Citroen C5 Aircross

Citroën took longer than most of its European-market rivals to jump into the popular family SUV market and came via a wandering, indirect route, considering its various experiments with platform-shared Mitsubishi models and the like. The company's first fully committed attempt at a mid-sized offering, the Citroën C5 Aircross, finally arrived in the UK in 2018 – and it has barely stood still since.

Coming to market initially with a choice of three- and four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, it started life with more powerful pure-combustion options, only to quickly move beyond them. We tested an early car with 2.0-litre BlueHDI 180 diesel power but, as customer preferences changed, that engine was withdrawn in 2020 along with Citroën's conventional 177bhp 1.6-litre petrol.

In their place, to complement the C5 Aircross's smaller engines, came a 1.6-litre plug-in hybrid the same year. And towards the end of 2023, the French marque launched another electrified variant of the car powered by a modified version of the 1.2-litre Puretech petrol engine, which is paired with a new six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. Integrated into the gearbox is an electric motor, with power drawn from a 48V battery located under the front passenger seat.

The new mild-hybrid engine is an important addition: parent firm Stellantis has been developing it for several years and is set to roll out the new powertrain across its entire brand portfolio.

Plainly, and not only in respect of the engines that power it, the C5 Aircross is a car that plays a little fast and loose with SUV convention. As we'll go on to explore, it's a car with proper five-seat, adult-appropriate practicality that converts well as a voluminous cargo tender when required, but it does not offer widely articulating independent suspension, nor four-wheel drive - and neither has it ever.