Ohh la la – It’s all about French flair and style in the Citroen

I’M not mad about taxi drivers, especially the chatty ones who seem to know everything. I wasn’t in a taxi last week, instead I felt like I was in a luxurious limousine, as I tested the ever so smooth Citroen DS5. It just seemed to glide along.

Citroen reintroduced the iconic DS name for their new range of cars a few years ago. The DS range was brought back in 2010 after an absence of 35 years when the DS3 was introduced. Last year we had the DS4 and earlier this year the beautiful DS5, which is a very stylish and smart motor, made its Irish debut.

Viewed from the front the DS5 is really impressive with its sculpted chrome lines and impressive headlights. The car attracted many curious glances, mainly from males. And that makes sense as Citroen say that the DS5 is aimed at males who are over 35 and are possibly business leaders or

‘independent thinkers.’

Inside the cabin is very busy, too busy in my opinion. I like the way the driver and front seat passenger are both tucked away in their separate sections. You will feel very secure. There are so many controls in your line of vision that you will feel like a pilot. And your co-pilot will also feel that they have something to offer to the driving experience. They can open and close the windows or lock the doors as all the controls are located in the centre console. Or they can keep themselves amused by opening and closing the three glass sections in the roof. The

‘A’ pillars at the side of the windscreen are a bit intrusive and my complaint would be that you seem to be are surrounded by too much metal as there is also a lot of metal over your head also.

If you are tired and wander from lane to lane on the motorway you get a very unusual lane departure warning. If you change lanes without indicating, the driver gets a vibrating effect in the seat to warn you to wake up.

This car is all about French flair and style. And if you are keeping up with recent events in France, you may have seen where new President Francois Hollande chose a hybrid convertible DS5 for his investiture parade down the Champs-Elysées in Paris. I drove the D-Style version which included a few extras like, reversing sensors, reversing camera and electric sun blinds. The Mistral Claudia leather seats were really comfortable and they added to the overall relaxing effect.

In the DS Style version I drove the back seat can be used to accommodate two or three people. If you only have only two back seat passengers they leave down the cup holder in the middle. The most unusual looking item on the dash was the old fashioned clock. Now we normally associate clocks as being round, but Citroen has squeezed their clock give us a rectangle look; strange but cute. The boot is a decent size and if you leave down the back seats there is ample room to carry any unusual cargo.

This is a truly gorgeous car and should help Citroen compete with the likes of Audi, Mercedes and BMW in the luxury car department. Although Citroen has been around for a long time Irish people tend to be a bit cautious when it comes to buying cars that

‘look different.’ But as happens with fashion there is nobody quite like the French to show us real style. Prices for the 2.0 litre diesel start at

?¬32,500.