.

The only transmission available is an eight-speed torque converter automatic that’s made by Aisin, which is intuitive and generally pain free to use – it’s also far nicer to use than both the CVT automatic in the Outback and the DSG in the Passat Alltrack. The new toggle for the transmission selector can take some time to get used to – especially when doing three-point turns – but it handily saves space for more storage. The stop-start system needs refinement, however, as it is slow to fire the engine again after being stopped and even lets the car roll back – we turned it off for that reason alone.

The claimed fuel consumption for the 2023 Citroen C5 X is just 6.0L/100km – the Outback is rated at 9.0L/100km and the Passat 8.1L/100km – and in our testing, achieved 6.7L/100km (including a 5.4L/100km highway run). Its CO2 emissions are rated at 137g/km, it needs minimum 95RON premium unleaded and has a 52-litre fuel tank, giving a range of around 750km based on our fuel consumption.

Ride & Handling: 9.5/10

Based on Peugeot Citroen’s ‘EMP2’ platform that it shares with a plethora of other PSA cars, including the aforementioned 508, Peugeot 3008 and the Citroen C5 Aircross, the 2023 Citroen C5 X rides and handles wonderfully well. Citroen is known for innovation and its innovation shines through in its ‘Progressive Hydraulic Cushions’ suspension system.

Basically, the suspension has two hydraulic stops — one for compression and one for rebound, which work in tandem to further slow down the whole action of the shocks. The result is that even larger bumps – despite the large 19-inch wheels – just don’t make their way into the cabin, and it delivers on the comfort that Citroen promises.

The C5 X’s low 1,439kg tare weight (almost 300kg less than the Outback and 250kg less than the Passat) also really helps with how well the C5 X drives. With such a focus on comfort, it’s not a dynamic superstar – but that’s very refreshing in today’s market with seemingly everything on the market featuring a rock hard ride quality. That’s not to say that it drives badly at all – the body control is good, the steering is light but well weighted and the handling is reasonable too.

Elsewhere in the driving experience, the C5 X is also excellent. It’s very quiet inside with great noise suppression, while the visibility – aside from the lack of rear wiper! – and active safety systems are great as well. If you’re looking to tow with a C5 X, it can tow a braked 1,600kg trailer – 800kg less than the Outback and 600kg less than the Passat.

Interior & Practicality: 9/10

The interior of the 2023 Citroen C5 X is excellent, with a real improvement in quality, technology and ergonomics compared with recent Citroen products. It’s not quite as practical as the Outback, nor as solid feeling as the Passat, but it’s still a great place to spend time. The quality is great with lots of soft touch materials, including on the dashboard and door tops, tasteful synthetic leather and faux wood on the dashboard and a nice slab of stitched faux leather for where your knees rest on the centre console.

The cabin of the C5 X is quite practical, with big door bins, a big centre box underneath the centre armrest, a big tray underneath the centre console with a wireless phone charger and – surprisingly for a French car – a big glove box as well. The seats are quite comfortable too, with 12 ways of electric adjustment for the driver, while the mirror controls also adjust the heads-up display, which is genius.

Centre of the C5 X’s cabin is a new 12.3-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation with live traffic, digital radio and online services like weather through the “Hello Citroen” voice assistant. It’s a massive improvement on the older Citroen infotainment software – the screen quality is better, the colouring is brighter and it’s much quicker as well. It’s also easy to use and has over-the-air updates as well – plus, the eight-speaker sound system is punchy too.

The configurable 7.0-inch digital driver’s display initially seems quite small, with not much information being shown through it, until you realise that the large heads-up display has a map, and all other relevant information like the trip computer, navigation directions, entertainment information and the active cruise control information when it’s set as well. We quite like this set up as it means that the relevant information being shown is in your line of sight.

The rear cabin of the C5 X is very comfortable and reasonably spacious for six-foot adults – impressively too, the soft touch plastics carry on into the rear cabin, which is rare. The transmission tunnel is relatively small so fitting three across is possible too. The back seat is also featured with door bins, map pockets, air vents and two USB-C ports – though no centre arm rest features in Australia. There are two ISOFIX points, plus three top tether points as well.

The bootspace of the C5 X measures a healthy 545-litres with the seats up and a huge 1,640L with the seats folded (versus the 522L boot of the Outback and 650L boot of the Passat) though there’s an annoying ridge when the seats are folded. The boot has features like rails in the floor, tabs to pull to fold the seats, side storage and a 12V socket – there’s a space saver spare wheel underneath the boot floor.

Service & Warranty: 8/10

Like other new Citroen models, the 2023 Citroen C5 X Shine comes with a five-year/unlimited km warranty with five years of roadside assistance. Its service intervals are a long once-yearly/every 20,000km (whichever comes first). Five years/100,000km of servicing costs $2,818 ($563 per service) but you can choose a five-year service plan for a better value $2,000 ($500 per service) at the time of purchase – that’s something we would definitely do. The C5 X’s servicing isn’t cheap, but the longer intervals do help out, especially for owners travelling more than 15,000km annually.

Both Subaru and Volkswagen also have five-year/unlimited km warranties with one year of roadside assistance, while their service intervals are 5,000km shorter at once yearly/every 15,000km. Five years/75,000km of servicing the Outback costs $2,369 ($474 per service) and the same for the Passat Alltrack costs a whopping $3,740 ($748 per service), though a $2,800 service pack ($560 per service) can purchased within the first 12 months of ownership for better value for money.

The 2023 Citroen C5 X Shine DiscoverAuto Rating: 8.5/10

The 2023 Citroen C5 X Shine is a real return to form for Citroen thanks to its good quality cabin, plethora of technology, pleasant driving experience, reasonably good value for money and relative fuel efficiency too. There’s evidence of the Citroen of old in it – the clever suspension, for example – and that’s something we’ve not seen in recent Citroen products and as enthusiasts, makes us happy to see.

Of course, it isn’t perfect – the engine is only adequate, it’s only front-wheel drive against all-wheel drive key rivals and it’s not cheap to service despite its longer 20,000km intervals – but it represents excellent family car buying that deserves far more attention in Australia than it currently does. We’re big fans of the C5 X – and we think that it should definitely be on your test drive list.