Citroen C5 X review

Quick verdict

If the Peugeot 408 goes for sporty appeal and the DS 4 for luxury, Citroen’s C5 X is the comfortable, calming one of the French family car trio. It’s stylish inside and out, doesn’t cost much to buy or run, and few cars at its price point are more comfortable or relaxing to drive.

Citroen C5 X: price, specs and rivals

Since 2021, the C5 X has been Citroen’s range-topping model, but that doesn’t mean it commands especially high prices – in fact a C5 X in entry-level You! trim will set you back little more than a moderately well-specified supermini, at just under £30,000. That’s also around £5,000 less than the most affordable Skoda Superb, the Citroen’s closest rival in a shrinking market. The all-electric Volkswagen ID.7 is another option, but prices for that start at more than £51,000.

Like the Skoda, the Citroen is a five-door hatchback, although there’s a bit of SUV thinking creeping in, with a slightly higher profile than a typical large hatch, and some body cladding to complete the effect. Some brands might call it an ‘SUV Coupe’ thanks to the sleek, sloping roofline, but in reality Citroen has created something that’s difficult to pigeonhole.

The C5 X is currently offered in You! trim with the PureTech 130 petrol engine, with better-equipped Plus trim being around £1,500 more and Max another £2,000 on top of that. Hybrid 136 models start at just under £32,000 in Plus form, while the Plug-in Hybrid 225 jumps more significantly, rising from just over £39,000 for a Plus, to more than £43,000 for the range-topping Hypnos.

The fanciest model is plush enough to make you question who would pay £20,000 extra for a DS 9 from Citroen’s premium brand, with tactile leather and Alcantara seat trim, an upgraded audio system and unique exterior details. Even the You! is well-equipped, with 19-inch alloys, front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera and an acoustic windscreen.

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Like several of Citroen’s other models, and much like many of the cars in the company’s past, the C5 X ignores the modern trend for sportiness and places comfort right at the top of its priority list. As such, the chassis is designed very much to isolate you from the road, and the result is one of the most comfortable cars you can buy short of much more expensive luxury models.

Your first impressions will be of a cushioned, even floaty ride quality that really takes the sting out of uneven or broken surfaces. It’s not infallible – hit a pothole or an expansion joint, the kind of bumps to cause a short, sharp shock, and you’ll feel a thud, but just about everything else is dealt with quietly and comfortably. On motorways especially you can waft along in near-silence, with little engine, wind or suspension noise – only some road roar really gets through.

The car does lean over in swiftly taken corners, but it’s far from being out of its depth, with light and accurate steering making the C5 X easy to place. If anything will discourage you from driving quickly, though, it’s not the handling, but the engines – the petrol, hybrid and plug-in hybrid are also designed to Citroen’s comfort and isolation goals, so they’re quiet, smooth and at their best being driven gently rather than flat out.

The 0-62mph times vary from a gentle 10.4 seconds for the 1.2-litre PureTech to a brisk but still unhurried-feeling 7.9 for the plug-in model, helped by a decent hit of low-down torque from the electric motor. An automatic gearbox is standard on all – eight speeds for the petrol and plug-in, six for the regular hybrid. You can take control of gears yourself via paddles behind the steering wheel, but you get the sense the car would prefer you didn’t – it’s better left to its own devices.

Brakes are the only real weakness on the C5 X. They’re powerful enough and for a car this size there’s not too much weight to stop, but the pedal feel in the plug-in particularly is quite soft and spongy. Thankfully, you can mostly ignore them by using the ‘B’ mode for stronger regenerative braking.

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Citroen’s reputation for building frugal vehicles is not jeopardised by the C5 X, at least on paper. Even the basic PureTech 130 petrol gets close to the 50mpg mark, while the Hybrid 136 promises an official figure of 58.9mpg, and thanks to nearly 40 miles of electric range contributing to the bottom line, the maximum figure for the Plug-in Hybrid 225 is 236.2mpg.

The plug-in variant is likely to deviate furthest from its official numbers depending on how frequently you’re able to recharge it. With the battery mostly depleted, the Hypnos-spec car we drove spent most of the week knocking on the door of 50mpg, including some motorway trips. Those able to regularly charge will see instant improvements, while the 44-litre tank will get you more than 400 miles with ease – not as far as the latest Skoda Superb, which also has a much stronger electric-only range, too. Real-world, you’re looking at roughly 25 miles of EV driving from the Citroen, and closer to 60-70 miles from the Skoda.

Tax

All models emit relatively little CO2 and aren’t stung too harshly by first-year VED road tax rates as a result – you’ll pay £270 for the PureTech petrol, £220 for the hybrid, and only £10 for the plug-in hybrid, thanks to its 30g/km CO2 rating. The petrol is £190 a year thereafter and the two hybrids £10 less than that, although high-spec plug-in models do breach the £40,000 barrier, so your VED bill will be £590 per year from the second to sixth years of registration.

For the 2024/2025 tax year, the petrol and hybrid are in the 32% and 28% Benefit-in-Kind tax bands, while the plug-in hybrid is in the 12% bracket, for under 50g/km and under 40 miles of pure EV range.

Insurance groups

Citroen hasn’t yet confirmed insurance group data for the Hybrid 136 models, but the regular petrol PureTech 130 starts from insurance group 20, while the plug-in hybrids begin in group 30 and go up from there, depending on trim level.

Depreciation

Residual values aren’t a C5 X strong point. The best option from a depreciation point of view is the You! trim, which is predicted to hold on to 46.1 per cent of its original value after three years or 36,000 miles. For the most expensive plug-in hybrid model, that number drops to 42.4 per cent, which means a circa-£43,000 car will be worth a little over £18,000 in 36 months. The Skoda Superb is slightly better than the Citroen, with its range set to maintain between 46 and 48 per cent over the same period.

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The Citroen C5 X is nothing if not distinctive. While the idea of a large five-door hatchback is not new, the C5 X couldn’t be anything other than a Citroen. It’s similar under the skin to the Peugeot 408 and DS 4 (although longer overall), but has a chunky, pseudo off-road look with plastic body cladding and slightly raised ground clearance. The familiar double-chevron grille motif flows into an X-shaped light signature at the front, replicated in the rear lights, while all trim levels get a pair of rear spoilers, at the top and bottom of the tailgate.

It’s just as well the design is striking as Citroen has played it on the safe side with paint hues - the mossy Amazonite Grey and dark Eclipse Blue are the only non-greyscale shades. All models get 19-inch alloy wheels of essentially the same design, too – just differentiated by their finish.

The C5 X’s cabin can also be a little monochrome depending on trim level, but there’s otherwise a lot to like. The floating air vents either side of the dash are neat, and higher trim levels get tasteful and tactile wood-grain effect panels across the dash and door cards, replaced by even more touchy-feely ‘Karuun’ in the Hypnos, a sustainable material made from rattan palm.

Clear digital displays are standard across the range, complemented on all but the You! with a head-up display. Thankfully, Citroen gives you physical controls for the air-conditioning, which are simple to use and feel nicely made – in fact, the cabin feels well built in general, with high-quality touchpoints; you’ll find regular plastics of course, but none that really detracts from the overall look and feel.

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Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment

Citroen has learned from some of its previous models and the infotainment system in the C5 X is among its best efforts yet. For a start, you get physical controls for air-conditioning functions, so there’s no need to faff around in the screen just to turn up the temperature.

While you do need to venture into the screen to turn off some of the more nannying driver assist functions, Citroen makes that easy too, with a physical hotkey button that gets you to the right menu instantly. Another physical button beside it takes you to the home screen for the system. Bravo, Citroen.

Pairing your phone is easy enough, although you’ll only find USB-C ports in the cabin if you prefer to connect your devices through a cable. Bluetooth works well and we had no disconnection issues in our Hypnos test car, with Apple CarPlay functioning as well as ever. However, while you get a wireless charging pad, it seemed to do little other than make our iPhone a bit hot, rather than actually charging it.

Navigating the menus is straightforward and the screen is fairly responsive too. We’d say the system in a Skoda Superb is a little more intuitive, but it’s difficult to complain about Citroen’s implementation. Most models get a 12-inch screen, although the budget-friendly You! has a slightly smaller 10-inch display, albeit with the same functionality. One advantage of the C5 X’s particularly refined cabin is that even quieter podcasts are perfectly audible, and the sound quality in our Hypnos test car with its eight-speaker system was more than acceptable, too.

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In giving the C5 X a cabin full of eye-catching details and tactile materials, Citroen thankfully hasn’t forgotten good old-fashioned practicality. Designers have made the most of it being one of the brand’s larger models and there’s plenty of space for people and luggage as a result, plus some clever touches to make day-to-day use a little easier. There’s nothing especially novel here; it’s more a case of getting the basics right, from plenty of seat adjustment to more than adequate rear passenger headroom and legroom.

Dimensions and size

While the C5 X is a rival for the Skoda Superb, it takes up a little less space on the road. At 4.8 metres long it’s still no supermini, but that’s around 10cm shorter than a Superb. It’s a touch wider, but the SUV-style cladding is just a visual illusion, as it’s within a few millimetres of the Skoda in height. Citroen doesn’t quote a ride height for the C5 X, but if you do need to venture further off the beaten track, the C5 Aircross or a Berlingo will be a better option.

Seats, leg room, head room & passenger space

The C5 X is a five-seater and while the middle rear seat is, as with most vehicles, more of a lump between the outer seats, nobody gets a bad deal with the all-important headroom and legroom – all passengers have plenty of space. There’s good adjustment for the front passengers, too, and the seats themselves are very comfortable, at least if you appreciate softer chairs that you sink into a little. If there’s one downside, it’s that models with all-black trim can feel a little gloomy, particularly in the back, making it feel tighter than it actually is.

Boot space

As is often the case in models with conventional petrol, hybrid, and plug-in options, you’ll get a slightly different boot size depending on your chosen powertrain. Namely, petrol and regular hybrid C5 Xs get 545 litres to their name, dropping down to 485 litres for the plug-in. That said, the large hatchback of the C5 X makes access easy whichever model you go for, and the plug-in has a small storage area below the boot floor for stashing a charging cable. The sloping roof means it doesn’t have estate car utility (you may not want to put a large dog back there, for instance) but the weekly shop or a fortnight’s holiday will be a doddle.

Max and Hypnos models get an electric tailgate, while all models feature what Citroen calls ‘Magic Handles’, for flipping the rear seats down from the boot.

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The Citroen C5 X has been around since 2021 and was crash-tested in 2022 by Euro NCAP, scoring a four-star rating. It’s a safe car as a result, although as you can see from its scores, there’s room for improvement in all areas compared with some of the car’s rivals, and you’ll need to spend a little more money on higher-spec variants to get more advanced versions of some of the car’s safety systems.

While the C5 X didn’t appear in our 2024 Driver Power ownership survey, the C5 Aircross – which is a close relative – did. It was quite an appearance too, coming in at ninth position. Don’t think it was reliability holding it back from polling even higher, either – it was mainly the car’s handling and styling that marked it down. If you’re fine with both of those in the C5 X, that bodes well for its longevity, while we were perfectly happy with the general feel and quality of our C5 X test car too.

Should you buy a Citroen C5 X?

The Citroen C5 X is resolutely not a car for drivers who want sporty handling, an aggressive image or a glitzy leather-lined cabin. In fact, it offers just about the opposite on every front. That’s fine by us though, as there are already plenty of models like that on the market, and Citroen’s more relaxing approach with its big family hatch is quite refreshing.

Compared to its closest competitor, the straight-laced Skoda Superb, some of the Citroen’s quirks might turn you off, but the C5 X gets most of the basics right, from its spacious cabin and boot to a logical, simple-to-use infotainment system, and a series of powertrains that offer a good balance of performance and economy.

And where the C5 X plays to its strengths, you’ll find a lot to savour – few cars at this price point have a smoother ride or a more calming cabin ambience. It’s probably more likeable than its closest cousins, the DS 4 and Peugeot 408, too.