BROTHERS AT ARMS

THE STARKLY DIFFERENT CITROEN C5 AIRCROSS AND JEEP COMPASS NOW HAVE THE SAME MASTERS, AND COMPETE FOR THE SAME BUYERS’ ATTENTION

- TUHIN GUHA

The Jeep Compass and the Citroen C5 Aircross now find themselves in a bit of a sticky situation. Developed and then launched in India completely independently of each other, these two SUVs are now suddenly newly anointed siblings, being from two of the 14 brands that make up Stellantis.

To make things more interesting, both are aimed at roughly the same buyer profile. The Jeep and the Citroen will be on your radar if you’re looking for an elevated experience from your two-row SUV but don’t want to spend luxury brand money, or if the rough and tumble ladder-frame offerings just don’t cut it. And for that added dash of colour, the C5 Aircross is the French brand’s big first play in the Indian car market while the Compass has had a refresh to cover off the ever widening range of options that we’re seeing in the lower reaches of this segment.

Styling

If your aspiration towards SUV ownership is driven by a need to stand out, you can do far worse than the C5 Aircross. It looks like nothing else of the road, with its square shapes and rounded edges. That it is substantially larger than photos suggest comes after the fact. There’s quite a bit of nuance to the styling, in the way the double chevron integrates into the two-part LED headlamps on this top Shine trim and the way the large swathes of sheet metal are carefully tempered with the squared-off sculpting. The tasteful gloss red highlights specific to this white paint option could have been easily overdone, but instead do just enough to liven up the otherwise relatively dark spaces in the bumper..