DS 7 Crossback
DS 7 Crossback Puretech 225 £38,985
WE SAY: POSH CITROEN PLAYS IT SAFE TO BUILD THE BALANCE SHEET
DS says it’s avant-garde and French, yet it’s built a metoo crossover with the anglophone name of Crossback. Ah well, this shape of vehicle is 2018’s cash jackpot. If it keeps the accountants happy, maybe DS will get permission to be radical again.
Poke your head inside and the promise draws closer. DS’s motif is the diamond shape, and it repeats all over the cabin like the LV or Chanel monograms on their handbags. French, see. The luxury bit comes from the materials: lots of leather, real metal, polished glassy touch-switches, their textures stitched, embossed and knurled. It’s distinctive and quite posh.
Comfort is also part of the manifesto, so for extra space the wheelbase is longer than the Peugeot 3008 on which the DS 7 draws. The rear suspension upgrades to multi-link from torsion beam. Uniquely, the adaptive damping takes a feed from a camera scanning the road for bumps and potholes.
This seems to work, though you can’t be certain because you can’t directly turn the camera of except by switching to a stifer mode. Anyway, in Comfort it’s a plush oldstyle French sofa, yet without associated high-speed foatiness. It manages to corner perfectly tidily, partly because it’s light.
The 180bhp diesel engine is noisy if you clog it, but so are most rivals’. Go petrol: the 225bhp 1.6-litre is quick, refned enough and relatively clean. It also plays better with the 8spd ’box than the diesel. Beyond the fancy chassis, more tech comes along. Each headlamp contains three LED blocks that rotate and pivot in a sequential dance when you unlock. The original DS of course, gave the world hydropneumatic suspension and swivelling headlamps, so there’s resonance here.
Night vision is on the menu – and unavailable on any rival. So’s a near-piloted motorway driving system much like Volvo’s. But this one works better in my experience.
The DS 7 is a good enough car to defect the questions elsewhere. On to DS’s public perception as a brand. Only if that’s strong will it climb the brutal southwest face of residuals, and get competitive lease and PCP rates. Boring, but it matters.