Citroen C5 vs Chevrolet Corvette

What's the difference?

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.

The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is truly a supercar offering outstanding dynamics for a lot less money being asked by European rivals - just make sure it's not your only car for those times when you're in a hurry.

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.

We’re talking about the closest thing to a real-life Hot Wheels car here. See, while Ferraris look elegant to me like expensive jewellery, Lambourghinis like cheese graters and McLaren’s look like slippery alien spacecraft, the Corvette Z06 looks exactly like an American supercar should - an unapologetic, ludicrous beast. And I love that. 

Dialing up the wild is that enormous carbon wing and front splitter with dive planes thanks to the Z07 package. Just a word of warning, though, the front splitter and dive planes stick out not just visually, but in the sense that I walked into them often and my ankles still have the scars.

I can’t recall the last time I drove a car with carbon-fibre wheels either - these are the biggest rims fitted to a Corvette and they’re wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R ultra performance tyres (275/30ZR20 front and 345/25ZR21 rear) that they look like oil drums on their sides.

The best angle? The rear - straight on. Those headlights. 

Wait, no, it’s from above - so you can see the V8 through the glass hatch.

Or it could be front-on looking like a giant shovel.. 

OK, there are no bad angles.. 

The Corvette Z06 is long at 4734mm end-to-end, broad at 2024mm wide and its height is a both a sitting-on-the-road-low and numerically pleasing 1234mm.

The plainness of the cabin might be a let down to some people after all the exterior wildness. Ferraris and Lambourghis offer extravagant and exotic interiors, but the Corvette’s innards are almost completely void of flare. 

The media screen is small (8.0 inches), switches and controls for windows and air vents are basic, and the huge dividing ‘wall’ between the pilot and passenger might be a bit much for some.

That ‘wall’ is dotted with buttons and while it may look very 'fighter jet cockpit', they’re just climate control switches. Sitting in the passenger seat is a lonely place with no screen visibility nor easy access to controls - I'd actually call this out as a bit of a fail compared to the interiors from Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini with their screen-filled cabins offering co-pilots something to do.

Yes, it feels a bit premium with the Nappa leather and the sports seats, but it could feel more special.

All of this plainness, however, is saved from boredom by the glass window behind the seats allowing you to peer into the engine bay at the V8 like at a reptile enclosure at the zoo.

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.

Supercars don’t tend to be built with practicality as a priority but this two-door, two-seat beastie is spacious enough even for me at 185cm tall with plenty of room in the footwell and loads of elbow-, knee-, and headroom. 

Cabin storage is limited to a glove box, door pockets, two cupholders, and a wireless phone charger on the bulkhead behind the seats.

As you can see from the images there’s a boot at the rear which will fit smaller bags and a small boot in the front.

I did the school run in the Corvette a few times (I know, lucky kid) and I can tell you a bass guitar in its case and a school bag, plus my own large handbag make for a cramped cabin. A Kia Carnival the Corvette ain’t, but it’s not trying to be one and compared to its rivals it does well for practicality.

Almost never does a car with a list price of almost $400K get full marks, but here we are and I’ll tell you why. The Corvette Z06 in its standard form lists for $336,000 and this is outstanding value compared to its supercar rivals such as the Ferrari F8 Tributo for $484,888, or a McLaren 750S for $585,800 or even an entry-grade Lamborghini Huracan, the EVO, for $383,187. 

Australia gets the top 3LZ trim, with the local standard features list for the Corvette Z06 including Nappa leather upholstery, GT2 bucket seats, a 12-inch digital instrument display, a 14-speaker Bose sound system, red seat belts, wireless phone charging, carbon-fibre and suede microfibre trimmed steering wheel, a media system with sat-nav plus wireless Apple CarsPlay and Android Auto, power seats, heated steering wheel, dual-zone climate control,  heated and ventilated seats and a head-up display.

Our test car was fitted with plenty of options including the Z07 Performance Package that brings carbon-fibre everything. We’re talking the enormous carbon-fibre rear wing and aero kit with side skirts and a front splitter with dive planes –and there are the carbon-fibre wheels (20-inch at the front and 21-inch at the rear). 

The Z07 package also brings a more hardcore suspension tune and carbon ceramic brakes for ridiculously good stopping power.

The Z06 has the most powerful V8 engine in the Corvette range, too, and we'll get to that soon.

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 5.5-litre naturally aspirated V8 in the Z06 makes 475kW and 595Nm. That’s a lot more power than the Corvette Stingray’s V8, which produces 369kW. The GT3 racecar version of the Z06 uses a derived version of the 5.5-litre V8, and actually it shares 70 per cent of the engineering components. 

Revving to a high 8600rpm the Z06’s V8 lets out a high-pitched scream when pushed hard, much like a Ferrari because like many Ferraris the Z06 has a flatplane crank V8 - actually it’s one of the largest flatplane V8s to go into a production car.  

Corvettes are now mid-engined cars and the Z06 has an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission that changes gears quicker than I can blink, sending all that mumbo straight to the rear wheels.

Acceleration comes hard, fast and loud with the Z06 able to boot itself from 0-100km/h in 2.9 seconds. That beautifully linear acceleration with no turbos will pull you all the way towards its top speed of 313km/h.

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.

As with practicality, fuel efficiency isn’t the Corvette’s priority and after driving it daily for a week in the suburbs, city and a few dashes out to more open country roads the Z06 was using an average of 23.8L/100km, according to the trip computer.

Luckily the fuel tank is pretty big at 70 litres and with an official combined fuel consumption of just under 16L/100km you have a range of 438km… in theory.

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.

What the Corvette Z06 is like to drive really depends where you drive it. Our suburb has a ridiculous number of speed humps, which are like the Corvette Z06’s Kryptonite thanks to its very limited ground clearance and a carbon front splitter that almost skims the road at the best of times.

This made the Z06 one of the slowest fast cars I’ve ever piloted. My son would beg me to drive him to school in it, but the journey would take twice as long as we slowly eased over each hump while holding our breath. A lift system does raise the front of the vehicle but even then, don't breathe out.

The width and poor visibility made inching down narrow streets of parked cars a stressful exercise, too.

The Corvette Z06 is almost too much of a racecar to live with and then you let it free on an open country road and its purpose is clear - it runs like you wouldn’t believe and screams in delight all the way, while clamping itself to the road with sticky tyres, perfectly set up suspension and proper downforce.

Steering feels mainlined though to your nervous system, the pedals under your feel like your actual feet, and it all feels like a dream until you wake up again when you reach the city limits and round abouts, and traffic and yes, speed humps.

The Corvette Z06 clearly is a car that needs to be joined by other cars in your driveway, ones that don’t even notice speed humps.

Along with four airbags, the Corvette Z06 has AEB, forward collision alert, lane-keeping assistance, rear cross-traffic alert, blind-spot monitoring, auto high beam headlights and adaptive cruise control.

An ANCAP safety rating doesn't exist for any member of the Corvette and will likely never due to low volume.

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.

GMSV covers the Corvette with a three-year/100,000km warranty which is short by current standards where carmakers typically offer a duration of five years/unlimited kilometres.

One of the appealing sides to the Corvette is that it’s made by a down-to-Earth American car company and a longer warranty offering peace of mind would seem more appropriate.

Service intervals are every 12 months or 12,000km, with capped-price servicing sadly unavailable.