Fully equipped
Many, many years ago, I attended a wine course taught by Stuart Pigott. It was really exciting, and I learned a lot (even though I already considered myself an expert), but the most important lesson was incredibly simple: do I like the wine – or not? If I like it, then it’s good. Otherwise, it’s not. And actually, it’s exactly the same with cars, albeit in a slightly different form. When I leave the house in the morning to go to work or into town or to Berlin, do I smile when I see my car? Or not? That’s it. Full stop. Yes, black and white, that’s how life is – grey is everything I don’t want.
Of course, you can judge wine, cars and everything else in life according to 212 or even 763 different criteria. But when I see my 20-year-old Defender, which I rarely drive anymore, I feel good and I smile. The black Giulia QV, manual transmission, also almost 10 years old: pure happiness, eternal love, a grin on my face as wide as its bum. Most of the time, however, I drive test cars, by virtue of my job, and I smile less and less. Currently, I’m doing an endurance test on a Renault 5, which I think is great, very, very cool, and I could actually imagine it joining the team soon. But this isn’t about all those X per cent of vehicles that I don’t really want anything to do with, it’s about my new ‘daily’: Rosalie.
It’s a Citroën C5 Tourer, first registered in January 2012, diesel, 3-litre V6, 6-speed automatic. The lady has almost 240,000 kilometres on the clock, is now in my possession as a second-hand car – and looks virtually new, both inside and out. Before me, it belonged to an elderly gentleman who looked after it like the apple of his eye, had every service done – the leather of the exclusive interior has not a hint of patina. Speaking of leather: anyone who ordered the full range of features back then also got the full range of features, even in the darkest corners there is still a scrap of real leather, the French almost went a bit overboard there. Otherwise, Rosalie has everything that was available at the time: heated seats, dual-zone climate control, a decent hi-fi system. And a switchable (!) lane departure warning system – apart from the sport button, this will remain the least used switch in this vehicle.
And above all, Rosalie has hydropneumatic suspension. This is the last Citroën with this chassis, which is superior to all other systems. It’s not just the damping comfort; the French car doesn’t know bad roads, and it hardly rolls at all in corners. Admittedly, a C5 like this does not encourage a deliberately sporty driving style, but because it glides so wonderfully, you don’t want to throw it off balance unless it’s absolutely necessary. Steering, well, speed-dependent power steering, that used to be fashionable – it only becomes really precise at around 150 km/h, before that it’s a bit spongy, especially in the middle position, where it’s rather imprecise. On the other hand, the steering wheel, which rotates around a fixed hub (with plenty of controls), is a dream, made of the finest leather, but with brushed aluminium where you grip it most. Otherwise, the cockpit is just as it was in the 2010s, when the more buttons you had, the better equipped you were considered to be. And so there is also a calculator at the bottom right. It could also be for the phone. But anyone who can operate it while driving is probably already driving autonomously. There is also a small screen, even in colour, yes, with navigation, but it’s not really up to date anymore. My smartphone, which I have with me anyway, is. And hey, the ventilation still blows really well, so fogged-up windows are gone in seconds. The seats are surprisingly narrow, offer good lateral support – and even more long-distance comfort.
The self-igniter hums audibly. Always in the same tone, it doesn’t necessarily want to be strained. But it doesn’t need to, either. At 150 km/h on the (German) motorway, it revs at 2500 rpm, and with its 240 hp and 450 Nm of maximum torque at lower revs, it pushes everything else away. This PSA engine, which was also installed in Range Rovers, has been slowed down a bit for the Citroën – less torque, more durability? Less torque? It’s hard to imagine that you could need more. The automatic transmission shifts almost imperceptibly, but it doesn’t like traffic jams, where it sometimes jerks. But Rosalie isn’t a city car anyway; she wants long distances, cross-country, motorways, where she is incredibly confident, a true goddess. Fuel consumption at Swiss motorway speeds: less than 5 litres. In everyday use (after the first 1000 kilometres): 6.3 litres. According to contemporary measurements, the Citroën reached an impressive 242 km/h.
But there’s something else that makes me happy: the attention I can give this car. With a new/test car: get in, put your foot down. With this older, rather fragile French lady: warm her up properly, relax. Then warm her up peacefully, which takes a little time. And finally, I am extremely alert the whole time, constantly listening for unfamiliar noises, checking whether the car is doing anything it shouldn’t – is she OK? With a new/test car, you can expect that, you look at it differently, look for strengths/weaknesses, compare, see if the operating system is understandable or rather stupid, does it brake well or very well, how does the steering work, what can the drive do? That’s not really necessary with Rosalie, as there’s nothing left to improve because the C5 hasn’t been manufactured for quite some time now (unfortunately) – it’s now just a matter of keeping it in the best possible condition. Loving care. Yes, she’ll soon be getting her big service at 240,000 kilometres, including a new timing belt, and then she’ll be ready to go on a big trip.
The plan was actually to buy it cheaply (and yes, Rosalie was cheap), invest a little, spruce it up, write it up nicely, then, after about six months, sell it on for a few extra quid, into good hands. Well, that’s not going to happen. I shouldn’t have given her a name, because then it became too personal. Above all, I like this form of comfortable long-distance travel (and the huge, completely flat boot) far too much to want to give her away. And anyway, the last Citroën with hydropneumatic suspension, and with this engine and equipment, you have to keep it. After all, ‘valuable’ cannot be measured in money alone. And finally, there is also the question: what else has actually improved in cars over the past 15 years?
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