Modern Citroen cars

[y2blade]

are they any good?
or are they still much the same as they used to be?

[notallthere]

My mums got one and its a pile of crap

[Ozzie Osmond]

DS3 looks mighty fine to me.

[ceriw]

we have a new c3 exclusive.
very smart inside, all the bits and pieces you'd expect and a nice panoramic sunroof. quick bmw engine 1.6 petrol, all in all fine really.
(apart from the bloody annoying seat belt reminder....)
same as the old ones? - had a cx2200 a long time ago - are the new ones the same?- yes in the sense they have some quirky details and are stylish.
would i recommend one? prefer a bmw 1 series for the money. but i wasn't choosing this one.

[y2blade]

My only experience of them is the C3 1.4HDI mk1 my Nan had, that was faultless

[Blown2CV]

Quality is very variable, as it has been for some time.

[V88Dicky]

My only experience is the 2004 C3 1.4HDI what my folks have just gotten rid of. It only had about 30k miles when they bought it in 2007.

It was the noisiest diesel I'd heard in a long time, the interior was dropping to bits (literally), and it was dog rough.

Went through a new battery for 3 consecutive winters, and also a starter motor or two.

Good headroom though, handy if you drive wearing a hat.


They traded it in for a new style Ibiza 1.4 'Sport', which so far, seems to be head and shoulders above the Citroen.

Edited by V88Dicky on Thursday 14th October 09:47

[DJC]

What do you mean by modern and what do you mean by good?

I had a C5 for 4 of us as the hire car 3 yrs ago and it was superb at the job of wafting along. Vastly superior ride and comfort to anything BM, Merc and VAG had on offer and the interior was rather lovely aswell. Was it sporty or rewarding to drive? Nope. Was it brilliant at what it was designed for? Yes.

[y2blade]

DJC said:

What do you mean by modern and what do you mean by good?

I had a C5 for 4 of us as the hire car 3 yrs ago and it was superb at the job of wafting along. Vastly superior ride and comfort to anything BM, Merc and VAG had on offer and the interior was rather lovely aswell. Was it sporty or rewarding to drive? Nope. Was it brilliant at what it was designed for? Yes.

less that 5 years old
not in and out of the w/shop all the time

[robsco]

Quality is much improved now, but DJC's point was a very valid one. They still aren't the car to buy if you want a sporty involving drive (DS3 aside), but ride quality is still head and shoulders above most of the competition, even from the little superminis.

[V8mate]

I have a 2005 C5 (facelift model) for sale if you're interested.

Hasn't caused me any problems over the last three years (now at 86k). It's the 'Exclusive' model so is fully loaded with auto-everything.

A well proportioned family car with the acclaimed ride and a good night out over two grand will take it

[10JH]

DS3 gets fairly good reviews, and their various MPVs get a fairly good write up too.

[y2blade]

robsco said:

Quality is much improved now, but DJC's point was a very valid one. They still aren't the car to buy if you want a sporty involving drive (DS3 aside), but ride quality is still head and shoulders above most of the competition, even from the little superminis.

the DS3 is the one that has caught my attention, I now see one every morning so far this week (I'm trying to picture what I saw in its place before this weekend)

I didn't want to waste my time considering them (Citroen as a brand) if they were still automotive garbage


cheers

[robsco]

y2blade said:

robsco said:

Quality is much improved now, but DJC's point was a very valid one. They still aren't the car to buy if you want a sporty involving drive (DS3 aside), but ride quality is still head and shoulders above most of the competition, even from the little superminis.

the DS3 is the one that has caught my attention, I now see one every morning so far this week (I'm trying to picture what I saw in its place before this weekend)

I didn't want to waste my time considering them (Citroen as a brand) if they were still automotive garbage


cheers

I've used one fairly regularly as a demo, they really are excellent fun. Quality is good, the 150bhp engine is fantastic (a detuned Cooper S engine if I recall correctly), the handling is very sharp and pointy, it'll even do 37mpg and that's hammering it. Obviously reliability is a question that can't be answered until the car has been around for a while, so only time will tell on that score.

[anonymous-user]

C4 seemed very well put together and an enjoyable enough experience reliability wise.

Xsara VTS was an absolute nightmare. List of problems was extremely long...

So to sum up; old bad, new good.

[Stedman]

Dad bought a C5 2.0Hdi to keep whilst living in France (as any Frenchman can fix a stron, no-one will fix a Volvo )

I drove it down from Peterborough to Gatwick and then Gatwick down to the centre of France.

I was surprised to say the least! It gathered pace ridiculously well, especially 30-70 and 90-110 (the second of which I didn't realise). It was very smooth, but felt dead slow which was the oddest thing about it!

Nothing has gone wrong on it in the past 2 months of ownership. Gearbox is like a kick in the teeth if you floor it, but for £2300 you can't complain!

Doorcards move when the window goes down but the suspension is nice.

Only annoying thing is it's French it that the tyres are a stupidly high load, I think 98

[shoestring7]

Blown2CV said:

Quality is very variable, as it has been for some time.

Assume you include the new C4 Picasso in that?

SS7

[robsco]

shoestring7 said:

Blown2CV said:

Quality is very variable, as it has been for some time.

Assume you include the new C4 Picasso in that?

SS7

The C4s tend to have the largest variations in quality of build in the range, in my experience.

[mercfunder]

Depends what you mean....as a cheaper run around/commuter hack you will be hard pushed to find better.

They are cheap to buy,Citroen always have some form of offer on and are reasonable cheap to run.

Best bet is to not hang on to it for too long, had a 2005 Citron C2 Furio petrol,from new, 2 years on and 18,000 miles, we had people offering hundreds over the asking price when we sold it

[R500POP]

I was thinking a DS3 Sport may be a superb 2nd hand buy after it's a year or so old.

Sat in one at the local Morrisons the other day and it was nicely screwed together with some nice materials & styling inside.

Edited by R500POP on Thursday 14th October 10:50