[Adam]

Originally Posted by Eshan Joshi

If people can accept the Creta's design , they will definitely accept the C5's design.

Personally I don't feel like Creta's design is Quirky, but agree its polarizing. Also its a Hyundai and its new gen of one of their most successful product Creta ! Similarly like Maruti S-Presso , its ugly but its Maruti, and its gonna sell.
Also I was talking about Citroen design language as a whole, and C5 is not going to be a mass market car. Seems like Citroen want to establish itself as a premium brand at first by launching something which commands comfort and luxury and then later on market their India Made cars for mass market. But overall Citroen's have some quirky designs, I like it, but I know many who doesn't like their weird design and material choices. Being a new entrant to our market, that is a very risky proposition.

[Axe77]

Test drove the Citroen C5 earlier today at Atria Mall today. The showroom is still being built so they are operating from the mall.

Here are my bullet point observations on the car:

1. Dimensions: I love the size of the vehicle. It is just right. Bigger than the Creta, very spacious, but not too massive. Super from a luggage standpoint including the flexible seating.

2. Interiors: The car is beautifully designed but the interiors are a mixed bag. It is definitely not super luxury plush. Even the 2021 Compass interior feels far more premium overall than the C5. Overall its got some great bits, some ordinary bits and some really drab bits

3. Back seat: To me, the single biggest disappointment is really back seat comfort. For a car that is superbly comfort oriented from a ride quality etc standpoint, the rear seat lets it down badly. At a minimum, the rear seat should have had a little more recline, and definitely a lot more under thigh support. The 3 equal seats only exacerbates these shortcomings. Given that it has a 580 litre boot, it would have been better off giving up a shade of that boot space to improve on these two aspects (recline angle and underthigh). In this regard, the bench in the Safari is infinitely more comfortable.

4. The drive: Get behind the wheel though and this car is bloody near PERFECT! Its light and breezy to drive but yet feels European solid. The engine tranny combination is beautifully mated and unlike the Compass, the car accelerates beautifully, you can tell the 170+ horses under the hood, its super refined and the sound dampening is brilliant. The paddle shifters just sweeten the drive even more for me. The brilliant ride quality was quite evident even in the short drive. My wife met me post my test drive after some shopping and I convinced her to take a quick drive around the mall itself. While driving back home when I told her it was a diesel engine she was shocked. She found the car so refined she assumed it was a petrol (she had just driven the Safari a week or two ago and that distinctly felt diesel powered). She gave the car a huge thumbs up. Preferred it to the Safari but up to say 5-6 lakh - not worth a higher premium than that in her opinion.

5. Storage: The car is simply lovely in the kind of storage it offers. The centre armrest holds a cavernous storage underneath. There is nice storage in front of the gear level too. The non conversion of LHD to RHD is a tad annoying - I found the gearshift annoyingly far off instead of within comfortable reach. Same for the left oriented Engine Start switch.

6. Feel vs Shine: As many have said, it is really peculiar that Citroen have flooded the media drive cars as well as showrooms with the lower end variants. There is not a single Shine variant to see anywhere. That's REALLY strange. There were three cars at the mall and all were base variant.

7. Positioning: There is no doubt that this is a brilliant and cleverly packaged product. But it definitely does not ooze "luxury" when you step inside. There are just too many ordinary bits in this car for it to give a feeling of uber luxury. People will see this as squarely a Tucson competitor and a less plush one at that in many ways. It also feels less plush inside than the Compass. Combined with the fact that they are a new entrant, they would be foolish to try and give a halo pricing to this car.

8. Price: Having seen and experienced the car first hand, I honestly feel it OUGHT NOT to retail for more than 32 lakh on road for the Shine. Here is why. If I compare it to the already massively overpriced 34.xx lakh S 4x4 Compass - while the C5 is a touch bigger in size, it lacks leather seats, has the more ordinary interior, does not get 4x4, misses out on several features and is comparable in build quality. The only added feature it possibly gets are paddle shifters. Honestly even the rear seat, the Compass is far better for 2 rear passengers. So basically the added size of the C5 is really only felt in the boot space, not the interior comfort. Given the S 4x4 same engine is [over]priced at 34.xx on road, I cannot imagine why the Shine C5 should cost anything more than 32 lakh on road. And that too is being charitable. I also think the price difference between the two variants should not exceed 1.25 lakh AT MOST. The only differences being sunroof and LED lights (and the much less relevant rear boot opener with your leg - whatever that's called).

[Arun_S]

Originally Posted by yd_gli

The test drive car is never available. All I keep getting is Whatsapp spam with the same brochure over and over again. No one from the dealership has bothered to follow up regarding a test drive. I asked about the service center location and they couldn't give me a good answer. At ~37L OTR it'll sink without a trace with such awful customer service.

In Chennai, Kia and Citroen showrooms are right beside each other, if this is the customer service they are offering while launching, people will just walk over to Kia.

[abhijet.sen]

Originally Posted by Eshan Joshi

If people can accept the Creta's design , they will definitely accept the C5's design.

Big part is played by pricing. A bad design (or softly saying a polarizing design) competitively priced will sell far more than a good design which is over priced. Whatever price estimates coming for Citroen so far definitely does not look good. It will be an epic flop for them. Not to say they won't be able to sell initial lot. In fact initial lot can go very quickly giving an impression it is super hit but within 3-6 months of launch, this car will be selling at same level as Tucson.

[veedub89]

The lack of semiconductor availability could have delayed the deliveries of the car but in no way does it stop Citroen India from officially launching the car with the full specs and pricing.

By dragging its feet on the pricing details, Citroen India comes across as lethargic.

Another issue I see with the brand is that their extremely limited number of dealerships at start. From personal experience I can tell you that Citroen has been looking for dealers for more than a year now. In such a long time, they could only finalise 10 locations? That's pathetic. Heck even the luxury manufacturers realise that the growth lies in Tier 2 cities. So why not have some sort of presence there too?

Picture this, I am from Chandigarh and if Citroen were to launch the car tomorrow, I don't know where I can go to see the car. Delhi, perhaps. But that's 4 hours away. I don't know if there is a dealer in Chandigarh, Mohali or Panchkula. Don't know if they have anyone in Ludhiana, Patiala etc.

Citroen India is not developing a new car. The only real thing they had to do is to create a dealership network. Covid19 was the same for everyone. You can't hide behind that.

[deepak_bajaj]

I will wait for the company to make significant investment in terms of dealership and service centers. How comfortable a car might be, it needs to be serviced and requires fault finding and correction. A patchy customer support combined with diminutive service centers results in a poor overall experience.

Normally, these brands enter with great pomp and show but fail to invest. I won't be serious about a company's product unless the company is serious about it's customer base and their satisfaction.

[vjbox]

I recently went in and checked out the vehicle at the Chennai Dealer (La Maison). The dealership lacked the energy and enthusiasm and sounded more like a chilled out cafe where they incidentally had the car on display. I took the car for the spin and came back with mixed reactions. For the size of the vehicle, the seating room at the back seemed like a missed opportunity and Citroen could have done better in my opinion. The reclining wasn't that helpful and I would have liked better seating configurations and better trim levels. Suspension was mature and sorted but wasn't really living up to the hype on that front. The engine was refined for a Diesel motor but the power figures (175/400) wasn't really translated well for some reasons. It really missed on that low end torque you would expect from a 400nm Diesel motor.

I got a call back from the dealership only to tell me that they are launching in April without any idea of pricing that will only be announced upon launch. For the supposedly 30L range of a car, I would ask for better equipment levels and seating comfort.

[LONG_TOURER]

The most shocking news was they didn't even bother to provide top of the line version to Auto journalist for reviews! I am wondering which manufacturer does that?

[Jo-G]

The French may not get the Indian psychosis of automobile enthusiasm in the modern times as they are still basking in their old Peugeot era.. They failed flat on their face once by bringing an old obsolete model at a very high price but now they bring a fairly new model but with exorbitant pricing while we are pampered with similar facilities by cheaper competitors who have already established their footprints in the Indian market. Another Fiat, Chevrolet, Ford, experiment without doing a proper Due Diligence in the Indian market.

[abhijet.sen]

Originally Posted by Jo-G

The French may not get the Indian psychosis of automobile enthusiasm in the modern times as they are still basking in their old Peugeot era.. They failed flat on their face once by bringing an old obsolete model at a very high price but now they bring a fairly new model but with exorbitant pricing while we are pampered with similar facilities by cheaper competitors who have already established their footprints in the Indian market. Another Fiat, Chevrolet, Ford, experiment without doing a proper Due Diligence in the Indian market.

Add Toyota and Honda as well ...
They will not bring good products at competitive prices but will keep on harping about tough market conditions.

[sidharthg]

IMHO, they really need to pull up their socks. Since they are a new entrant, it becomes all the more important that they have a good dealership ready. And they really need to undercut their rivals to be a runaway success albiet at the risk of risking the luxury marquee. But honestly, at good VFM pricing, people really don't give a damn.

I agree that this late launch saga has been a real poor mistake. People really move on to the next vehicle launch and I think same is the blunder skoda/vw are doing with their launches. I mean announcing in March and delivery in July! That's crazy!

[hamhaj16]

Citroën C5 is priced at 67000AED in Dubai, which is equivalent to 14L, maybe the sales person is not aware of the actual price. If locally assembled, it might be priced between 15L to 18L maximum.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by hamhaj16

Citroën C5 priced 67000AED in dubai, which is equivalent to 14L, may be the sales person not aware of actual price. If locally assembled it might be priced between 15L to 18L maximum.

I’m not sure which specific post you are responding to but as a general matter, prices in other countries have no bearing on the landed prices in India for a variety of reasons. This is reasonably well established and well understood.

[Karvel]

Originally Posted by Axe77

I’m not sure which specific post you are responding to but as a general matter, prices in other countries have no bearing on the landed prices in India for a variety of reasons. This is reasonably well established and well understood.

Yes.

At the same time, the taxes comparison means that it will be about 50% more costing in India, when assembled locally. The difference can be if they actually use higher quality/cost products for Indian version.

[PrasannaDhana]

Volkswagen dealer of my tier II city is hosting an one day Citroen C5 Aircross testdrive at their facility.



Not sure if it is a generic nationwide agreement with VW and Citroen or this particular dealer plans on opening a seperate Citroen showroom here.