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Citroen C5 Road Test Reports and Car Reviews

Citroen C5

The beautiful Citroën C5 is the large family car with distinctive style and personality. Available in hatchback and estate versions, it combines style, interior space and performance to give you that unique Citroën driving pleasure.

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C5 Car Video

Citroen C5 car video reviews, adverts and promotional videos. These car vidoes will allow you to see the Citroen C5 in action and let you hear the opinions of all the top road test experts. Featuring car videos from MSN cars, Top Gear and other top sites.

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What Do You Say...?

Citroen C5 Car Reviews

Robert Graves, Lanarkshire

Citroen C5 2.0 HDi Exclusive 2007

4 star review

This is a big car and perfect for a large family. It’s excellent at coping with long trips - both the car itself and the passengers arrive in a very good condition. You get a lot of car for your money and it copes well both about town and on the motorway. It is perhaps a little unexciting and that is why I think it will be mostly used by company car drivers. Not the most luxurious of cars but inexpensive to run and reliable.

Submitted: 30/04/2008 15:22:24

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Thomas Kennedy, County Antrim

Citroen C5 2006

4 star review

I had a series of BX’s and Zantias. Loved them. Bought a Picasso, felt like cart, springs in the back. Tried a C4- little better. Now have a C5.VTR 138 hp. Great car!

Submitted: 25/02/2008 10:55:28

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Eric Lee, Hertfordshire

Citroen C5 1600 hdi est 2005

3 star review

After two Xantia’s, each covering 90,000 miles with no unexpected problems, the c5 hdi was obviously my next car. I purchased it from the same garage with 9,000 miles on the clock and less than 25,000 miles later and still within the 3 year warranty, the clutch explodes, well, I have not had a clutch go on a car for at least 35 years! Both dealer and Citroen reject there being a problem here, but according to Honest John’s website among others, it is an EU wide problem about which Citroen seem either unaware, or are just ignoring, I believe the latter! They say the fault is fair wear and tear and are not interested. Quoting me over £1200 for the job, which I got down to £950 after a lot of complaining, it’s not exactly a cheap repair. The clutch on this model is definitely under par. I love the car, but Citroen’s response is indefensible.

Submitted: 04/02/2008 11:52:27

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Alan, Hertfordshire

Citroen C5 Exclusive 2006

4 star review

I had a previous 3 litre C5 which had a host of irritating problems - never major but things that simply shouldn’t go wrong plus scores of ghost faults where either there would be a warning message or something would stop working but there was really nothing wrong and most would simply go away. Performance at the top end was great but the automatic made low end acceleration nothing to write home about. Comfortable, full of gadgets and roomy yes but not very inspiring. When it needed a rear silencer box at £900+ I decided it was time to move on and after searching for a while cautiously bought the face lift model with a 2.2 litre diesel. What a difference! It’s like driving a completely different car. The diesel provides excellent low end acceleration and the loss at the top end is hardly ever an issue. The ride is better, the road holding so completely different that it is hard to believe it is the same suspension system. I’ve now driven around 20,000 miles in just over a year and had only one ghost fault and no erroneous error messages. The ride, the comfort, the space and the value for money - I am really pleased with this car. One significant downside is the difficulty in changing bulbs in the headlamps - I’ve ended up leaving it the garage - 1/2 hour labour bringing the cost of a side light to over £50!

Submitted: 15/01/2008 09:52:28

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Michael Reeve, Norfolk

Citroen C5 LX 2006

3 star review

The C5 is a large, comfortable long distance tourer and in the 110 bhp diesel format is very economical. However it is not so good around town or on winding country roads. The cars bulk makes it difficult to manoeuvre and, without parking sensors, extremely difficult to judge where the rear is. The big let down is the electrics, especially the engine control system which continues to cause periods of irregular running in spite of being back to the dealer 5 times in less than 2 years. That said it has never let me down and the problems have mainly been annoying rather than serious, like the engine fan running on at full speed for 10 mins even when the engine temperatures are normal. Its pity is that these niggles detract from a reasonable car but why on earth did they make all the front lamp bulbs so difficult to change!!

Submitted: 03/01/2008 09:14:46

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Paul Whaley, Kent

Citroen C5 2.2 hdi estate-exclusive 2004

3 star review

I have owned the car for two years, the engine is fantastic no problems, the ride is very comfotable, but over the last three months a few things started to go wrong. The boot interior lights , the button in the boot which raises the back of the car up and down, the rear wiper and then the tailgate opening button all stopped working. The back up power on the computer read empty . The car is out off warrenty. I thought this will cost me lots of money to put right, so I started to check the wiring myself. I found where the wires came from the car into the tailgate , in the top left hand corner covered in a flexible rubber tube. Three of these wires inside the tube were broken all in the same place. I repaired these and every thing now works, but I am sure more will break as the wire bends double everytime the tailgate is opened and closed. Citroen UK tell me they have not had any reports of this happening to any other C5 estates. I cannot believe this. If you have any of the above problems it maybe worth checking these wires. I would buy another C5 but I am disappointed with both by Citroen dealer and Citroen Uks lack of interest and response to my problem and solution.

Submitted: 06/12/2007 09:20:04

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James Crawford, East Lothian (Haddingtonshire)

Citroen C5 1600 diesel 110 hp 2005

1 star review

A HEALTH warning for all owners of this model. Bought this car with 200 miles on the clock ex demonstrator my most recent of many faults was the so called environmentally friendly particle filter. It may be friendly to the environment but it is not very friendly to the driver.It is recommended that you replace this filter every 70.000 miles in the service book. I have had the car for two years with 28.000 on the clock now. It has been serviced regularly by the Citroen dealer I bought it from. Last service was 4000 miles ago when I had to have the gearbox rebuilt due to faulty parts but thats another story. Drive up to 100 miles a day to work. And put it down to my age feeling tired . irritated eyes , breathlessness, sore joints,stuffed nose, palpitations, and feeling really bad. Aged mid fifty. Then I started noticing the dashboard display was becoming discoloured and decided to check under the bonnet. Where I discovered that the turbo was covered in very heavy soot and after reving the engine and seeing the ammount of smoke that was coming back out of the turbo it was not hard to work out why the displays were stained and why I was feeling so bad as it was evident that fumes were coming in to the cab. This could have been a fatal situation. Took it back to the dealer and told them the whole story. It was with the dealer for two days the first day they had to order parts the second day they phoned to say it was ready. I enquired what had been wrong with it and the lady in the service dept replied that they had replaced the particle filter because it had become clogged by carbon build up and was stopping the exhaust fumes from getting out and that Citroen UK had a fault number against it so they were aware of it. I was completely shocked by this response surely if they knew about this fault it should have justified a recall. For such a thing to be advertised as environmentally friendly is a joke and Citroen need to come clean and admit these faults before there is a fatality. Got my car back with all the staining still in place. Looks like an old worn out car. Still waiting to find out the affects it has had on my health. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED have not got time to go through the rest of the faults.

Submitted: 29/11/2007 13:00:31

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Paul Hewson, Newport

Citroen C5 2.2 HDI 2007

4 star review

Good on interior space, a smooth drive on the motorway but not the most exciting drive but it does the job.

Submitted: 13/11/2007 10:59:34

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