The Rise of the New Citroen C5

Car Leasing has become one of the most probable solutions an individual can consider if he wants to have his temporary car for an intervening time. When you lease you do not pay for the whole value and amount of the car for you only pay for the part or a potion of the value that decreases throughout the duration of the leasing term. There are a lot of car lease emerging and making mark in this industry, however, only few will bound to stay.

One of the best options is the Citroen C5. This is Citroen's 'Mondeo', the all-new C5. Totally redesigned, the French saloon gets a fresh platform, a new air-suspension system and a high-quality interior which offers much more space. This is a sleek addition coming from the French automobile maker and has made an impression of quality build and body and the eye catching features that comprised of a hydro pneumatic suspension, hydraulic transmission, and directional headlights

The said release of the C5 in the market has become a way for those who prove that along with many companies it can still have its own name and success. No other car on the Citroen line has been as pleasant and innovative as the C5. In addition, the finance charge that is what the leasing company earns for the transaction and that can be incorporated to the interests charged on an auto loan. This implies that if you don't want to keep the car and you like upgrading your wheels every now and then, leasing might be the suitable option for you.

The new C5 is considered to put style back into the Citroen line of automobiles and will definitely be one of the best car lease deal options in the market to watch out for. Its good looks will be coupled with a bevy of all kinds of features including hydractive suspension, a fixed-hub steering wheel, and a Parking Space Measurement system also known as the Backseat Driver.

This is a kind of French ingenuity built in German quality and this is a kind of feature expected the Citroen C5. Engines will include punchy diesels such as the firm's new 173bhp 2.2-litre HDI unit and the Ford/PSA-developed 2.7 V6, as well as a range of petrol motors topped off by a 3.0-litre V6. While most models will come with six-speed manual transmissions, there will also be the choice of semi-automatic and fully auto gearboxes. It will have to weather it's own against the competition in the name of giants like Mazda 6 and the Ford Mondeo.

But the Citroen C5 will absolutely be quite affordable and will definitely be the new version that says a lot and boast of a whole new design capability of Citroen and their future bringing. Some of the features of the Citroen C5 are the passenger compartment which remained stable during an impact. The driver's knees were well protected by an airbag mounted in the lower dashboard. Citroen with the airbag would also protect its passengers who were bigger and those seating in different positions. The passenger was well restrained and his knees did not get close to the dashboard. Also, with the Side impact, The C5 scored maximum points in the side impact and pole tests.

The Child-protection feature is where the passenger's airbag can be disabled to allow a backward facing child restraint used in that seating position. However, some of the main information about the status of the airbag are not that distinct and clear. The label warning of the dangers of using a rearward facing restraint without first disabling the airbag was clear and permanently visible. ISOFIX found in the rear outboard seats was not clearly marked.

Even if the C5 has not received any recognition for the protection offered by the front edge of the bumper, still the new Citroen C5 has been rated as four stars for child protection along with the good feature called the Pedestrian protection and scored maximum points on the bumper.

By John Eva.

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Citro‘n C1 1.0i Vibe 3dr

It took the Great British public precisely 24 hours to drive a large Range Rover Sport right through Alistair Darling and his deputy Stephen LadymanÕs proposals for spy in the sky, pay as you go road pricing.

The idea is that youÕre charged anything up to £1.34 to use a busy road during the morning rush hour and as little as tuppence to pootle into a rural village at three in the afternoon. In return vehicle excise duty and tax on petrol will be dramatically reduced.

The head honchos at the Department for Transport insist they are not trying to get people out of their cars, claiming that by making people think about what roads they use and when, they will spread the rush hour load more evenly throughout the day.

The thing is though, Darling, if youÕre a school cleaner you can think all you like about when youÕd like to use the road, but if the job starts at 8.30am you kind of have to be there by then. And what if you want to go to Bristol from London? You can ponder away until the cows come home but youÕll struggle to find a realistic alternative to the M4.

And this is only the start. Teachers and firemen can no longer afford to live in the cities they serve because property prices are too high. Well, under Darling and Man LoveÕs proposals commuting will be too expensive as well.

And speaking of cost, has anyone actually thought about how unbelievably expensive this scheme might be? At present the big oil companies take £50m or whatever from you and me at the pumps and then send 70% to Gordon Brown, who pops it in the bank. Easy.

What Darling and Man Love are now suggesting, with straight faces, is that BritainÕs 32m vehicles will be fitted with a black box full of technology that hasnÕt yet been invented, and each of these boxes will be monitored by American military satellites. And then, at the end of every month, every single motorist in the land will be sent a bill.

Along with some speeding tickets, I should imagine, because if they know where you are 24 hours a day, theyÕll also know how fast youÕre going.

How many people will it take to run all this, to assimilate all the data from space, to deal with the queries from those in hire cars, and visitors from Belgium? ItÕll run to the thousands, and theyÕll all need health and safety officers and rubber plants and water fountains. And whoÕs going to pay their wages. Well, er, thatÕd be you and me.

How can Darling and Man Love not have spotted this? How can two grown men have listened to their advisers and then thought, ÒYes, that sounds great. LetÕs take it to the public.Ó Are they mad? I found out, with one phone call to Transport for London that half Ñ half Ñ of the congestion charge is spent on administration.

If Gordon Brown suddenly found that half the revenue from motorists was being spent on rubber plants and civil servants, the National Health Service would stop and heÕd have to sell all our tanks.

Darling claims he canÕt do nothing, and that he canÕt build more roads because this would mean paving over Òthe whole countryÓ. No it wouldnÕt, because John Prescott is getting Barratt and Bryant to do that.

There is some good news though, because at present, with tax on fuel, people who drive large, thirsty cars pay more at the pumps than those who pootle around in small fuel efficient hatchbacks. With the new idea, everyone will pay the same, so you can go ahead and buy the Hummer youÕd been dreaming about. This will infuriate eco-mentalists, and thatÕs dreamy, Except, of course, it wonÕt be dreamy at all because weÕve had what feels like 900 years of BlairÕs barmy army now so we know how the system works. They make a suggestion, about smoking or smacking or hunting or guns or whatever, and then amid howls of protest go ahead and implement it anyway.

So instead of ditching the road-pricing scheme, Darling will insist all his frizzy haired, baggy breasted advisers dream up some ludicrous device whereby people in big cars end up paying £200 a mile while people in hateful hybrids are given free puppies.

This will need another 5,000 civil servants to administer, and then a special squad of armed men to police because people in large cars tend to be clever and will simply mess everything up by driving around with some tin foil wrapped round the aerial on the black box.

In the same way that more foxes have been killed by huntsmen since hunting with dogs was banned, I can pretty much guarantee that if someone puts a Darling and Man Love transmitter in my car IÕll never pay any car tax ever again.

Anyway, the thing is, you voted for Blair so plainly you like the idea of a world where all the animals are equal and all 4x4s come with a free hippie chained to the radiator grille. So IÕm sure youÕll be delighted to find that the subject of this weekÕs column is a small Citro‘n called the C1.

In many ways, itÕs the spiritual successor to the old 2CV, that poisonous upturned bathtub favoured by the sort of hippie whoÕs currently handcuffed to the tow hook of your Land Cruiser. If Citro‘n were really on the ball, theyÕd sell it in CND livery with Save the Whale bumper stickers ready fitted. And maybe get superhippie Steve Hillage to design the upholstery. Man.

Instead theyÕve been even cleverer, making a car that is pared to the bone and then shaved. To save development costs it shares a body, a floor, suspension and even an engine with both the new small Peugeot and the Toyota Aygo, the little car in which my colleagues on Top Gear recently played football.

And that was just the start. The rear tailgate is made entirely of glass rather than made from metal with a window glued in place. And thereÕs only one electric window switch on the driverÕs side. To get the passenger window down you have to lean over . . . which is no great hardship since this is not a big car.

IÕm reminded in fact of an advertisement Citro‘n ran many years ago for the 2CV which claimed it had central locking. ÒYou can easily reach all the doors from the driverÕs seat.Ó And that it was faster than a Ferrari. ÒAt 70mph the 2CV will easily overtake a 308 GTS travelling at 68mph.Ó

ThereÕs that same sense of jokey cheapness in the C1. And yet. And yet. Deep breath. I liked it enormously, because it has something which is sadly missing from most modern cars. Charm.

Oh sure, 0 to 60 takes a week, the rideÕs bouncier than a government adviserÕs breasts and the bootÕs barely big enough for DarlingÕs IQ, but the interior is a jolly place to be. It even has a docking port for an iPod, and you donÕt get that on an S-class Mercedes.

As a station car this would be absolutely ideal, especially when you look at the result of all the cost cutting. ItÕs only £6,500.

The only problem is quality. Citro‘ns have an unenviable reputation for breaking down a lot, which might lead you to the door of the identical Toyota Aygo. This is £500 more, which you might think is a small price to pay for that famed Japanese reliability.

But since the two cars are made in the same factory, by the same people, I would therefore save the money and go for the C1.

Then, when the road pricing scheme comes to fruition, with the anti 4x4 big-car bells and whistles in place, itÕd be just the right size . . . for driving right up DarlingÕs backside.

By Jeremy Clarkson.