Citroen C5 Tourer in The Endurance Test Who Follows His Own Line

Citroën has always stood for French flamboyance, finesse and good hydropneumatics - but not yet for reliability. With the C5, everything should be different. Has the work?

Erinnern yet? In the commercials, the dark sedan crossed with a dashing guy in the dark valleys, roadside garden gnomes and traditional chapels before half-timbered, the trip goes to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. This Wagnerian sounds, the full program. Clichéd and very German. The spot ends with the words "Unmistakably German" (in English though), but then flashes on a small asterisk: "Made in France", made in France. The film is not without controversy caused in early 2008 to the start of the new C5 is not only a lot of attention, he had a very serious background: Good people, announced Citroën thus, we will not only be sympathetic, but also right now reliable.

"Audi is our model in terms of quality," Project Manager Michel Lejeune announced at that time. So were in the construction of the C5 as never before conceived as existing German quality standards. Unusually for Citroën, previously known for strokes of genius in design and technology, but also nerve-wracking for unreliability. The bill is so much in advance risen. The endurance test C5 Tourer proved to be reliable over 100,000 kilometers away, and also completed the rigorous final examination decent. And it follows some good news: It did not have that certain something good style on the track.

Furthermore, there is an elegant and independent car was in the test team from the beginning of unity. "Looks great, and though the outside and inside," said Art Director Henning Rucks noted in the logbook, "quite different from Passat Variant or A4 Avant. nice. " Is a fixed-hub steering wheel with it anywhere else, even if it was perceived by the majority as rather impractical, because it is littered with many small buttons. Earned praise the wise night shut-off for the instruments, the criticism tangled operation of radio and navigation system - no problem by Citroen, but the entire PSA group.

Were unanimous approval, however, the total space, the wide, comfortable seats (albeit with ludicrous hidden side of the seat heater switch) and the 533-liter, practical trunk. The electric tailgate (standard on the Exclusive) but was irritated by her clumsiness. The Hydraktiv suspension is one of the classic Citroën specialty. And it works the way the fan imagines: wolkigwattig-soft, with slightly uncoupled ride. Flip-side edge or cross joints, they are on pretty harsh. 60 276 km to the hydro-pneumatic held perfectly.

But then the C5 had in the workshop: gerisssen leaky pen cylinder, front left, rear right, the cuff was too. Citroen knows the problem, the seals for the cylinder has been changed, further developments in March 2011 went into production. Apart from the C5 passed the 100,000 kilometers of reliable and experienced - like a Japanese. At the 60,000-mile inspection had the pads replaced and two parking light bulbs are replaced, at kilometer 62 800 new wiper blades were mounted, that's about it already.

The two-liter diesel is cultivated in the best French tradition, and quietly allowed himself all the way across just 7.9 liters diesel on average. Oil consumed by the way he did not during the endurance test. About the Motorized rider with the 140-hp version is not sufficiently loaded fast but always on the move, even with a maximum of 554 pounds. "As a travel steamer is the C5 a dream," editor Martin G. Puthz brought it to the point - and added: "The chassis, engine, comfort, everything is relaxed." And the new-found quality is available virtually everywhere - which had a high-quality plastics in the long run, sound processing and the rigid body to the end.

As rattled and creaked nothing. Fits into the picture, the conclusion that the C5-examination properly completed - read more in the gallery. If finally the realization that the C5 dominates the German virtues of good and delivers by far the best result of a car from the PSA Group in the 100,000-kilometer endurance test.