Moskvich 5 pros and cons
Most lists of a car's strengths and weaknesses are written by someone who spent an afternoon with it. We hand the same Moskvich 5 over week after week and get it back with feedback attached, which is a slower but more honest way to work out what the car is actually good and bad at. Here is where we have landed.
In its favour: the gearbox suits the place
The CVT automatic is the single biggest advantage of this car in a city like Manchester. A conventional automatic spends slow traffic hunting between first and second, with a small lurch each time it changes its mind. A continuously variable transmission has nothing to hunt between, so crawling towards Regent Road at half five is smooth in a way you notice by day three. Drivers returning the car mention it unprompted more than anything else.
In its favour: turbo torque from low down
There is no naturally aspirated Moskvich 5, which is quietly one of its strengths. Every version gets the 1.5-litre turbo petrol, with output ranging across roughly 136bhp to 184bhp depending on the version. That means there is no underpowered base model to accidentally end up with, and the low-rev pull makes the car feel easier than its size suggests when you are pulling out of a side street.
In its favour: the dimensions are sensible
At roughly 4.5 metres long, 1.85 wide and 1.70 tall, this is a compact crossover in the honest sense. It gives you the raised seating position people actually buy crossovers for, but it fits multi-storey bays without a sideways shuffle and clears the common 1.9-metre height barriers. A lot of cars in this class have crept up in width over the last decade. This one has not.
In its favour: a mainstream platform underneath
The Moskvich 5 is a rebadged JAC Sehol X6. For a buyer that is reassurance rather than a criticism: the underlying car is built in volume by a large, established manufacturer, so the components are not one-offs. Volume production tends to mean an ordinary quality baseline and parts that exist.
Against it: the CVT on a slip road
The same gearbox that makes town driving pleasant is the car's clearest weakness when you demand everything at once from 40mph. Revs climb quickly to where the engine makes peak power and stay there while road speed catches up. Your ear expects the sound to rise and fall with the speed, and it does not. The car is not slow, but the experience is unfamiliar and some drivers never warm to it. Building speed slightly earlier removes most of the complaint.
Against it: the badge complicates everything around the car
This is less about the machine than the ecosystem around it. A less common nameplate means fewer independent specialists who have seen one, a thinner second-hand market to compare against, and occasional friction when arranging cover. None of that is a mechanical failing, and all of it is real if you are buying rather than hiring.
Against it: it is not engaging to drive
The steering is light and accurate and tells you very little. Body control is fine rather than tied down. If driving is something you enjoy for its own sake, this car will bore you, and no amount of familiarity fixes that. If driving is transport, the same traits read as calm and easy.
Against it: specification varies more than you expect
Trim, equipment and even engine output differ between versions to a degree that makes generic advice unreliable. It is genuinely worth checking the specific car rather than the model.
The two things we refuse to list either way
Boot capacity in litres and real-world fuel consumption are quoted all over the internet for this car, confidently and inconsistently. We have not measured either ourselves against manufacturer documentation, so we are not going to put a number on them. From handovers: the boot takes a large weekly shop and two soft bags without folding the rear seats, and the car is not thirsty for its size. For anything more precise, read the handbook of the exact version.
So where does that leave it?
One more thing worth weighing
Ownership economics sit slightly outside the usual pros-and-cons list, but they belong here. A less common badge makes future resale harder to predict than a mainstream rival's, which is a genuine cost if you change cars every three years and a near-irrelevance if you keep them for ten. Nothing about the car causes this; the market around it does. Weigh it according to how long you intend to keep the thing, not according to how the car drives.
The pros cluster around daily usability and the cons cluster around enthusiasm and ecosystem. For most people doing most of their driving in and around a city, the balance falls clearly on the positive side. For anyone who wants their car to be interesting, it does not.
The cheapest way to test which group you fall into is to drive one for a week rather than read another list. Our Moskvich 5 hire in Salford exists partly for exactly that.