A new standard bearer at Citroën? This is enough to arouse curiosity. Is she quirky, is she innovative, is she charismatic? More than all that: the C5 X is wise . And that's a compliment.

I don't know if you remember Have You Ever Seen , a television patch broadcast on M6 in 2006 -and incidentally one of my Proust madeleines. One of the episodes is called Have you ever seen…a guy who complains all the time? and I find that, if you know a Citroënist (even worse, a Porscheist, but that's not the point), you have a good chance of having actually already seen one. So inevitably, when the C5 X arrived, it was “oh nooo, it doesn't have a diesel”, “oh nooo, it's made in China”, “oh nooo, it doesn't have hydropneumatic suspensions” , in short, invariably, it ended with “it's not a real Citroën”. I think we can get a little more out of this car.

Already, what does this C5 X look like? The press release announces, I quote, “a bold design combining the elegance of a sedan, the dynamism and the practicality of a station wagon with the attributes of protection and robustness of an SUV ”. Good, but that might be a lot for one car, right? In truth... It's fine. I really like the front, modern, full of charisma and confidence, whose affiliation with the C4 is obvious (come on, to quibble, I find it unfortunate that the turn signal turns off the two headlight bars when it only uses the upper bar). The slender profile takes advantage of the long bonnet and the huge wheels -19″ for everyone!- to hold its own. I'm perhaps a little less thrilled by the rear, less expressive, where the designers had to do with a lot of constraints: having to place a low and wide tailgate in a stern that was intended to be as receding as possible inevitably imposes a few concessions (don't you find it a family resemblance with the BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo?). Oh, and I think pearly white suits her better than “Magnetic Blue”.

The interior is more interesting. Finally, except for the fairly tasteless dashboard; it will simply be necessary to speak of the “new generation” central screen, fluid and reactive. I discovered it with the Peugeot 308, I tweaked it a little more during the tests of the DS 4 and I manage to get by not too badly on this C5 X, proof of its ease of handling. No, it's the rest that is much more important, starting with the front seats. These little guys inaugurate the new version of Advanced Comfort seats with sublime softness, now massaging and ventilated; enough to feel a little more comfortable.

We move back one row, here we are on a back seat with absolutely phenomenal legroom, despite a not-so-crazy wheelbase (2.78 m, as much as a 508 and 11 cm less than the DS 9) , while the heads should not hit the ceiling too much. We were talking earlier about the style of the rear which had to do with a large tailgate, we measure the advantages when opening the trunk: a flat and low threshold, straight walls and a capacity of 545 liters under the shelf climbing, the seats tilted (forming a flat floor as it should), to 1640 liters. If you say the C5 X isn't livable, you'll be a big liar.

Let's go, introductions are done, it's time to hit the road. For the first test loop, I set my sights on the 225 hp plug-in hybrid version. A version that we are beginning to know by heart, whether at Citroën, Peugeot or DS, but which has never disappointed us. As a reminder, we are entitled to a 1.6 L petrol engine of 180 hp coupled to a 110 hp electric motor, itself powered by a 12.4 kWh battery - an evolution of this engine, equipped with a larger battery (15.6 kWh ) and increased to 250 hp, was presented recently at DS , but it is clearly not on the agenda here.

Where this hybrid version becomes interesting is that it is automatically coupled to the “in-house” Advanced Comfort suspension with progressive hydraulic stops…controlled! Thus, three modes (Comfort, Normal and Sport) are available to choose between releasing or tightening the shock absorbers in real time. And it does well. The C5 X is comfortable. But kind

C O N F O R T A B L E

what. And when I say "comfortable", I don't mean "very soft": there is always a very appreciable body support. In Comfort mode, it's sublime: the car undulates above the hassle of the roadway. Normal mode offers perfect synthesis; the “Sport” mode, on the other hand, gives something to have fun with: everything stiffens and the big Citroën becomes this object that is surprisingly comfortable in the turns. We're not talking about a Mégane RS, huh, but the body roll is extremely well controlled, and the curve passage speeds could surprise more than one.

And the hybrid engine follows. In electric mode of course, we take advantage of the big forty kilometers of autonomy to let ourselves be carried away by the silence and the absence of vibrations – note, moreover, that the C5 X is surprisingly handy in town, with a direction very light at low speed and a very appreciable turning radius. The rest of the time, the reminders are effective with a 0 to 100 km/h expedited in 7.8 s and the very (very very) high level acoustic insulation, whether at the level of air or engine noise, will make of this great Citroën a marvelous machine to enquiller the terminals. Like those before her, in the end!

Small observations in bulk concerning the journeys, moreover: I was able to make about fifteen terminals at the back and, if the experience is not as masterful as at the front (probably due to the absence “Advanced Comfort” foams in the bench seat), we are still really good there. Regarding the driving aids, I was a little disappointed with the adaptive cruise control, which was a little too violent in its braking in traffic jams and by the fact that it continued to brake while overtaking a slower car in front of us. Ah, and if you have polarized sunglasses, invest in normal lenses, otherwise you'll miss out on a lot of information projected in the head-up vision, for once really complementary to the (small) panel behind the flying.

Second day, second loop, this time with the PureTech 130. I specifically asked to have the smallest engine possible (between the two, a PureTech 180 is available) for two reasons: to know if 130 hp is enough to animate a big car, and also to see how the “normal” suspension is doing. For the first part, yes, 130 hp is enough. Already because the C5 X is overall light (1,418 kg, it's quite reasonable), then because the block is strong enough to ensure completely correct insertions and overruns. The box certainly has a tendency to stifle the engine a little at steady speed but will not hesitate to drop one or two gears when the need arises. We just have to weight these results taking into account that, apart from my august person and my knapsack, the car had nothing to move. We obviously have to see what happens with the family and the luggage on board but, once again, the omens are optimistic. On the consumption side, I will have consumed 6.4 l/100 km for this petrol version, while the hybrid was content with 4.8 l/100 km, both after having traveled two very varied loops of 120 km.

And its suspensions, then? Let's say I was blown away. This passive suspension has, by its very nature, only one setting available; the advantage is that in the end we don't really need others. The synthesis retained between the absolute comfort and the rigorous maintenance of the body is quite crazy. Concretely, the C5 X does not wallow in tight turns but keeps a fairly unrivaled softness on the imperfections of the road. We are getting to the point where we wonder if the controlled suspensions are really useful, but Citroën replies that we have no choice: they are automatically provided on the hybrid, while the petrol ones only do with the passive. But hey, they don't lose much in the end.

We're coming to the end, it's time for pricing. Citroën offers its C5 X from €32,900 (+ a small penalty of €230) for a Feel finish in PureTech 130 and pushes up to €49,550 (- €1,000 bonus) for a 225 hp hybrid in Shine Pack - Between us, forget the Feel version which does not offer Advanced Comfort seats, it would be a shame to miss out. Regarding the competition, it's a bit complicated with the cessation of the vast majority of station wagons from manufacturers; it can be contrasted with a VW Passat SW which starts at €44,550 with a 150 hp petrol engine and which only offers plug-in hybrids from €54,770 (with a similar endowment to that of the Citroën) , or pick from Skoda with the aging Superb Combi starting at €38,740 with the same 150 hp petrol as the Passat and the hybrid at €45,580.

What is wisdom? According to Robert, it designates “ moderation and prudence in driving ”. It would be quick to attach this notion to timorous, lukewarm, moderate, sanitized things, in a word: boring. Old stuff, what. And the C5 X (like almost all the big Citroëns), it could easily tick all the boxes for an “old man's car”: it advocates comfort above all, the style does not break bricks, the engines are reasonable, in short, it does not drip passion.

Only here, I have a much more meliorative definition of wisdom: someone wise is someone who knows what he is worth, someone who knows what he wants, someone who made peace with himself, someone comfortable in his boots. Being old does not imply being wise, and not all wise people are necessarily old. That's the thing: the C5 X is not an old man's car, it's a car for the wise. And I find that super cool.