• One of the more efficient choices in the class
• It meets all current emissions standards
• PHEV obviously takes the crown

What are the running costs?

If you’re after the most economical non-hybrid C5 Aircross, then you’ll unquestionably head towards the 130hp BlueHDI diesel, which Citroen claims delivers over 55mpg in official testing. However, our long-term experience in a similarly-engined Peugeot 5008 places that nearer to 50mpg in real-world driving. CO2 emissions are competitive, though.

If you spend most of your time in town, the petrol-powered Puretech model should be economical and sprightly enough for you. Claimed economy in the mid-to-high 40s will be more like low-to-mid 40s in the real world, although that’s still perfectly acceptable in our book. Given that it’s cheaper than the diesel, the petrol makes more sense to the majority of people.

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The Hybrid 136 model is an interesting alterative to both of the above. It’s a self-charging hybrid and thanks to its small electric motor and efficient petrol engine, it’s 15% more economical than the Puretech 130. In fact, its fuel economy is knocking on the door of the diesel, with a best-case scenario figure of 53.3mpg. If you’re considering the diesel, we’d heartily recommend taking a look at this first.

And lastly, there’s the C5 Aircross Plug-in Hybrid. This potentially has the best fuel consumption of all, but our long-term test C5 Aircross suffered a little where fuel economy was concerned. We saw around 38.5mpg during mixed use, including motorway mileage, and we really weren’t thrashing it at all.

The fuel economy of the plug-in hybrid very much depends on how much you charge it. It’s capable of around 25-30 miles on a full charge in the real world, which should be enough to cover the majority of daily commutes and midweek trips. It also means that provided you charge up regularly, you might not need to use the petrol engine at all. The flip side is that if you don’t charge it at all, it’ll likely be the least efficient model in the range.

Servicing and warranty

The C5 Aircross has a three-year warranty, with an unlimited mileage cap in the first two years and a 60,000-mile cap in the third year. You can also extend the warranty if the car has done less than 100,000 miles and is less than 10 years old.

Citroen offers a servicing package that you can pay for up front for up to three years or 35,000 miles. This is available for the first year from when the car is registered.

Reliability

• Based on a proven parts bin
• Citroen’s reliability much improved of late
• Five official recalls affect specific models

The Citroen C5 Aircross is based on the same basic parts bin as almost every current Peugeot, Citroen, DS and Vauxhall product. This is a good thing, as the latest crop of models from the brands have been far more reliable than some of their predecessors.

Despite this, the C5 Aircross has been subject to five official recalls. These range from rather trivial issues, (such as replacing the bolts on the optional trailer hitch), to the more serious (concerning the emissions control system on diesel models and an incorrect calibration for some cars’ ECUs). We didn’t experience any reliability issues with our long-term test car.