What's the difference?
What’s a point of difference you look for in the oversaturated SUV market? Is it price? Warranty? Features? How about comfort?
There are a lot of mid-size SUVs in Australia. Most of them like to trade on their features or value or, more than ever, sportiness.
You can see it in the huge wheels, aggressive body kits, stiff suspension. The list goes on. But not for the Citroen C5 Aircross.
The most recent offering from the storied French automaker is all about one thing. Comfort.
My question is why is comfort in SUV-land such a niche concept? And how does this quirky orange Citroen get it so right? Read on to find out.
Feels like lately all the Mercedes-AMG buzz has been at the smaller end of the scale.
Most recently, the screaming GLA 45 S has arrived in Australia, pumping out more kilowatts and newton-metres than any compact SUV has a right to.
But here, we're doubling the cylinder count to eight, arranging them in a vee, and lighting the wick on AMG's powerhouse mid-size sedan, the recently upgraded E 63 S.
While the ferocious twin-turbo V8 and the rest of this beast's powertrain are unchanged, the car has been brought up to speed with some aero-focused styling tweaks, Merc's latest 'Widescreen' digital cockpit, as well as the MBUX multimedia system, and a tricky new multi-function sports steering wheel.
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 E 63 S fills its niche in AMG's Australian line-up perfectly. More mature than the brand's four-cylinder hatches and SUVs, but not as overbearing as some of its bigger sedan, GT and SUV stablemates. And its ability to seamlessly switch between serene comfort and dynamic performance has nailed the objective for this 2021 update.