Test Drive Citroen C5 Estate 2001 - 2004 Universal

Time - Middle Easterns

Time dictates its laws. Most firms subordinate to his flow and changes the image, for example, offering Citroen C5 and Renault Laguna II Break.
I foresee the perturbation of readers - how can you compare two absolutely different cars?! But we went to it consciously. I agree, they are different. Even too. But there is something that integrates Citroen C5 and Renault Laguna II. Both cars demonstrated a new approach of both companies to their market proposals. We are sure: buying these models will be people, various in our social situation and status. However, each client, in addition to the standard and options, will receive a hidden offer of an automaker: Rate the quality of the French auto industry of the beginning of the XXI century.
Plus two. Citroen C5, according to European classification, refers to class D is the average business class. In Europe, secured managers who are tired of unified Eurostandards automotive are already being revealed. These people use a car with a benefit for a growing family and profitable for the image. And the image in the case of Citroen is primary - unusual rounded-indulgent forms and a cab, as if shifted forward, dramatically distinguish this car from the total mass in the stream and in the parking lot. The sort of camouflage effect, when designers and designers are trying to present a hatchback sedan.
Renault Laguna II Break is more conservative in its intended purpose, but no less progressive in its design. At the same time, a rare business - a wagon looks much graceful Hatchback. It is assumed that such a car is bought primarily to solve their home problems - a big family, passion for long-range travel. Prestige and grace are departed into the background.
In our country, where everything is spoiled by a bad climate and difficult childhood characters, the attitude to the car is slightly different from the Middle Eastern - as a temporary belt. Always need to make a correction for two hours.
PLUS ONE. Citroen C5, no doubt, we will use as a representative car. Prerequisites for this more than enough. First, the body was designed much higher and wide than it allows the classics in the genre class D. in the cabin is spacious and a lot of air. But this space is designed exclusively for the comfort of passengers. It can be relaxed in it in the rear sofa, impoverished with hands, describing the benefits of a new deal, or just read the newspaper Kommersant. At the same time, thin skin creaks, and the driver's hands compress the perfectly thoughtful working surface of the steering wheel, the knob of the gearbox, press numerous knobs and control buttons of life support systems.
From several modifications C5, we chose the clinic. Engine - a new three-liter V-shaped gear with a capacity of 210 hp, Salon - leather, and electronics - both at Expo 2001 exhibition: climate control with the ultraviolet sensor, rain sensors and automatic switching on the near light. Naturally, the car is equipped with an automatic 4-speed gearbox.
MINUS ONE. Laguna is much easier. She does not have a barbecue, rather - configures on a working way. But to blame her creators in boring creation can not. Vice versa. Excessive avant-garde in solving some technical issues causes a conservative driver, to put it mildly, bewilderment.
No ignition key in our usual form. His role is played by a plastic card, which the Aviation of the ATM swallows the gap on the front console. Running and stopping the engine is carried out by pressing the START / STOP button. A huge curtain on the microlyft closes the radio - it rises easily, but in order to lower it, it is necessary to make some muscular effort. It is that attention is distracted by a minimum of 10 seconds. Carefully on the roads.
The rest of the second generation Renault Laguna retained the ascetic features of his predecessor. Especially since we did not seek to ride the most cracked version. The sales experience of this car on the territory of the once-allied Latvia testifies that a universal with a new engine 2.0 liters and mechanical gearbox uses the greatest demand - a real workhorse. Of the additional bells, most buyers have near xenon and parking sensors. But the Riga price is attractive - $ 19 thousand. Incident, sales of Renault Laguna second generation will begin in Russia not earlier than spring 2002, and the fate of a new gasoline motor with direct fuel injection while foggy - most likely, modifications with this complex and sensitive engine are not yet Will be delivered to our country.
Stroke accuracy. The biggest surprise in C5 can be called handling. Because the first sensations - well, very nice. The engine in the cabin is not heard. Start from the scene - quite spectacular so that everyone else enjoy the grace of the lines of your trunk. But further - continuous disappointment.
At low speed steering wheel on C5 absolutely wadded. It seems that the whole system lives his own, different from the car and his driver's life. Citroen's small trust fell in almost no way responds, it seems that engineers have provided a backlash as a configuration element.
On our car was installed a hydraulicer with a variable productivity that takes into account the vehicle speed. So, at speed, 100 km / h Steering wheel became so hard that it was fit to use as a simulator to pump muscles. It is doubly insulting, as it holds the direct Citroen road is simply amazing. Regardless of how the suspension is currently configured - on a sports mode or a simple ride.
MOSCOW TIME. The behavior of Ranault Laguna is much easier and clearer. The engine 2.0 l stars is not enough from the sky, but no one does not require it. The engine has sufficient elasticity and the driver, so that the driver with the trunk scored before the failure (still wagon) did not feel humiliated and offended in the overall flow of roys on sedans and hatchbacks.
Driving a new Laguna - how to tell the truth: easy and nice. Translations are turned on clear, and they are chosen correctly. The first-second - overclocking, on the third one can already be twisted all day by narrow streets of Riga.
Sit is very convenient. The abundance of adjustments of the chair and the steering column makes it equally well to settle with the painful ride through urban traffic jams and relaxed - during trips to long distances along the highway. In the latter case, an hour later, a noisy engine annoying a bit, but there is an antidote from this - a good full-time radio tape recorder with a CD player.
The overall impression was strongly spoiled by one annoying trifle - a liquid crystal display in the central part of the torpedo. It is displayed by the usual information for the cars of this class: radio wave, intricate temperature, fuel consumption, etc. But the numbers, as we found out, are suitable for reading only in cloudy weather - the display is completely blind under the oblique rays of the sun.
Despite those or other annoying trifles, we liked both cars. First of all, the design is not typical of both firms in the past. Plus the original and relevant ergonomics of the cabin, corresponding to the purpose of the machines. But whether they are once popular in Russia for the culture of France, it will not show time, and more landed characteristic - their price.
      
Text Nikolai Kachurin, photo Igor Timofeev
Cars are provided for Musa Motors Riga tests (Renault Laguna II BREAK), (371) 706-6142, and Auto Statuss (Citroen C5), (371) 780-0133
       

On C5 installed hydropneumatic suspension Hydractive 3. By pressing the key, you can choose one of the preset bodies: normal, reduced, increased (to overcome off-road at speeds up to 40 km / h), high (car is raised above the road by 40 mm and in such a position Can still go, but no faster than 10 km / h).
At speeds of more than 110 km / h, electronics enter the case, and C5 is crushed at 15 mm in front and 11 mm from behind. It is enough to reset the speed of up to 90 km / h so that the suspension returned to the normal state. When moving along Coldinami, the car body will automatically rise by 13 mm. But that the electronic sensors have coped with the analysis of the road surface, it is impossible to exceed the speed of 70 km / h
       
Model / Modification Citroen C5 Renault Laguna II Break
Manufacturer / Country Automobiles Citroen / France Regie Nationale ES USINES RENAULT / FRANCE
BODY
Type Sedan Universal
Number of doors / places 4/5 5/5
ENGINE
Type gasoline with electronic injection
Location in front, transversely
Working volume (cube. Cm) 2946 1998
Number / Cylinder Location 6 / V-Figure 4 / Angle
Power, kW (hp) with rpm. / Min. 152 (207) at 6000 103 (140) at 5500
Moment (nm at rpm. / Min.) 285 at 3750 200 at 4250
TRANSMISSION
Drive front
Transmission automatic, 4-speed mechanical, 5-speed
SUSPENSION
Front Hydropneumatic Mattering Road Light, Independent, Spring,
triangular transverse levers, transverse stability stabilizer
Rear hydropneumatic with a variable road lumen, longitudinal levers, rear axle with suspension wheels on the connected longitudinal levers,
stabilizer transverse stability
STEERING
Gear Rake Type with Hydrauscitel
Min. The diameter of the reversal (M) 11.8 12.0
Torkemose
Front disc, ventilated
Rear disk
Sizes / Volume / Weight
Length / Width / Height (mm) 4620/1770/1480 4700/1750/1440
Wheel base (mm) 2750 2745
Mass Curb (kg) 1480 1335
Tires / discs 215/55 R16 / 6,5J 205/55 R16 / 6,5J
Dynamic characteristics
Maximum speed (km / h) 240 210
Acceleration up to 100 km / h (sec.) 9.8 no data
Economy
Fuel consumption (l / 100 km, city / highway) 14.5 / 7.6 10.5 / 6.0
Price in Moscow $ 34.6 thousand $ 19 thousand (without customs)

 

A source: "Autopilot"