Citroen BX Meets C5 X

this is the citroen c5x and it's neither one thing nor the other it's also a first for citron and at the same time a last confused well stick with us and in this cargurus uk video we will work out what's what and along the way we'll also show you where the c5x came from at its heart the c5x is a replacement for the old citroen c5 trouble is large family cars like the c5 are a dying breed with buyers instead interested in suvs so when the old c5 reached the end of its life citroen knew that it was only worth replacing it if it was going to try and do something a bit different of course citroen is known for doing things differently it has a long history of building luxury saloons like the ds and cx that used radical engineering to solve problems that other manufacturers either couldn't or didn't dare to try at the same time citroen was mobilizing france with the cheap and cheerful 2cv beloved for its basic engineering and low running costs but by the 1980s citroen knew that it couldn't survive just by building cheap small cars and big posh ones it needed something in between something that would fit in the fast growing market for family cars so then meet the great great grandfather of the c5x it's the bx which just so happens to be turning 40 this year the bx was revealed under the eiffel tower in october 1982 it was as radical as all of its forefathers featuring composite body panels that were lighter than steel and an aerodynamic body shell and you could even get a digital instrument cluster with an on-board computer mind you even the standard cars are pretty wacky inside now the later facelift mark twos uh were a bit more conventional but this uh lovely early mark one really does show some unconventional thinking so the clearest example no stalks for indicators and wipers instead you've got everything mounted in these pods at the side the idea was to place all the major controls at your fingertips but there were a couple of downsides for example to use the indicators you press there to go left or there to go right but they don't self-cancel when you go around corner so you then have to remember to turn them off again and while this top spec gt model has conventional round dials because they felt that was more sporty in lower spec bxs you just had a little window and then behind the window there was a drum that spun around with speeds painted on it so you saw your speed depending on where it was on the drum and the quirkiness didn't end there you see the bx also made use of hydropneumatic suspension which is a system that citroen had made famous it basically uses a series of spheres around the car and pressurized fluid to damp out the bumps instead of using steel springs and as a result driving a bx is a bit like riding on a cloud of air and it can also self-level so no matter how many people you put in the car it will always remain at the same level you can also select the ride height manually using a lever inside the car which means you can raise the car to clear steep inclines or drive through larger puddles a quirk of this system is that the suspension fluid will slowly return to its holding tank when the car is turned off which means the bx will gradually sink onto its bump stops when it's left parked up [Music] and it's the suspension that is the first thing that you notice when you're out on the road the bx is so smooth it's unbelievable it rides bumps like well like they're not there in its own way the ride comfort in this car is almost as impressive as the performance in a porsche 911 it's amazing this gt model was the sportiest bx on offer when the car first came out and it features a 1.9 liter petrol engine with eight valves and 104 horsepower now by modern standards 100 odd horsepower really doesn't sound like much at all but you have to remember that the bx was a light car it weighed less than a ton and so actually it feels reasonably quick so naught to 60 in this car about nine seconds so again back in the day that was almost hot hatch pace today that's an average family car but the bx is still fun to drive because it feels so responsive you get this lovely crisp throttle response sounds good as well when you're just driving around town or out on a country road it never feels slow and out on the motorway there's enough grunt to keep up with traffic now obviously the bx feels like a pretty old car to drive but not so much so that it's difficult that the the main thing with this car that's really different is the brakes there's no real travel it's more like a switch so you just touch them and the car really pulls up now of course this is before anti-lock brakes as well in this particular car so you would have to be careful particularly in the wet but what's really bizarre is because of that hydromatic suspension even if you brake hard the nose of the car doesn't dive it stays completely level it's an odd sensation it wasn't just this gt model that benefited from the bx is lightweight though more basic bx's had 1.4 and 1.6 litre engine but their performance figures corresponded with 1.6 and 2 litre rivals respectively they were also reasonably priced and had really good fuel economy again they were light weren't they and that was even more the case when the bx gained a diesel engine in 1984 1.9 liter unit now this was really when diesel was in its infancy and citroen's unit was smooth and refined it was a world away from the slow dirty engines that some of its rivals had and then citroen introduced a turbo diesel variant and with that the bx became britain's best-selling diesel car you know it's terrific this bx it's so smooth i can't think of a modern car on sale today you know maybe mercedes s-class but anything that absorbs bumps as well as this it's incredible not even the c5x which is a comfortable car by modern standards rides as well as this bx and even the gear change is easy to use this steering wheel this single spoke steering wheel takes a good bit of turning and the cart doesn't respond hugely quickly it has to be said but it's all right and if you do want to sling the car about a bit it does grip you know it feels it feels like it's up to it and like i say the performance yeah it's really not bad it's just overflowing with charm bx was a bit of a well an odd proposition when it was launched because price wise the smaller engine models went up against cars like the ford escort and the vauxhall astra but actually the bx was a bigger car and then you moved up to the the bigger engine models like this gt and this was more like a rival for something like a full sierra or a voxel cavalier oh wow now this is a blast from the past because when i was growing up my dad had a bx and i think this is probably the first time i've sat in the back of one since then i used to have the middle seat though um actually space here i mean headroom's a bit tight i'm five foot eleven my head is just about brushing the ceiling but legroom's not bad it's not as good if you've got a brother who insists on sitting like that but just me here it's okay the boot 450 liters and if that wasn't enough the bx was also offered as an estate with even more room and that car of course was brilliant for towing as well because of the self-loving suspension and the extra boot space it's at the rear three quarter angle that the lineage between the bx and c5x becomes most obvious just have a look at that sloping angle of the rear screen and the kink that runs along the bottom of the rear side window the bx was replaced in 1993 by the zantia which was larger and more luxurious and actually went on to become one of citroen's best-selling cars and then in 2001 the xanthir was replaced by the c5 however throughout the c5s life interest in that sort of d segment car really started to wane that's when buyers started to get swayed by suvs and so by 2016 when the c5 production ended citroen decided it would discontinue that size of car until now and this c5x is the car it thinks it might have a chance with in the d segment and as we're about to find out it is reassuringly left field the clues in the name the x signifies that this c5 is intended to be a bit more roughly tufty than the old model with lots of black plastic body cladding and a raised ride height that gives it a more suv like stance at the back it's kind of part way between a hatchback and an estate car so it's got a wide boot opening and a great big boot which you can fill with camera bags if you need to think of it as kind of part way between a traditional estate like the skoda superb and a hatchback like the bx in fact and also with a bit of suv thrown in the idea being that citroen hopes to appeal to people who want the look and style of an suv but without all that bulk citrons are much more conventional inside these days less willfully left field this car for example even has stalks for the indicators and wipers and of course the whole thing feels a lot more luxurious than the bx ever did you also get conventional climate control panels down here and some really lovely detailing like on the seats here these chevrons stitched in and again this pattern on the dash the infotainment screen is big and clear although the software can be a bit slow in front of the driver meanwhile there's a big digital instrument cluster as with the bx gt this c5x that we're testing is the top of the range model and that means it's a plug-in hybrid so it uses petrol and electric motors it can produce up to 225 horsepower and both of those power sources are working together at their peak now this car when you charge it up from either a wall box or a three-pin socket you'll get an electric only range of up to 31 miles although we see more like 20-25 miles in normal use if you don't want the plug-in hybrid and is quite expensive to buy there are two turbocharged petrol engines available as alternative a 1.2 litre with 129 horsepower and a 1.6 with 179 horsepower fair to say getting behind the wheel of this c5x the cars have come quite a long way since that bx was first launched this thing is like a spaceship that said it does not get citrons hydrogenatic suspension in fact it's the first big citroen since the ds safari of 1958 not to have hydrogen pneumatic suspension instead it has a conventional suspension set up but with citroen's progressive hydraulic bump stops and in this plug-in hybrid model adaptive dampers now with those you can adjust the firmness of the ride but you can't adjust the ride height go for a standard petrol c5x however and you get passive dampers instead whichever model you choose the c5x is very comfortable the adaptive dampers standard mode is similar to the setup you get with the passive dampers you can then either make the car firmer which you don't really want in a big citron or softer although that can make it a bit floaty off the top of bigger bumps it's a pretty good plug-in hybrid system this it switches over between petrol and electric fairly seamlessly um and when you're in electric only mode it suits the c5x beautifully because of that smooth comfortable ride the serene silence really goes with that it is not however perhaps as fast as you expect a car with 225 horsepower to be and that really is just because it's heavy i mean that's flat out and it's fine but it's not going to set your world alight speaking of being heavy you can also feel it through the bends where the c5x is just a bit top-heavy all that said as a quiet and comfortable cruiser this car is really good another thing that makes the c5x such a good cruiser is the fact it's so quiet it's really well insulated for road and wind noise so you can just eat up long distances with ease and it's good value too so for an entry level 1.2 petrol model you're looking at around 28 000 pounds and for a fully loaded plug-in hybrid like this one just under 40 000 pounds so for reference if you've got a skoda superb in a similar specification you'd be looking at about 2 000 pounds more or a 508 sw in a similar specification around three and a half thousand pounds more i can definitely see why you might be tempted by a c5x although i would probably say that one of the petrol engines is certainly better value possibly even a better car i'm not sure that the adaptive dampers do enough to justify the extra price or the plug-in hybrid system for that matter and the fact is that these dampers you can put them in a comfort mode which is a bit softer and you put them in a sport mode which is a bit firmer but actually the best mode is hybrid and in reality that feels a lot like the standard setup in the cars with the passive dampers so the c5x is not as spirited or as much fun to drive as the bx but it is still very comfortable and it's good value and it is incredibly spacious in the back seats will it be the last in the line of big citrons that started with the bx well certainly the market for d-segment cars like this is not showing any signs of a resurgence that said citroen really has done a good job at making this a bit different from other offerings with the style of it and the fact it is so comfort orientated and is so roomy and is such good value it probably won't go on to be a big seller like the bx and i can't really see us still talking about it in 40 years time but for now let's just be happy that citroen still builds something that's big and wafty like this do you think the c5x is a fitting addition to citron's long history of big and innovative cars let us know below and as always please do remember to subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications by ringing the bell icon you

Channel: CarGurus UK

Views: 66,588

Keywords: citroen bx 2022, bx citroen, citroen bx, citroen bx diesel, citroen bx suspension, c5x citroen, citroën c5 x, citroën c5x, citroen c5x, citroen c5 x, citroën c5 x review, citroen c5 x review, c5x citroen review, c5 x, citroen c5 x 2022, c5x review, 2022 citroen, citroen c5 x review 2022, citroen c5x 2022, citroen cx 5, citroen c5, citroen c5x review, citroen c5 suspension, citroen c5x hybrid, c5x 2022

Id: icXxDe9gk8Y

Length: 15min 28sec (928 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 13 2022