Nothing retro here
The legendary Citroen DS… the divine ‘déesse’… is not a car that could be copied. Nor is there any call to. With their new DS model range Citroen are finding ways of standing out from the crowd without indulging in retro nostalgia. “As for the qualities of our cars’ interior we took Audi as our benchmark,” says Pierre Monferrini, head of the DS project. Step into a fully equipped DS5 and one is immediately aware that the French no longer have anything to fear in this respect. There are chic cup holders with matte chrome trim, the shifter is agreeably styled, there is an abundance of polished metal and the impression is of great attention to detail. The cockpit of the 4.53 metres long auto justifies its bid to belong to the premium segment. In fact no Citroen model in the past evidenced such high-quality workmanship nor made use of such fine materials.
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- “As for the qualities of our cars’ interior we took Audi as our benchmark,” says Pierre Monferrini, head of the DS project. Step into a fully equipped DS5 and one is immediately aware that the French no longer have anything to fear in this respect.
Flooded with light
The highlight is certainly the cockpit roof with two expanses of glass above both the driver and his front-seat passenger. And further back there is also a glass roof section. All of these can be shaded by louvred blinds. Switches and controls positioned in the roof lining of the car make one think of a business jet. Oddly enough, in spite of all this transparency the view from inside is less than optimal… the curve ahead is blocked by thick ‘A’ pillars, even if these do have small integrated windows and at the back the rear window is divided in favour of the spoiler. The seating is comfortable and not too soft and there is acceptable leg-room in the back. The boot has space for 460 litres of load although the carrying capacity is reduced to 330 litres in the hybrid version in order to accommodate the batteries behind the rear seats. The heads-up display is unusual in that it does not project speed and navigation data onto the windscreen itself but onto a clear plastic pane… but this turns out to be a practical solution. Far from practical, however, are the controls for the rear windows which are tucked away between the front seats behind the central console.
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- “As for the qualities of our cars’ interior we took Audi as our benchmark,” says Pierre Monferrini, head of the DS project. Step into a fully equipped DS5 and one is immediately aware that the French no longer have anything to fear in this respect.
Living room ambience
The basic DS5 model, designated ‘Chic’ is priced at 29,700 Euros for the version with the 156 horsepower petrol engine and 29,350 Euros for the 112 horsepower economy diesel. It is, however, well equipped as standard, with headlight automation and rain sensors, cruise control, air conditioning, LED daytime running lights and CD radio unit. The top model ‘SportChic’ (with the 200 horsepower petrol-fuelled engine, the 163 horsepower diesel or the hybrid power plant) will cost from 37,680 to 44,240 Euros, the latter being the tag on the hybrid model. Here the equipment package includes navigation system, parking assistance, the glass roof sections, leather upholstery, rear-view camera, heads-up display, seat heating and bi-Xenon headlights with curve adaptability. The DS5 is fully convincing as a luxury cruiser with living room ambience. But… and this surprises in a Citroen… the driving comfort seems to be a compromise. While the 200 horsepower petrol powered version seeks to express sporting ambitions it suffers from a suspension which fails to cushion the car’s occupants when pot-holes or bumps are encountered. In the corners the car remains quite stable but the electro-hydraulic Servo steering has too high restraining force at low speeds and feels unresponsive. At higher speeds, however, the steering is by no means too soft.
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- The manual six-speed gear boy seems far superior to the sluggish automatic transmission.
Now with diesel-hybrid
The most convincing motorizations are the familiar 1.6 litre turbo-charged petrol engines with either 156 or 200 horsepower, developed in cooperation with BMW. The admirable traction is delivered via an excellent six-speed gear-box (in the 200 horsepower configuration) or a somewhat sluggish six-stage automatic (156 horsepower). As alternatives there are diesel power plants with either 112 or 163 horsepower on offer, both of which run very quietly and pick up quickly unless linked to automatic transmissions which have never been Citroen’s strong point. The most economical diesel calls for an average of 4.4 litres per hundred kilometres driven according to the manufacturer. With the DS5 Citroen is introducing a diesel-hybrid version, the motorization technically identical to that deployed in Peugeot models. A 163 horsepower diesel powers the front wheels and there is a 27 kW electric motor sending its push to the rear axle. The DS5 can travel up to four kilometres on electrical power alone when ‘ZEV’ mode (Zero Emissions) has been selected but this also depends on the charge held by the 1.2 kWh nickel-metal hydride batteries… which as Citroen stress are the same as those installed in Toyota Prius models. Provided that the driver does not insist on hefty acceleration the DS5 can reach a top speed of 70 kilometres an hour when running on its batteries but when required to move more briskly he will feel the diesel motor cutting in, noticeably but not disturbingly.
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- The top model ‘SportChic’ as diesel-hybrid will cost 44,240 Euros
No paragon of dynamics
There is also an all-wheel-drive mode with power flowing to all four wheels. When the battery charge is too low the electric rear-axle motor will be fed by current generated by the internal combustion engine. But the hybrid cannot claim to be a paragon in terms of driving dynamics in any situation, even if in ‘Sport’ mode… with the maximum power called up from both motors… the acceleration is decent. The electric motor cannot quite make up for the lag in the changes effected by the electronically controlled six-stage transmission. The averaged fuel consumption of the hybrid is stated to be 3.8 litres per hundred kilometres driven.
