A moon-mileage French oddity
Discussion
After a few years of financing cars, an increase in working from home meant I decided to sell up, settle the finance and put myself back on the market for a cheap daily.
Of course this meant I should go for something mechanically simple, as low mileage as possible and something which would avoid the pitfalls of big-bills. In the end I did the complete opposite.
It's a 2012 Citroen DS5, not a particularly common car but this one goes even further down the rabbit hole by being the Hybrid4, which combines a 2 litre turbo-diesel engine powering the front wheels, to a battery powered electric motor which is in charge of the rear wheels. The 2 aren't physically connected, the car's brain decides whether it's best to be driving in pure electric, pure diesel, front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, or all wheel drive, although a dial on the centre console lets you control it too.
And here's the part where I should have ran a mile. It had just shy of 245,000 miles on the clock and a short MOT. But for £1,450, how could I say no?
In theory, it's a disaster waiting to happen. French electrics and all the highly strung tolerances of a modern diesel engine with DPF's and EGR's, but in truth, in the 14 months, 2 clean MOT's and 8,000 miles since I've owned it, it's been an incredibly dependable car. Other than a tyre and 2 front springs (along with strut-top mounts) it's needed nothing outside of a service and now sits on 252,500 miles.
I still think it's a lovely place to sit. The watch-strap leather seats with their massage function are incredibly comfortable, the interior still feels like the cockpit of a plane and the dashboard still looks like something from the Starship Enterprise. The ride quality is awful on anything other than billiard-table smooth motorways though.
Of course this meant I should go for something mechanically simple, as low mileage as possible and something which would avoid the pitfalls of big-bills. In the end I did the complete opposite.
It's a 2012 Citroen DS5, not a particularly common car but this one goes even further down the rabbit hole by being the Hybrid4, which combines a 2 litre turbo-diesel engine powering the front wheels, to a battery powered electric motor which is in charge of the rear wheels. The 2 aren't physically connected, the car's brain decides whether it's best to be driving in pure electric, pure diesel, front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, or all wheel drive, although a dial on the centre console lets you control it too.
And here's the part where I should have ran a mile. It had just shy of 245,000 miles on the clock and a short MOT. But for £1,450, how could I say no?
In theory, it's a disaster waiting to happen. French electrics and all the highly strung tolerances of a modern diesel engine with DPF's and EGR's, but in truth, in the 14 months, 2 clean MOT's and 8,000 miles since I've owned it, it's been an incredibly dependable car. Other than a tyre and 2 front springs (along with strut-top mounts) it's needed nothing outside of a service and now sits on 252,500 miles.
I still think it's a lovely place to sit. The watch-strap leather seats with their massage function are incredibly comfortable, the interior still feels like the cockpit of a plane and the dashboard still looks like something from the Starship Enterprise. The ride quality is awful on anything other than billiard-table smooth motorways though.
Decky_Q said:
That's the same colour/wheels as our family duties car. Is yours the adblue version?
We have had it since 2015, and had to do a fairly expensive suspension refurb over the last year to get it riding well again (powerflex bushes, new wishbones, springs/tops, and new shocks). If we hadn't bought it new I would have just thought it was a bit rubbish but I know it was composed and rode very well at the start so wanted to get back to that.
There are 2 versions of the shocks, a harder one which is for the 2012 model like yours, and a more compliant one for 2015- cars. If you replace them make sure to get the new version.
They use eloys fluid so need topped up about every 100k.
This one is pre-adblue thankfully, it does have the eolys bag though. Yes I did see they improved the shocks, it was a tempting decision to change them but I struggled to justify it. We have had it since 2015, and had to do a fairly expensive suspension refurb over the last year to get it riding well again (powerflex bushes, new wishbones, springs/tops, and new shocks). If we hadn't bought it new I would have just thought it was a bit rubbish but I know it was composed and rode very well at the start so wanted to get back to that.
There are 2 versions of the shocks, a harder one which is for the 2012 model like yours, and a more compliant one for 2015- cars. If you replace them make sure to get the new version.
They use eloys fluid so need topped up about every 100k.
Edited by Decky_Q on Tuesday 30th April 14:19
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