Audi S6 vs Citroen C5

What's the difference?

We adore the new S6 sedan. It looks great, feels comfortable and goes like stink all at the same time. What’s not to like?

It also helps that it is relatively good value, safe and practical by large-sedan standards, so it’s a bit of a no-brainer.

But will buyers be quick to dismiss the new S6 sedan because it’s not a more practical SUV? Time will tell, but we hope not.

Does the new Audi S6 sedan represent the best mix of executive style and boy-racer performance? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

The C5 Aircross might seem like a niche European 'alternative' SUV, but I wish it wasn’t. The more mainstream players could learn a lot from how brilliantly this Citroen is packaged.

It is truly class leading in terms of passenger comfort and even luggage space, even shipping with great multimedia and safety in this base Feel grade.

Unless you really need to be towing, performance (or in this case, lack thereof) should be low on your SUV priority list anyway.

To these eyes, the new S6 sedan is very attractive, albeit not outlandish, in keeping with its executive focus.

Up front, the subtly aggressive S body kit immediately comes into frame, with the bumper sporting sinister-looking side air intakes.

And, of course, there’s Audi’s signature Singleframe, which is not only large and in charge, but also finished in gloss-black, like many of the S6 sedan’s exterior design elements.

Below the heavily creased bonnet, the HD Matrix LED headlights look both angry and sophisticated, with their integrated LED daytime running lights (DRLs) providing a crisp signature.

Around the side, the S6 sedan goes about its business quietly, but its blistered wheelarches do add some bulk and help to accentuate its strong shoulder line.

And then there are the thick skirts and 21-inch alloy wheels (with a space-saver spare), which have a sporty twin five-spoke design. It’s all very classy.

Speaking of which, the rear end is arguably the S6 sedan’s best angle thanks to its wicked LED tail-lights, which have a segmented signature.

The chunky bumper below incorporates a diffuser element that houses the quad exhaust tailpipes, while a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bootlid spoiler rounds out the look.

Inside, the S6 sedan is a technological tour de force, with 10.1- and 8.6-inch touchscreens dominating its centre stack. The former is responsible for most of Audi’s latest multimedia system’s functions, while the latter takes care of the climate controls.

This set-up works pretty well, although a few too many taps are required for certain functions, and then there’s the issue of the glass display coverings, which are absolute fingerprint magnets alongside the gloss-black accents used throughout.

That said, the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and windshield-projected head-up display on hand are brilliant. In fact, they set the standard for the entire industry thanks to their design and breadth of functionality.

The S6 sedan does, of course, feel a little bit more special than the regular A6 inside, with the obvious additions being the front sports seats, which are covered in supple Valcona leather alongside the armrests. They even have diamond-stitched inserts.

Then there’s the obligatory flat-bottom steering wheel (with paddle-shifters), which is trimmed in Nappa leather alongside the gear selector, upper dashboard, door shoulders and knee rests. Indeed, hard plastics are hard to find here.

Meanwhile, a black headliner adds to the sportiness alongside the black Alcantara door inserts, but the cabin is otherwise a familiar (read: classy) affair.

It wouldn’t be a French car without a solid dollop of style, and the Aircross has heaps of it.

From the orange paint, to its floating rear light fittings and chevron emblazoned grille, the Citroen is nothing if not unique.

Just like the C4 range before it, the C5 Aircross inherits the plastic 'airbump' fittings under the doors, with the plastic-clad soft-roader look continuing over the wheelarches and across the C5’s front and rear.

There’s a lot going on, on both the front and rear of this SUV, but somehow it’s not really over-complicated, all the flourishes and highlights manage to flow into each other to maintain some semblance of consistency.

The C5’s rear is a little more tame, with body coloured panels contrasted with the plastic strip, gloss black highlights, and dual-square exhaust facades. The floating gloss-clad roof rails are a flashy if silly touch.

I’d personally argue it’s a better-looking car than its Peugeot 3008 sibling, although it looks built entirely for city-slickers rather than the adventurous type.

Inside it’s normal. For a Citroen. Gone are the days of floating steering wheels or overtly wacky instrument clusters, it’s all quite tame and that’s for the betterment of the brand.

That’s not to say it’s not a cool place to be, and I was surprised to find myself surrounded by classy fittings, quality soft-touch materials and an understated blocky design theme. The C5 gets a small, oval steering wheel which feels great in the hands.

Those awesome memory foam seats are finished in a slightly odd grey synthetic denim kind of material. Some hated it, but I thought it contrasted the car’s exterior and interior schemes well. The raised centre console gives front passengers an extra secure premium sort of feel.

The grey materials will be slightly divisive, but the number one annoyance for me was the complete lack of tactile buttons for adjusting the climate control or media functions. Is a volume knob too much to ask?

Other than that, the C5 has one of the most tame, practical interior treatments on any Citroen… possibly ever… without managing to be boring.

Measuring 4954mm long, 1886mm wide and 1446mm tall, the new S6 sedan is a large sedan in every sense of the term, which is mostly good news when it comes to practicality.

Cargo capacity is decent, at 520L, but can be increased to an undisclosed amount with the 40/20/40 split-fold rear bench stowed.

Speaking of the boot, there are four tie-down points and a cargo net to help secure loose loads, while a bag hook and a side storage net are also on hand, alongside a 12V power outlet. Bulkier items will, however, be confronted by a decent load lip.

In-cabin storage options are numerous, but not all are effective. The glovebox is well-sized, while the driver-side cubby is surprisingly large, but the central bin is shallow, mostly taken up by the wireless smartphone charger, two USB-A ports and the SD and SIM card readers.

A pair of cupholders is located in the centre console, with a 12V power outlet found in between, while the front door bins can accommodate one regular bottle each, just like their rear counterparts.

In the second row, there’s a fold-down armrest with two more cupholders as well as a shallow storage tray, while cargo nets are affixed to the front seat backrests.

The rear bench is pretty comfortable, with four inches of legroom available behind my 184cm driving position alongside decent toe-room. Headroom is also good, with about two inches on offer.

That said, three adults sitting abreast won’t enjoy the experience, due to the large transmission tunnel, which makes for limited footwell space. At least they’ll have access to a couple of USB-A ports and a 12V power outlet, below the central air vents.

For reference, child seats can be fitted to the outboard seats via top-tether and ISOFIX anchorage points.

The C5 Aircross is one of the most practical SUVs you can buy in this segment in terms of interior space. There’s just loads of it, and plenty of smart features to back it up.

In the front you get some small trenches in the doors, lovely big cupholders in the centre console, along with a top-box which was a little shallow, but still handy, as well as a small cavity (seemingly designed to hold the key) and a big bin for stowing your wallet or phone.

Back seat occupants get decent leg and headroom, but what’s really special here is each passenger gets their own memory foam seat with enough width to travel in decent comfort. The centre passenger’s legroom isn’t even impeded by a big transmission tunnel.

Rear passengers also get pockets on the back of the front seats, dual air vents, small cupholders in the doors, and a 12-volt power outlet. With no drop-down armrest, it would be nice to see more practical cupholders in the door cards.

The boot is truly gigantic. Like, biggest in the segment gigantic. At a minimum it weighs in at 580L (VDA), but as an added boost, the rear passenger seats can be slid forward on a rail to grant a whopping 140 extra litres of space to 720L. With the rear seats down you’ll be able to make use of 1630L.

A power tailgate, able to be operated by waving a foot under the car is also standard, revealing a totally unimpeded aperture. So, not only does it have a class leading luggage area, but it’s also easy to use.

The C5 Aircross enters Australia in just two spec levels, and the one reviewed here is the base Feel. Priced at $39,990, before on-road costs, it’s not exactly cheap, but is thankfully well specified.

And at the time of publication a Citroen drive-away pricing campaign pitched the Feel at $44,175 with all registration, dealer and other pre-delivery charges included.

In the box is a 7.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, DAB+ digital radio and built-in sat nav, a 12.3-inch digital dash display, auto-dimming rear-vision mirror, auto headlights and windscreen wipers, keyless entry and push-start ignition, dual-zone climate control, LED DRLs, and an electric tailgate.

That’s the good. Not-so-good are the halogen headlights (kind of detracting from the slick front styling) and the lack of radar cruise control.

The Aircross does get a decent set of active safety features explored in the safety section of this review.

Competitors? Well there’s a good chance you’ll be cross-shopping the C5 Aircross against other alternate options in the mid-size space, including the Peugeot 3008 Allure (with which the Aircross shares an engine and chassis - $40,990), the Renault Koleos Intens FWD ($43,990), and perhaps the Skoda Karoq (just one spec-level in Australia - $35,290).

The Aircross’ secret weapon, which you can’t get on any other mid-size SUV, is its seats. Citroen calls them 'Advanced Comfort' seats, and they’re stuffed with memory foam “inspired by mattress technology.”

And it sounds like pamphlet hype, but it’s not. Once you’re seated, it’s like you're floating on air. A little bit of genius!

Citroen pairs this with reasonably-sized 18-inch alloy wheels and a unique suspension system which uses “progressive hydraulic cushions” (a nod to Citroens past) to soften the ride.

It’s a double down of comfort features, and really adds up to a lovely place to be behind the wheel. All for a similar price to its Peugeot sibling. Worth considering.

The new S6 sedan is powered by a hard-hitting 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 petrol engine that produces a strong 331kW of power from 5700-6700rpm and a punchy 600Nm of torque from 1900-5000rpm.

Compared to its aforementioned predecessor, power is unchanged, while torque has increased by 50Nm.

This unit is mated to a 48V mild-hybrid system that includes a trick Electric-Powered Compressor (EPC), which helps to reduce its turbo lag.

A reliable eight-speed torque-converter automatic transmission is responsible for swapping gears, while drive is sent to all four wheels via Audi’s rear-biased quattro system.

This combination helps it sprint from a standstill to 100km/h in an impressive 4.5 seconds, while its top speed is electronically limited to 250km/h.

The C5 Aircross is powered by just one powerplant no matter which grade you pick. It’s a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine, producing 121kW/240Nm.

It shares this engine with the Peugeot 3008 and the outputs compare well with the Renault Koleos’ Nissan-sourced 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine (126kW/226Nm) considering it’s much smaller and (theoretically) less thirsty.

The ever-smart Skoda Karoq is tough to beat in this segment with its 1.5-litre engine (110kW/250Nm) putting strong torque figures on the board.

The C5 Aircross sends power to the front wheels only via a six-speed automatic transmission, for a comparison the Koleos has a lackluster CVT auto, while the Karoq benefits from a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

The new S6 sedan’s fuel consumption on the combined-cycle test (ADR 81/02) is 8.4 litres per 100 kilometres, while claimed carbon dioxide emissions are 197 grams per kilometre. Both figures are pretty keen given the level of performance on offer.

Audi says the aforementioned 48V mild-hybrid system reduces fuel consumption by 0.4L/100km thanks to its coasting ability, which sees the engine turn off for up to 40 seconds between 55km/h and 160km/h. It also engages idle-stop from 22km/h.

In our real-world testing, we averaged 14.4L/100km over 100km of driving skewed towards country roads over city traffic, with limited highway time. It’s worth noting that my spirited driving inflated this result. That said, while its fuel consumption is not as bad as it appears, this is still a thirsty sedan.

For reference, the S6 sedan’s 73L fuel tank takes 98RON petrol at minimum.

The 1430kg C5 is rated to consume 7.9 litres of mid-grade 95RON unleaded per 100km.

That’s about on-par for the segment, and in practice I managed a figure of 8.6L/100km. A litre over isn’t too bad for truly mixed driving.

The mid-grade fuel requirement is a bit of an annoyance, but it’s also to be expected from a small capacity turbocharged European engine. It’s primary competitors (with the exception of the Koleos) drink the same.

The S6 sedan has no right being this good in a straight line and around corners…

Much of its success is owed to the 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6, which is now one of my favourite engines being built today. Simply put, it absolutely hammers.

Punch the accelerator from a standing start and it doesn’t take long for 600Nm to be on tap all the way through, and just a little bit beyond, the mid-range.

Occupants are firmly pressed into their seats as the S6 sedan sprints towards the horizon with vigour. Soon enough, 331kW arrives and hangs around until just prior to the redline.

Needless to say, this acceleration is addictive, and the EPC deserves some of the credit, as it effectively mitigates any dreaded turbo lag and ensures the engine is always seemingly on boost.

But we also need to acknowledge the eight-speed torque-converter automatic, which is a real beauty. Gear changes are nice and smooth, which is great, but what’s even better is their relative quickness – dual-clutch transmissions be damned!

Of course, extra performance can be extracted by switching between the engine and transmissions’ settings but, rest assured, they both stand up, no matter what.

However, we’d suggest spending time in the former’s most aggressive setting, as it unleashes the sports exhaust system, which sounds unreal.

Upshift with intent and you’re met with a booming ‘brap’. Downshifts and the overrun will even gift you a series of pops. In fact, the S6 sedan soundtrack sounds strangely similar to that of the five-cylinder RS3, and we have absolutely no problem with that.

Better yet, the S6 sedan has an appetite for corners, with its neutral handling a standout, partly thanks to its hard-working rear-biased quattro all-wheel-drive system, which works in tandem with all the other electronics to ensure there is plenty of grip at any given time.

This controlled driving pleasure is enhanced by the electric power steering on hand, which has a variable ratio. At low speed, it’s nice and light, but those after more heft can always switch to another one of its settings, which become progressively heavier… arguably too heavy.

Feedback through the wheel is also good, while the steering itself is pretty direct, lending itself to sporty driving, which, of course, is half of the S6 sedan’s mantra.

Coming into corners, braking performance is solid, thanks to the massive 400mm front and 350mm rear discs with red callipers, so the driver is brimming with confidence at every turn, even though there’s an unladen weight (with 75kg driver and luggage) of 1985kg to manage.

But let’s not forget the S6 is an executive sedan, so it has to ride like one. Thankfully, it does. The independent five-link suspension has air springs and adaptive dampers, which serve up comfort in spades, especially at high speed.

Its firm tune does come into frame when travelling on unsealed or uneven roads, with this exacerbated by the large 21-inch alloy wheels, which have a penchant for catching sharp edges.

Straight up, the C5 Aircross is not the most exciting car you can drive. It’s not even exciting for the segment, with the focus being refreshingly distant from sporty.

You’ll be getting sluggish acceleration comprised of an occasionally lazy six-speed auto transmission and a dollop of turbo lag every time you depress the accelerator pedal.

But the C5 Aircross is, refreshingly, not about being sporty at all. I’d argue Citroen is one of the few carmakers that really ‘gets’ what driving an SUV should be about. Comfort.

See, this SUV more than makes up for its lackluster performance by being possibly the nicest place to be behind the wheel in the segment.

We’ve covered how unreal the seats are in terms of their quality memory foam padding, but it doesn’t end there. The C5 has the same excellent well balanced steering from the rest of the Citroen and Peugeot passenger car ranges, as well as sensibly-sized tyres on small alloy wheels and the hydraulic cushion suspension.

It all adds up to a ride that’s quiet and makes most road corrugations, imperfections and potholes a complete non-issue.

The suspension does have its limits, hitting a particularly sharp bump or pothole will have the car bouncing off its shocks, but it’s simply awesome on 90 per cent of Australian urban roads. I wish more SUV mid-sizers rode like it.

It’s also super quiet thanks to “extra insulation” in the engine bay and the small alloy wheels.

The Aircross has the same set of active safety features no matter which grade you pick. This means auto emergency braking (AEB – works up to 85km/h) with forward collision warning (FCW), lane departure warning (LDW) with lane keep assist (LKAS), blind spot monitoring (BSM), driver attention alert (DAA), and traffic sign recognition (TSR) are all standard.

You’ll get the added benefit of front and rear parking sensors and a 360-degree parking view, which is excellent in its functionality.

Expected refinements include six airbags and the regular suite of electronic stability and brake controls.

It’s an impressive suite and has everything you’d expect in a new car – apart from the strange omission of active cruise control.

The C5 Aircross has not yet been rated by ANCAP (although its European full-safety spec equivalents have a maximum five-star EuroNCAP score).

The S6 sedan comes with Audi Australia’s three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, which falls short of the premium market’s relatively new five-year standard that was set by Genesis and followed by Mercedes-Benz.

Three years of roadside assistance is also bundled in, although this term can be extended up to nine years if the vehicle is serviced at an authorised dealership, which is great.

Speaking of which, service intervals are every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first. Capped-price servicing plans are available, costing $2350 for three years/45,000km or $4110 for five years/75,000km. They’re pricey, but you weren’t expecting the opposite.

All current Citroens are covered by a five-year/unlimited kilometer warranty, matching the widely accepted industry standard.

That’s all well and good, but it’s the very erm… European service pricing which is the killer here.

The C5 Aircross is covered by a capped price servicing program which costs between $458 and $812 per yearly visit, for an average of $602 per year for the life of the five year warranty.

It’s a bit of a let down given the Citroen’s cheapest fixed-price service is the equivalent to an expensive service at more mainstream brands.