Used Citroen DS5 2012-2015 review

When you think of an executive car, you don’t often think of a high-riding hatchback with lashings of chrome. Yet the Citroën DS5 stands out among its more conservative rivals for these reasons and is a genuinely interesting alternative.

Citroën hasn’t always had the greatest of success when challenging rivals such as the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series and Mercedes Benz C-Class. That's perhaps why the DS5 has been penned look as bold as it does.

The engine range comprises one petrol engine, two diesel units – a 1.6 and a 2.0 – and a diesel hybrid. Petrol DS5s are quite rare on the used market, with the majority of buyers going for a diesel when new. The 2.0 diesel provides plenty of low-down grunt and is noticeably faster than the smaller diesel option. The hybrid uses a combination of the 2.0 diesel engine to drive the front wheels and an electric motor to power the back axle.

The DS5 is not without its downsides. The first is the significant blindspots caused by its unconventional shape. The windscreen pillars can obscure your forward vision at junctions and the very thick rear pillars and a small back window can make parking difficult.

The second problem concerns the ride; it is far too firm and unsettled on all but the smoothest of roads. The rock-hard suspension does help to keep body movements in check, but it doesn’t give the DS5 a sporting drive because the steering is lifeless and vague.

Equipment levels are on a par with rivals: the entry-level DS5 gets climate control, automatic lights and wipers, electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors, Bluetooth and USB socket as standard. DStyle gets rear parking sensors and sat-nav, while top-of-the-range DSport adds leather seats, front parking sensors and xenon lights.

Inside, you get an aluminium centre console, brightly coloured instrument dials and a cockpit divider that runs down the centre of the ceiling. Thanks to the raised ride height, everyone has a good view out and the seats are nicely shaped. However, there isn’t as much rear leg room in the DS5 compared with some of its rivals.

You get plenty of soft-touch plastics and metal-rimmed heater controls to give the DS5 a degree of perceived quality. Only the rather small stereo buttons disappoint, because they’re the same as the ones used on less expensive models in the Citroën range and feel a bit cheap and flimsy.

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A high-mileage diesel from 2012 can be found for as little as £6000. If you up the budget to £8500, you’ll find plenty of lower-mileage examples with a full service history. Rivals, such as the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4, will cost you considerably more to buy for an example with similar mileage.

A late-2015 DS5 will cost you around £13,500, which sounds like a lot but, again, it’s considerably less than what you’d have to pay for its rivals.

If you’re interested in the hybrid, make sure you get a DSign-spec DS5 because it sneaks into the sub-100g/km tax bracket and therefore has free road tax. With a combined average of 80.7mpg, it’s the most economical car in the range. Higher-spec DSport and DStyle have bigger alloy wheels (with greater rolling resistance) and therefore don’t have the same fuel economy and CO2 figures at 72.4mpg and cost £20 in road tax.

The 1.6-litre diesel is quite cheap to run, with 64.2mpg and £30 tax, while the 2.0-litre diesel isn’t that much more costly with 57.6mpg and £115 tax. However, if you go for a 2.0-litre diesel with an auto gearbox, your costs will go up because fuel economy is much lower at 46.3mpg and road tax of £190.

The least efficient DS5 is the petrol variant because it's only capable of 42mpg and costs £190 per year to tax.

Citroën does offer fixed-price servicing costs for cars that are more than three years old, so that should help you budget for maintenance costs. Insurance should be on a par with rivals.

Since the petrol version wasn’t particularly popular, the 1.6-litre diesel is a bit slow and the hybrid is quite rare, the 2.0-litre diesel is the most sensible choice. You’ll also find a good selection of good used automatics and manuals with this engine because the split is roughly 50/50 on the used market; we’d stick with the manual, though, because it’s much more economical.

DStyle is the spec to go for because you get plenty of equipment and the all-important parking sensors, and there are plenty of examples around in this specification, too.

Our favourite Citroën DS5 2.0 HDi DStyle manual

The BMW 3 Series is one of those cars that does it all. Its diesel engines are very efficient; rather refined and suitably quick. The interior is very well built with plenty of quality materials used and equipment levels aren’t that stingy. An excellent used buy.

The same can be said of the Audi A4, except the draw of the four rings seems to have kept values high, meaning an A4 is actually more expensive than a BMW 3 Series. However, it’s another executive car with a nicely finished interior, a good level of specification and a fine range of petrol and diesel engines, with either front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. It doesn’t ride as well as the BMW, but it is more comfortable than the DS5.

The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is the comfort option if you don’t like the stiff ride of the DS5. Later C-Class models come with a better-quality interior that’s a bit more interesting to look at, too. It is quite pricey next to the DS5, though.

Find a used Citroën DS5 in the What Car? Classifieds here

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