Last month, when I was looking for a suitable vehicle to take to Santa Pod's Run What Ya Brung event, I came across a 2005 Citroen C5 1.8 LX in Auto Trader. It was within budget, had some service history and an MOT and was less than a ten minute drive away. I contacted the seller (who happened to be a local trader), and visited him for a viewing.
The rather controversially-styled first generation C5 replaced the eccentric and well-regarded Xantia as Citroen's large family car in 2001, and its second generation form only finished production last year. This, a first-generation facelifted model, was in basic LX spec and had the smallest engine in the line-up, a 1.8 petrol producing around 110 bhp. It was, however, reasonably well equipped with air conditioning, climate control, electric windows and Citroen's famous Hydra-Active III suspension, which does away with all springs and dampers in favour of mysterious fluid-filled spheres...
The fluid-filled spheres seemed in excellent condition, and the car delivered a pillow soft ride over the suburban street humps and potholes of the scarred South West London tarmac. The power steering was light, and the car had had a new clutch relatively recently. The gearshift was much better than I remembered from previous Peugeot/Citroen products, despite the car having done 110,000 miles.
In the end, the sheer bulk and complexity of the car, which was full of complicated electronics which seemed to be warning of various things in French (luckily, I have a degree in the language) put me off a bit, but the final straw was the handbrake. Although it worked, the travel was alarming long, and came right up to the top of its range when applied, which was very disconcerting. This, coupled with the fact that the car had an illegal front tyre and needed a service meant that I walked away never to return. It was quite a lot of fun, however, and I would love to have a longer go in one of these ugly ducklings in the future. It is certainly a massive step up from the BX I once drove!
