The SUV literally glided over the entire route, which is littered with speed breakers and stretches of bad tarmac.
BHPian the.city recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Recently took 1060 km round trip from Hyderabad to Hampi and back. Shared the route experience in the dedicated Hampi thread. Using this thread to share the ride experience. This was the first true blue long trip I took on C5. I’ve done some 1-2hr trips but this was the first one in the realm of 8-9 hours.
I was anxious in case something goes wrong, especially because it’s getting quite hot now. All things said and done, it’s a new vehicle with a sparse dealer network. But here’s how it really went
- Hyderabad-Hampi is only 20-30%-ish national highway driving and the rest is 1-2 lane state highways and interior roads. Those roads are littered with speed breakers and some stretches of bad tarmac. Citroen C5 just glided over the entire route. It was a surprisingly smooth journey
- Typically 8-9hrs of driving would drain me of energy. This is the first time was fully energized even after the 9hr drive. The soft suspension combined with low NVH kept on all passengers relaxed.
- With so many posts about rattling sounds, squeaks and loose wires in recent vehicles I’m ever more delighted by the complete lack of them in C5. I have a newfound respect for its build quality after this trip. Cheers to Citroen engineering and manufacturing. Well done folks.
- In some ways, I was happy that I never planned Hampi on my old Honda City because Hampi needs ground clearance. There are some enormous speed breakers, especially within the Hampi area. I have no idea how some folks in t-bhp have taken their premium sedans there. (Kudos to your driving skills!).
- Another surprise was that C5’s air-conditioning was orders of magnitude better than City. It got really hot in the rocky sunny stretches but the passenger compartment felt way more comfortable vs City. I kept an eye on engine temperature and it didn’t even touch 90degrees after 100km+ of continuous 80kmph+ drive in the midday sun.
- The huge cooled storage under the centre armrest is extremely useful in hot day driving… and I mean EXTREMELY useful. I had some 3-4 odd water bottles along with some small packets (fruit juices, Yakult, etc).
- Some negatives though – Need to keep my phone connected to all 9hrs to get Google Maps. I’m missing in-built maps. Actually had to keep my phone in the cooled central armrest too to avoid it getting too hot. I’m also missing connected tech. I would have loved to start the vehicle remotely ahead of time to kickstart air conditioning. I’ve solved the TPMS with exterior sensors already but that’s also something I would have preferred to be included with the car too.
Some random car pics from the journey.
Keyword: Road trip experience: First 1000 km journey on my Citroen C5 Aircross