Citroen C5 Aircross Hybrid - long-term review

The trouble with long-term test cars is that they occasionally get exposed to things they were never meant to be compared against. That's how our Citroen C5 Aircross ended up parked next to a Caterham Seven 170R at the Top Gear test track.

The Citroen was there acting as a camera car. As it turns out, it's rather good at the job. Soft suspension is great for soaking up potholes, but it's also surprisingly handy when you're trying not to shake several thousand pounds' worth of camera equipment to bits.

The problem was what it was parked next to.

Specifically, a Seven 170R in its lightest specification. No roof. No windscreen. No weather protection whatsoever. Just 440kg of British sports car.

I then found myself comparing two cars that absolutely nobody would consider together. Except for one rather tenuous link. The cheapest Caterham costs about the same as the cheapest C5 Aircross.

So, if you had thirty-ish grand to spend, which would you buy? The sensible answer is obvious. The Citroen weighs 1,554kg, has room for five adults, manages over 40mpg, rides beautifully and can swallow 565 litres of luggage without complaint. It'll happily do the school run, the supermarket run and a family holiday without anyone filing a formal complaint.

The Caterham, meanwhile, weighs just 440kg in this specification. Not 1,440kg. Four hundred and forty. With a full tank of fuel it's still only 465kg.

The Citroen has cupholders.

The Caterham has somewhere to wedge a phone and hope for the best.

The Citroen has an adjustable head-up display projecting through the windscreen.

The Caterham doesn't even have a windscreen.

The Citroen protects you from the weather.

The Caterham has you picking flies out of your teeth.

You get the picture.

Objectively, the Citroen wins almost every category. More practical. More comfortable. More refined. More useful. Better at being a car.

The Caterham only has 85bhp. In almost any modern hatchback that would be considered pitiful.

But when you're carrying less weight than a grand piano, it’s hilarious fun to drive. Every input feels mechanical. Every corner feels like an event.

Meanwhile, the Citroen's greatest strength is that it quietly gets on with life without demanding any attention whatsoever. Which, ironically, is exactly what most buyers want.

The older I get, the more I appreciate what the Citroen does. Comfort matters. Practicality matters. Being able to carry people, luggage and a bunch of Ikea furniture matters.

But spending a day around the Caterham highlighted the problem. The Citroen is the car I need. The Caterham is the car I want. The problem is one fits around family life. The other requires family life to fit around it.