Post
by robert_e_smart » Wed Mar 17, 2010 1:31 pm
Hi Steve,
I don't like the C5 at all. My dad has one, he bought it new 4 years ago. There isn't anything particularily wrong with it. Its a big roomy affordable diesel hatchback. It does its job of transporting people and whatever they carry very well. I just think the execution is very poor. The exterior styling is fine for me, its the interior that really bugs me.
This car has done 60K miles in 4 years, and the interior trim is wearing worse than our Xantia, and it has just left this morning to go to the scrappy after 200k miles. The seats are very flat and hard, the suspension is much more firmer than the Xantia and XM in my opinion.
I think the HDi engine is superb (2.0 manual), the gearchange is nice, etc etc. But Its a hard car to get comfortable in, the seats have too much adjustment, and lacks support. The shell of the car would offer great protection in an accident, but your ability of avoiding the accident is deminished when the big thick pillars obscure your vision.
It really is just a mondeo, it doesn't offer any plus points over the Mondeo etc, where as the Xantia did. The Xantia was much more comfortable and better built than the Mondeo and Cavalier/Vectra back then. Now the C5 isn't as good as a Mondeo.
In summary, it is a fine car for going from a Point A to Point B with 5 passengers and their luggage in reasonable comfort and at reasonable cost.
1990 XM 2.1 Turbo SD
2008 Volvo V70 D5 SE Lux Automatic
2009 Volvo XC90 D5 SE Automatic