2006 Citroen C5 Exclusive review from UK and Ireland

No faults.

I know that people like to knock Citroen on the basis of service and reliability, but one person’s experience is not necessarily another’s.

I’ve owned a succession of Citroens – 2 BX’s, 1 XM,1 Xantia and 2 C5’s. Over this period I’ve done about 750,000 miles. At the same time, my wife has had a VW Passat , Seat Ibiza and most recently a C3. Over this period she has done about 90,000 miles. The most unreliable cars were the VW and the Seat (5 breakdowns each over a period of appx 30,000 miles) The next was the glorious XM which broke down 8 times over 210,000 miles. My last car, an early C5 HDI, broke down once over a period of 90,000 miles. My new C5 2.0 HDI Exclusive has only done 3,000 miles, but feels like a much better car than its predecessor, which was a good but bland all-rounder. The new C5 handles well, is fantastically quiet and comfortable, and has excellent economy and performance. Given that you should be able to get this model brand new for around the same price as a Focus or Skoda - neither of which have the refinement or kit that the Citroen has, it seems to me that the Citroen C5 represents fantastic value for money and, if looked after well will give many miles of reliable motoring.

One final point, I agree that all makes can have bad garages and good ones. My personal experience has been that Citroen Garages have improved considerably over the past years. I have experienced consistently good and helpful service nationwide over the past 4 years.