• Big, comfortable and supportive seats
• Interior quality is good, but not outstanding
• Light and airy, especially with panoramic roof

How is the quality and layout?

Citroen’s build quality has taken a huge leap forward since the early 2000s. The C5 Aircross feels solidly put together, but the interior has an odd mix of pleasant soft-touch materials on upper surfaces and large expanses of cheap scratchy plastic – particularly on the doors. It’s still a nice place to be, but the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage feel a little more upmarket.

Unlike Citroens of old, the layout isn’t particularly zany. The only real annoyance is that the heating is controlled via the touchscreen. Below the screen is a row of haptic shortcut buttons that are easy to prod and very responsive. Lower down, there are physical buttons for most other functions including an old-school volume dial, but they’re partly obscured by the upper section of the dashboard.

Citroen, along with most manufacturers that do without physical buttons in their cabins, expect you to make use of voice control to access most of the car’s features and functions. However, in the C5 Aircross the options aren’t very helpful, making it difficult to get the system to do what you want.

Another minor bugbear is the cupholder location. There are two that hold bottles of decent sizes, but they’re both located between the driver and the gear lever in manual cars. This makes it difficult to change gears.

Infotainment and technology

When Citroen facelifted the C5 Aircross in 2022, it gave the car a new, larger 10.0-inch infotainment system. It was teamed with more responsive hardware and standard sat-nav on all trim levels. It’s certainly an improvement over the car’s old system, but it can’t match up to those found in Hyundais and Kias. Alternatively, you can connect your phone via Apple Car Play or Android Auto.

Part of the issue with Citroen’s infotainment is that its menu design is quite confusing – there’s no home screen, for a start. It’s also worth pointing out that you can’t use all 10.0-inches of the screen to view what you’ve selected. That’s because the temperature settings for the standard two-zone climate control are displayed on either side of the screen (see below), effectively giving you a much smaller display for maps or music.

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You also get a standard 12.3-inch digital instrument display that can be configured to show a wide range of data, such as fuel consumption or, in hybrid models, the energy flow between the petrol and electric portions of the powertrain. It’s quite an ugly system – there isn’t a twin-dial aping menu screen and all the data is housed in large, turquoise blocks. Volkswagen’s system is much better.

Comfort

• ‘Advanced Comfort’ front seats are excellent
• One of the most comfortable non-luxury cars
• PHEV is the quietest option

Keen drivers might not warm to the C5 Aircross’ unsporting nature, but it makes up for that by delivering delightful comfort. We’ll discuss ride quality in the next section, but we simply must mention the car’s squidgy front seats here.

They’re uncannily comfortable, providing plenty of support for your lower back and good lateral support in corners. So they remain comfortable even after many hours at the wheel. The driver’s seat also lines up precisely with the steering wheel, so you don’t get cramp from sitting skew-whiff. The rear seats are very nearly as comfy, with plenty of squish but less lateral support.

Refinement is good mainly, although you’ll feel a few tremors and hear a bit of a thrum from the three-cylinder petrol engine. If you want the quietest experience possible, the plug-in hybrid is the one to go for. It’s near-silent in electric mode – and the C5 Aircross’s sound proofing manages wind noise well. The tyres can create a bit of a racket on rough surfaces, though.