I want a DS5!

[addo]

I actually saw a Marina sedan in apparent daily use, last week. They're out there! Also have recently spotted a daily driven Morris 1100 and an Austin Kimberly ute...

[Lynnzer]

Here I am over a year on and now an owner of the said motor.
My C5 had done 129,000 and was tired with a few problems that were going to be rather expensive to sort out, not least an aircon system with a very slow leak that no-one could find. And here we are in the upper 20 degrees.....
So, having had numerous roadside halts due to the ECU not recognising that the particle filter had been removed and halting progress unexpectedly I decided enough was enough.
Off to the dealer I went. My intention all the time was to go for a hybrid. Trade in price of the C5 was the main problem though. Immaculate in every way with the dealer not knowing of the faults, they gave me a trade in price of £3500. This for the 2.2 Exclusive with every extra.

Given the lack of trade in cash I had to decide on the overall situation. Sat on the forecourt was a 12 model DSport with 12000 on it. Price of just under £20k.
White with black roof (glass for the sliding roof liner inside) it looked absolutely gorgeous. In fact it had been a Citroen head office car for one of their executives.
A quick look into it and a detailed breakdown of costs showed me it was a pretty good deal.
I had already abandoned the hybrid in my mind as the cost was going to be out of my reach as the only way to get one was to buy new. I also considered that having something like 22000 miles a year may well mean that I could find myself having to replace the battery pack in my normal ownership, something that could hit the pocket very hard indeed.

I then had to convince my wife who rather disliked the small split window at the rear. I collected her from work and took her straight up and off we went on a test drive.
I was in love with it. Automatic is something I've always wanted having driven in the USA a few times and also having to go into large cities quite often and suffer clutch foot in slow moving traffic.
All went well and we just went ahead and bought it there and then, with another customer who had also driven it earlier sitting in the wings to snap it up if we didn't.
So, here we are 3 weeks along the line.
First of all I must put to rights the oft repeated mention of harsh suspension. It isn't a C5. All the comments of the hydro suspension on a C5 slate it as feeling dead and it was much criticised in general. Personally I loved it. It was like riding a magic carpet however it didn't suit everyone. So the new cricitism thrown at the DS5 as having harsh suspension seems rather obtuse. Either you have normal suspension or not.

It's a fact that it does ride harsher than the C5. You'd expect that wouldn't you? However it rides much the same as most other cars with conventional suspension; very little difference between most other marques of similar size and price. I think it's probably better than the BMW 5 series or Audi 4 series, that I see jogging along on potholes etc.
So forget the criticism. It's no less comfortable than most other cars.
The ride is very good too, and the auto gearbox is fantastic. I did a run last weekend to London and around the inner city over 2 days then back home totalling around 700 miles and my consumption was showing as 42.8 mpg. I'm quite satisfied at that. It's up from 34.4 in the C5 2.2 Exclusive so around a 20% saving on fuel.

What I also appreciate is the height of the car, ie the ride height and therefore the height of the seat from road level is much greater than the C5. This means that you can slide out of your seat onto the pavement a lot easier than the lower C5 and is more akin to the likes of the much higher motors such as the Nissan Juke et al. For someone of my advanced age it's so much easier.

I have never had anyone knock on my window while sitting in any other car in a car park and ask about it, yet I have had it done with this. I have had to make at least half a dozen presentations to interested passers by who have admired it as they went by. I can also notice the numerous people who dig their partner, son, daughter etc, in the ribs and be heard to mention how nice the motor is.

So, I guess you can see where this is going. I Love It.

On the downside I miss the Jukebox of the C5. The i-pod facility on the DS5 isn't anywhere near as good and takes an age to load (recognise) the i-pod and all the tracks on it.
The lack of speech to change things is also a bit of a loss as it was just so easy to press the button on the end of the stalk and say "radio" or whatever and have it change without fiddling with switches and buttons.
The bluetooth for cellphone is fine but it still doesn't seem anywhere near as easy as the sim that sat in a slot in the dashboard of the C5.
I was also hoping that the satnav would grow up and allow input of postcodes but no. You have to enter a full address. Has anyone ever managed to enter a set of GPS co-ordinates in any satnav yet? I tried but can't get my hear around it.

The C5 Tourer was bought with the size of the storage space in mind and already I have missed that as I bought a new bathroom suite the other day and just about managed to get it into the car with the rear seats folded flat but it wasn't easy. The boot is big though. At least as big as any other on cars of similar size and will undoubtedly get a set of golf clubs and all the usual accompaniments in there as well. On the upside I have a damn good excuse now to refuse to take my extended families old bed down to the tip along with mattress and old cupboards. I had to do just that in the final 2 days of the C5 and got landed with having to sort out a dozen bags of mixed rubbish into plastic, paper, glass etc for recycling. A job not much appreciated in the rain.

Apart from those relatively minor niggles it's a superb car and I heartily recommend it.

[KP]

I had a nice 91J for orion once. 12k and on its second set of suspension alround if the service history was to be believed but it rode like a dog and i finally put them in the grave after 50mph over a humpback bridge on a mates long farm track back to his house(private road!) and with the car fully up it slammed onto the deck on the far side and made it a little worse but the best bit was there was no damping left! Im sure the impact had bent the little baffles in the struts within the dampers from the down slam! a few more weeks as it was in its last month before MOT was due and i ensured that the engine locked as the car was rotting away so was going to be scrapped anyway but i enjoyed giving it a good send off. All 1400cc's of its cvh slab of metal enjoyed its last rungs of death when the day before the MOT was due we did the hump back bridge again but at 55 this time, it survived but i then went upto the rev limit in 3rd and dropped it into 2nd... It didnt like it and must have been the first 9000+RPM seen in a mk2 orion lol! You dont forget noises like.... WOOOSH(air rushing under car!) BANG, CRUNCH, SCRATCH(car slams into floor and scratches for what feels like ages at full suspension compression) then WHIZZZZZ, POP, CHUG CHUG CHUG, CLONK! (3rd -2nd engine seizes solid!

[Skull]

200bhp, 50mpg, 4wd, diesel hybrid! I can't wait to graduate from Uni so that I can finally afford an proper awesome car

DS5

This thread has gone off topic to a Springs V Hydro thread

Anyone running a DS5

[Stickyfinger]

This thread has gone off topic to a Springs V Hydro thread ............


Well from me....

I sell Cast Iron Radiators....the big old HEAVY ones ....Ave weight of each one is 150-200 kg...often over 400kg....

Xantia (just) but the C5.....Ohhhhhhhh YES, there is nothing out there that can do what I wish except the C5