Citroen"s impressive C5 gets vote from the Irish jury

The new Citroen C5 has been voted as Ireland"s top car for 2009 by the 28 members of the Irish Motoring Writers Association (IMWA) in the association"s annual new car awards event. The C5 was named as the Semperit Irish Car of the Year 2009 at a ceremony in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, Dublin, last Friday. The awards ceremony for the top Irish car, which celebrates 30 years this year, is now rated as one of the motor industry"s highlight events of the year. The Citroen was a worthy winner, well ahead of its nearest rival, Ford"s newly introduced Ford Fiesta. The C5 was launched during 2008 with the option of a saloon or impressive estate model in the new line-up. The car is a positive and radical departure for the French carmaker and sets out to match the styling, performance and reliability of its German competition. With the Audi A4 and Volkswagen Passat in its sights, Citroen has set and achieved new standards for this car. The C5 has very impressive looks. The car design is modern, while still retaining some of the quirky Citroen features that one expects. The new C5 is economical and safe. It comes with an impressive listing of safety features as standard and has a big car feel in terms of strength and comfort. Most of all, this car is spacious and comfortable to drive and passengers get a good deal in these terms, too. It does need to deliver strongly on reliability and that"s one of Citroen"s key targets for the future. The interior is very Citroen and the fixed centre steering is carried forward in the new generation models. The control layout is very modern, the seats are good with easy adjustment. Citroen retains its comfort features with the option of what they call a metal suspension or a new version of the legendary Citroen hydro-pneumatic system. The test car that I drove back in May of this year was fitted with the metallic suspension and was very comfortable. And Citroen entry prices are more competitive for cars that tick all of the boxes when it comes to economy and low CO2 levels. In all, there were 38 cars nominated for the 2009 title, across five different car categories. For this year, the Semperit Irish Car of the Year awards undertook the biggest shake up in the award"s 30-year history. There were 10 cars shortlisted for the final vote by IMWA members. The results of their voting gave the following ranking in the overall awards table. 1 - Citroen C5 200 2 - Ford Fiesta 158 3 - Jaguar XF 156 4 - Mazda 6 149 5 - Seat Ibiza 124 6 - Volvo XC60 115 7 - Ford Kuga 105 8 - Volkswagen Passat CC 83 9 - Citroen Berlingo Multispace 77 10 - Renault Grand Modus 43 The category winners were - Small Car of the Year: Ford Fiesta Family Car of the Year: Citroen C5 SUV Car of the Year: Volvo XC60 MPV Car of the Year: Citroen Berlingo Luxury Car of the Year: Jaguar XF