Category: Large Family 
Price Range: No data available
Good-looking, well-equipped, improved handling, option of conventional steel-spring suspension, quiet and comfortable ride.
Technically complex, poor reliability record of last C5.
A much more appealing proposition than its predecessor.
The 2001-2008 Citroen C5 scored very poorly - near-bottom - in a number of reliability and customer satisfaction surveys, and seems to have suffered a wide variety of problems and glitches.
These include faults and failures of both manual and automatic gearboxes, the self-levelling suspension, brakes and clutches, locking systems, particulate filters in the diesels plus a myriad of electronic and electrical issues.
However, to give the C5 the benefit of the doubt, many of these faults should have been ironed out - most of its components have been thoroughly tried and tested in a series of Peugeot and Citroen models, and there's not too much all-new here.
It also feels finished to a higher standard, with better attention to detail in the cabin and to its fixtures and fittings. The softer-touch plastics and the upholstery are improved, too.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Citroen C5 Estate
wrote on 26 09 2008