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The time has finally come for DS and Citroen to part ways, favourably of course – with
DS now becoming a completely separate luxury brand, so watch out Audi and BMW.
This means the DS 5 is the first model to be officially stripped of its Citroen badging,
and with that comes a facelift, with a new front-end featuring a DS wings design, flowing
right around from the grille, past the headlights, which are also new, and up to the A pillars.
There are also changes to the interior, suspension and engines – so let’s take a closer look.
The aviation-inspired cabin has been a big selling point for the DS 5 since its launch
in 2012 and this remains the case, with buttons plastered all over the place, giving the impression
that you are the pilot of your own private plane – and in my opinion I think this is
great. The soft-touch materials scattered around help the luxury feel as well.
New features of the cabin include this seven-inch touchscreen which DS has used to hoover up
12 of the function buttons on the dash and act as a central hub, ultimately making it
look less cluttered. There are now just two trims to choose from,
Elegance and Prestige. Standard kit on all models is very generous as it includes the
touchscreen I just mentioned, which has DAB digital radio, Bluetooth and MirrorLink – there
is also rear parking sensors, cruise control, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and dual-zone
Climate control. And on top of all that are these miniature glass sunroofs – very nice.
Go for the slightly plusher Prestige model we have and highlights include a reversing
camera as well as front parking sensors, leather upholstery and a DS Connect box enabling online
services. When you sit in the back there is loads of
light coming in thanks to all the glass, but leg room is limited and when I sit up straight,
you can see the glass roof eats into headroom, and I am hardly what you would call tall.
The boot however is a bit better – even with its slightly high loading lip – as
there is over 450 litres of storage space and the seats fold nice and flat.
Unlike the DS 3 which offers a fair share of engines, each one with its own merits,
you are pretty much limited to a diesel with the DS 5 as the other petrol and hybrid options
don’t really make sense from a cost point of view - plus choosing the hybrid means you
lose around 150 litres of boot space. So, diesel wise you can choose from either
a 1.6-litre or a 2.0-litre, and sales figures don’t lie, the bestselling 2.0-litre diesel
with 148bhp is the best one to go for as it offers a great balance of power and efficiency
– emitting 105g/km and realistically you should get around 50mpg.
We have the 2.0-litre mated to a six-speed manual gearbox which is smooth through the
range, but you do have to work it a lot as power isn’t spread evenly, so you find yourself
constantly changing up and down at lower speeds. If it was up to us, we would much rather have
the EAT6 automatic gearbox which does that leg work for you – although strangely, the
148bhp diesel doesn’t come available with this – only the lower-powered 118bhp and
higher-powered 178bhp diesels do. The DS 5 has a reputation for having a firm
ride and thankfully this has been sorted – sort of anyway. There is now ‘Pre-loaded Linear
Valve’ technology – in a nutshell, this means the ride can adapt accordingly to the
road – and this really does show at lower speeds, especially when it comes to things
like pot holes. But unfortunately the DS 5 still feels unsettled at higher speeds. And
the negatives don’t stop there. While the steering is okay when pottering
about town, it lacks feel on country roads and has an elastic feel, there is also turbo
lag from the engine and you can get torque steer if you floor it.
When it comes to price, its luxurious interior really starts to show itself, as you will
pay upwards of £26,000 – that’s not too far off an Audi A5 or BMW 4 Series – both
of which offer a more rounded package. We wonder why the engineers didn’t just
make the DS 5 uber comfortable to drive and focus purely on that, because it certainly
doesn’t encourage sporty driving. But it is in line with the DS ethos, which is to
be different and luxurious, so it is a case of ‘don’t knock it till you try it’
– especially if you are a little bored of the usual German suspects.
But what do you think of the DS 5? Let us know in the comments section belo9w and don’t
forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Click on the enquire button to find out more
details about this car or for any other models, visit Carkeys.co.uk. And to watch more reviews,
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