New DS5

[boyse7en]

Went to the Royal Cornwall Show yesterday and spent a pleasant half hour wandering around the Citroen stand. They had a new DS5 2.0HDi there, already with £5k discount on the windscreen.
Had a good poke around and I think it looks really good. It somehow manages to be both sleek and imposing. Much better looking than the DS4, especially around the nose.
I like the interior too, although the one on display was black, which was a bit gloomy for me.
The salesman said they are a bit of a Marmite car, people either love it or hate it. I loved it, and had I got that sort of money (£24,999) available I would be tempted.

Another interesting snippet I got was that, when they were selling the C6, the salesman said he sold a few (did any sell many??) to people 'downgrading' from Bentleys and their ilk, as they wanted something comfortable but less ostentatious to drive around in day-to-day. He thinks the C6 is an awesome car (well, he would, wouldn't he).

[Peter.N.]

I'm surprised you didn't get drowned or blown away - saw it on the news last night. Are these the 'hybrid' cars, don't often look at new cars as I'm never likely to be able to afford one, sounds interesting though as does the reason some are buying C6s I suspect the C6 is awsome but as they don't make a manual estate it wouldn't appeal to me.

Peter

[Dieselman]

I think a C6 estate would be a good seller. I know the idea is that Executive cars are best in saloon form, but Mercedes seem to sell plenty of E class estates, so why not Citroen?
I'm not really sure about a Salesman saying people are downgrading from Bentley, etc, into C6.

I'm pleased the DS5 is a Marmite car, that means it's pushing the style boundaries.

[mds141]

Just don't take the DS5 for a test drive. Ride and harsh are two words that spring to mind. Beautiful looking car though. Very sci-fi looking IMHO.

[Ciaran]

A Citroen with harsh ride, whats the point??
That's like a diesel Ferrari or something.

Is it even hydraulic?

[Ciaran]

No, its a Peugeot, with Audi suspension

Not if the reaction in the Alpes Maritime villages was anything to go by. With the DS badge, Citroën has been a lot more successful than Carla Bruni’s husband in kindling French national pride. Everybody wants to take on the German car makers, but few succeed like this.

Yet the brilliance of the idea is that under the skin, the DS5 is based on the same running gear as PSA’s No2 chassis line built at its Sochaux plant: read Citroën’s C4 and DS4 and Peugeot’s 308 and 3008 models. So that’s a MacPherson-strut front and a twist-beam rear suspension, hydraulic/electric-assisted steering and a choice of two diesel engines; 1.6-litre 110bhp HDi or 2.0-litre, 160bhp HDi.

So 'taking on the Germans' seems to entail designing harsh, uncomfortable, vorsprung durch technik suspension to match them.
Looks and even quality wise it seems like a spectacular car, but why oh WHY have they dispensed with one of Citroen's biggest assets in the design?
At £33k for the top model that's firmly into C6 territory, even the entry level prices of £22k are well in the second hand C6, or standard C5 saloon money... I dunno.

Will be interesting to see how successful this car is, it does look amazing, but I'll be intrigued if people are falling over themselves to own it in lieu of a BMW because of the shit suspension.
If that happens I'll give up attempting to understand why people do things

[Dieselman]

people prefer to own cars with metal springs as they deem hydraulic to be unreliable and complex. Modern cars all have stiff suspension due to them all being developed for racing round the Nuremberg Ring.
Hydraulic suspension costs more to produce, so manufacturers are happy to delete it.

AFAIK, there will be no more hydraulically suspended Citroens.

[captainhaddock]

Sad, but true. No more new citroens for me. Peugeot maybe..For now I intend to keep up the XM for a while, with some help here and there:)