Citroen C4 Picasso - Dreadful car!

[S10GTA]

Zod said:

S10GTA said:

Zod said:

OK, let's leave aside the appalling gearbox for a moment. What about the body roll? I know one person thought the steering fine, but I found it bizarrely vague with very little feel.

But its not supposed to be a car to go for a hoon in, its just supposed to transport you and your kids from A-B. Its just a tool for the job?

I'm not talking about hooning, but normal things like driving around roundabouts!

But you got round them without crashing, so it works. Designed for comfort not speed.

[Zod]

S10GTA said:

Zod said:

S10GTA said:

Zod said:

OK, let's leave aside the appalling gearbox for a moment. What about the body roll? I know one person thought the steering fine, but I found it bizarrely vague with very little feel.

But its not supposed to be a car to go for a hoon in, its just supposed to transport you and your kids from A-B. Its just a tool for the job?

I'm not talking about hooning, but normal things like driving around roundabouts!

But you got round them without crashing, so it works. Designed for comfort not speed.

No, leaning badly off the camber is not comfortable.

[RochdalePioneers]

Had a previous generation one in 1.6TDI VTR+ EGS trim. Changed jobs, went onto a car allowance after years of company cars, wanted something with three seats across the middle to make transporting the three kids easy.

Ending up calling it the st bus. The one thing it did successfully was have lots of space. One thing.
Panorama windscreen great unless its sunny and you have to pull double blinds forward (90% of time)
EGS gearbox fine if not in a hurry. Drive in manual mode using paddles if not wanting random dangerous long upshifts when actually needing power. Gearbox reported as fragile on Citroen forums and felt it.
1.6 diesel eats turbos for fun in whatever marque its been fitted in unless has frequent oil changes. And goes into emissions system fault mode to remind you to service it which cuts the engine and all hydraulics randomly. Engine didn't sound happy when traded, colleagues C4 with same engine had turbo for breakfast a few weeks after flogging mine
Has three different sizes of fuse. And at least that many fuseboxes. Main box under bonnet designed seemingly to suck in water in wet weather and go pop. Ones hidden behind glove box and dash have reams of wires in an "ah fk it just stuff them in" design.
Good fwd visibility which helps when turning vast steeri wheel makes it roll like the Titanic.
Soft seats which are comfy until the bolsters and base crumble which they all do.

In summary a wonderful example of French engineering.

[f1nn]

Low quality family wagon st box in not very good shocker!

[stephen300o]

Found this researching for a friend, oh how I miss the snobbish folks here.

[anonymous-user]

stephen300o said:

Found this researching for a friend, oh how I miss the snobbish folks here.

WHile I'd agree that this place is rife with snobbery and reverse snobbery in this case they are quite correct and it is a very poor car. There is a chap above who bought one with his own money (well car allowance) providing real owners feedback, that's not snobbery.

Of course you can chose to ignore that and lumber your friend with one of these turds, that'll teach us.

[Jaguar steve]

If they're that bad then I wonder why there's so many of them on the road in France and Spain?

Might it be something to do with living a life free of status symbols and egotism combined with superb comfort and impressive economy and ease of use and sensible practically and the fact any village garage in Europe can repair one quickly and cheaply with off the shelf parts perhaps?

Just a thought...

[anonymous-user]

Jaguar steve said:

If they're that bad then I wonder why there's so many of them on the road in France and Spain?

Might it be something to do with living a life free of status symbols and egotism combined with superb comfort and impressive economy and ease of use and sensible practically and the fact any village garage in Europe can repair one quickly and cheaply with off the shelf parts perhaps?

Just a thought...

Or blind nationalistic purchases of habit, providing an assured market for whatever rubbish they produce, which then prop up ailing and uncompetitive manufacturers who would otherwise have to improve to compete internationally.

Like BL did for years until they finally managed to completely tap that well dry.

Or more generously, it's the same reason there is a market for the sort of awful food Findus sell: a lot of consumers are completely undiscerning and/or have never tried anything better.

Saddest thing is that Citroen, Peugeot, and Renault used to make absolutely fantastic cars that were head and shoulders above most things in terms of driving enjoyment.

[Jaguar steve]

dme123 said:

Jaguar steve said:

If they're that bad then I wonder why there's so many of them on the road in France and Spain?

Might it be something to do with living a life free of status symbols and egotism combined with superb comfort and impressive economy and ease of use and sensible practically and the fact any village garage in Europe can repair one quickly and cheaply with off the shelf parts perhaps?

Just a thought...

Or blind nationalistic purchases of habit, providing an assured market for whatever rubbish they produce, which then prop up ailing and uncompetitive manufacturers who would otherwise have to improve to compete internationally.

Like BL did for years until they finally managed to completely tap that well dry.

Or more generously, it's the same reason there is a market for the sort of awful food Findus sell: a lot of consumers are completely undiscerning and/or have never tried anything better.

Saddest thing is that Citroen, Peugeot, and Renault used to make absolutely fantastic cars that were head and shoulders above most things in terms of driving enjoyment.

There's a common consensus that the French make the best small diesels on the planet and as I've done thousands of km's driving round France and Spain in rental diesel C3 and C4 Picasso's I'd not disagree with that.

I'd happily have either as a daily. Both were way more comfortable on poor roads than my XJ8 and both were quite astonishingly good on fuel. Even thrashing the bks off a C3 an a epic all day drive 4 up with luggage from France to Spain over the high Pyrenees route returned a consumption in the region of 5.0l/100km.

Anyhoo... why the hate? Even though millions of Europeans see the the virtue in a Picasso as well as me nobody is forcing one on you.