Test Drive Citroen C8 since 2002 Minivan
Marketable condition
The buyer is enough for the goods that is packed brightly and beautifully. Although there is almost the same, but less catchy. This truth is confirmed by Citroen C8 and Chrysler Voyager. Still, a car for America as was a utilitarian means of movement and remains. Over the ocean, with all seriousness, it seems, only refer to the engineering stuffing, and the designers seem to require only one - to be more, but more timely. It seems that this is how Chrysler Voyager was created.
Europeans, especially the French, more reverently belong to the car. They love the modern technologies to be closed in fashionable and beautiful packaging. As Citroen C8.
The order of disorder. The first impression of the interior of Citroen C8 is shock. From the standard attributes in the usual place - only the steering wheel. Everything else literally scattered across the cabin. But scattered with carefully thought out negligence. Vague associations appear with a set for computer drives, when in one box there are steering wheel connected to the table, the pedal block and the gear shift handle are all separately.
Before the eyes of the driver C8 - only the steering wheel. A small display with control lamps is fixed on the column. Through the spokes are visible to a flat front panel, separated by suede. In fact, this is a lid of a small glove box for documents, coins and other little things. The passenger is the same glove box, only a deeper, you can already store CDs into it. Between the driver and the passenger, the protruding console on which the ACP selector and the climate control unit are accommodated. A CD-receiver is hidden under them under the folding curtain.
Dashboard is generally a separate story. Above the central console, designers built a bridge, issuing a central support in the form of three round dials. Information with them is read easily, so it is accustomed only to an unusual location. But for fans of French cars, especially Citroen, such a designer solution is not new to a novel.
B Voyager All in the old fashioned - Classic devices, ack of automatic transmission and beard with an audio system, air conditioning and additional systems buttons. On the one hand, it is right, since the driver's attention is not too dissipated throughout the cabin.
Silence! The characters of minivans fully correspond to their appearance. Strengthened and serious Voyager is much harder to accelerate - the difference in weight and power of motors affects weight and power. Steering on Chrysler is a classic, American - in our opinion, too soft and non-informative, especially in steep turns.
Despite its two hundred with a horse of horsepower, Citroen C8 also does not impress the rocket. His overclocking is more awesome than the Chrysler, but to the car with both Wenam and very far away. But maybe it is not necessary - after all, they use such Venins mainly as corporate cars or family buses. Therefore, it is all the more incomprehensible why the Citroen C8 can be turned off the ESP course stability system - you don't really want to take turns of sideways. Even despite the well-established steering and tactful work of the hydraulic agent.
The suspension on Voyager and C8 is kept like, but it is traditionally softer on the Americans. However, in turns both minivans are putty quite moderately, asphalt's irregularities are swallowed easily and easily. At first glance it seemed to us that Wenna was noisy - when in the cockpit, one driver, he is perfectly audible, how the suspension works: here they slipped the rails, but the cracks in the asphalt from the recent metropolitan flood. Moreover, a comparative test showed that in Chrysler sound insulation made a little better than in Citroen. But it was worth riding us on the C8 in four, as a car fell silent. It was enough to load the suspension slightly so that her behavior was dramatically improved. And the minivan turns began to go much better - practically without rolls. It is understandable - loading almost two hundred kilograms, we simply brought the suspension to the condition that it is mainly calculated.
The gearbox on Citroen is definitely better - it works much softer and the switching moment can be traced only on the lightweight movement of the tachometer arrow. In addition, Citroen provides manual gear shift mode. In the city it's just a curious feature. Actively use the mechanical regime is not very convenient - the ABEA selector is located unusual, and at first it is better, probably to trust automation. But on the track, this feature can be useful - Citroen is perfectly accelerated during a compulsory transition to reduced. Also, it slows down the engine - on a slippery road or in the mountains it can be very useful.
Body Rubik. Comfort and convenience of any minivan are also evaluated by how comfortable rear passengers feel. In Voyager, one passenger seat is more - from behind he has a one-piece triple sofa. In C8 - two separate chairs, but landing rails on the floor allow you to install another seat - then C8 also turns into a 7-seater car.
Algorithm of transformation of the cabin in both minivans is the same. All seats can be removed and turning the passenger compartment into the cargo. Medium seats can be removed at all, and you can deploy to the back. This is in theory. In practice, we conducted such a transformation in Citroen and were convinced that comfortably in the second row can only be sitting in the course of the movement. If the chair is deployed, then its back is resting into the back of the front seat and does not lean to the end. And if you move forward, there are practically no place for the legs between the pillows of the second and third row. Chrysler is longer, and there is no such problem - the seat of the seat, as you want, but the seasons of the second row fixed tightly and adjust the space for the legs will not succeed.
The gear removal mechanism liked more on Citroen - there are practically no serious muscular efforts to tear the floor's chair. In Chrysler had to be sweat, since the chair itself is about twice as much as on Citroen.
Pretty skeptical we reacted to the door opening mechanism on both minivans. They are sliding, and you can open them manually, and remotely - buttons are located not only in the cabin, but also on the keychain with keys. But the problem is seen not in remoteness, but in the engineering solution - there is a deep slot on the back body panel, which slides the guide roller. In the summer everything works fine, but in the winter there, most likely, dirt, snow, ice - and the mechanism will definitely have to be tight.
Who is where. Citroen C8 was created on a single European platform. But from his brothers - Peugeot 807, Fiat Ulysse and Lancia Phadra - it is distinguished by an external design that is more sinking. The rest of Evrovna look easier. Indeed, Citroen is easily distinguished in a stream along a long, waving back lanterns, by a massive horizontal handle on the door of the luggage compartment. Of course, according to the large Citroen chevron emblem on the hood. By the way, it is made of plastic and to the touch pretty clutch - may not withstand the regular opening and closing of the hood. Only Peugeot can become a real European competitor C8 in Russia. Positions of Fiat and Lancia in our market, to put it mildly, weak. But Peugeot still loses Citroen by the fact that his car looks simpler.
American bribes with its conservatism: strict interior decoration, massive good chairs. Yes, and it is easier to serve it than Citroen, the Daimlerchrysler dealer network launched almost the entire country. So as a car-car, for active operation every day, Voyager is suitable better. Citroen C8 is primarily a personal car that will deliver many joy not only the owner, but also his whole family.
Text Nikolay Kachurin, photo Konstantin Kokoshkin
Model / Modification Citroen C8 Chrysler Voyager
Firm Manufacturer / Country Automobiles Citroen / France Daimlerchrysler / Austria
Number of doors / seats 5/8 5/7
ENGINE
Type / Number / Cylinders Location Petrol / 6 / V-Fig
Working volume (cube. Cm) 2946 3301
Power (kW (hp) at rpm. / Min.) 150 (204) at 6000 128 (174) at 5100
Moment (nm at rpm. / Min.) 285 at 3750 278 at 4000
TRANSMISSION
Drive front
Transmission automatic, 4-speed, sequential automatic type, 4-speed
Brakes, security
Front / rear disc ventilated / disk
ABS, assisting electronic systems 4-channel; ESP movement stabilization system
Front and side airbags for driver and passenger front for driver and passenger
Sizes / Massa
Length / Width / Height (mm) 4725/1855/1755 4805/1995/1750
Wheel base / clearance (mm) 2825/140 2880/140
Tires 205/65 R15 215/70 R15
Mass Curb / Full (kg) 1785/2540 1800/2450
Volume of fuel tank (L) 80 75.5
Maximum speed (km / h) 205 179
Acceleration up to 100 km / h (sec.) 11.0 12.6
Fuel consumption (city / highway, l / 100 km) 15.8 / 9.0 17.3 / 9.9
Price in Moscow $ 48 800 $ 45 700
A source: "Autopilot"
