Citroën C5 Tourer estate (2008-2016) - Practicality & boot space

One bonus of buying the Citroen C5 Tourer rather than the standard C5 saloon is that it not only offers a bigger boot, but also more passenger space. The saloon’s roof slopes down at the back (to give it pretty looks), which eats into rear passenger headroom. The estate’s taller roofline solves this problem. The top-of-the-range Tourer’s clever suspension can be raised to make it easier to get in and out of or to help the car get down rough, bumpy tracks that could damage the underside of lower-riding rivals.

Citroen offers a number of useful accessories that make the C5 more practical for family use. Those include an Accessory USB Box (£201) that can be plugged into your iPod to play music through the car’s stereo while operating the device using steering-wheel-mounted controls. Citroen’s rear-mounted bike rack (£151) can carry up to four cycles and the transverse roof bars (£141) make it easy to fit a roof box for carrying extra luggage.

Citroen C5 interior space & storage

Thanks to its taller roofline, the C5 Tourer can happily fit five adults without the rear headroom issues suffered by the saloon. Space up front is also excellent and choosing the leather interior (for £975) means you get heated front seats that massage their occupants.

Not so good is the car’s interior storage. The door bins are surprisingly small, as is the glovebox, and while there’s a cup-holder (but only one), it’s found inside the lidded centre cubby, which could have been used for additional storage. Cars like the Volkswagen Passat and Ford Mondeo have more useful places for holding all your bits and pieces.

Citroen C5 estate boot space

10

The Citroen C5 Tourer has a 505-litre boot that’s 45 litres smaller than the Ford Mondeo Estate’s, but a significant 145 litres short of the Volkswagen Passat Estate’s massive load bay. Lift up the boot lid (it’s electrically operated on the top-of-the-range model) and you get a larger opening that makes it easy to fit in awkward items, although there’s a small boot lip. The rear seats fold flat to reveal a total luggage capacity of 1,462 litres.

Citroen C5 towing

The Citroen C5 Tourer fitted with the 2.0 BlueHDI 150 engine is capable of towing weights of up to 1,650kg, while the more powerful BlueHDi 180 can tow up to 1,250kg. The BlueHDi 180 is fitted with the Hydractive 3+ suspension, which can be lowered to aid when fitting a trailer or caravan.