Citroen Cactus - what a disappointment.
Discussion
Well, I'll keep hold of a lump of wood whilst I type this, my C5 estate has been really quite reliable over the 2 years I've had it. It's an early one, 2004, with a 2 litre tdi lump that is supposed to be bombproof if you read through the forums. I've put nearly 50 thousand miles on it so far bringing the total mileage up to 160,000.
The worst bit of the car is the auto box which is a 4 speeder on the early cars, it's not very good around town, hunting between the gears and it doesn't coast if you take your foot off the throttle. It uses the engine braking to slow down which makes progress a bit jerky.
I changed the gear oil and a couple of solenoids when I first got it, a well known problem, it's been fine since although I'm going to change it again soon when I do the next service.
The ride is pretty good in general, although as someone else has said it's not so good over broken tarmac where there's a lot of little bumps. Having had older Citroens, CX and XM's I would say that the C5 isn't as good as them for ride comfort but it is more reliable!
The new type of suspension that has been mentioned is supposed to be amazing according to a review I read, Autocar I think, they drove a Cactus fitted with it so maybe it's an option?
The worst bit of the car is the auto box which is a 4 speeder on the early cars, it's not very good around town, hunting between the gears and it doesn't coast if you take your foot off the throttle. It uses the engine braking to slow down which makes progress a bit jerky.
I changed the gear oil and a couple of solenoids when I first got it, a well known problem, it's been fine since although I'm going to change it again soon when I do the next service.
The ride is pretty good in general, although as someone else has said it's not so good over broken tarmac where there's a lot of little bumps. Having had older Citroens, CX and XM's I would say that the C5 isn't as good as them for ride comfort but it is more reliable!
The new type of suspension that has been mentioned is supposed to be amazing according to a review I read, Autocar I think, they drove a Cactus fitted with it so maybe it's an option?
bristolracer said:
Huntsman said:
The best thing about Citroen has always been the ride, it was their unique selling point, but they thrown it away for an ill thought out current trend.
Sorry to tell you, all the fancy hydro suspension has been replaced by the same conventionally springed stuff that Peugeot use. Costs matter
SidewaysSi said:
Slightly off topic but how are C5s and C6s for reliability?
Pretty good on the whole. Assuming we're talking about the 2008-2016 C5 the early ones can suffer with broken window regulators, corrosion on the PAS rack causing leaks and the hydropneumatic ones can suffer leaks from front suspension struts but this is usually because some idiot mechanic has jacked it up without taking the cap off the reservoir. The diesels can also suffer with DMF failure on manuals but that applies to lots of cars using the same engine/box combo.On the whole though they are probably as reliable as anything else in their class. The basic mechanics are well known and they feel a world away in quality and comfort from past models.
Huntsman said:
How wrong I was, hard, bumpy, crashing about all over the place. Just like every other current hatchback.
The best thing about Citroen has always been the ride, it was their unique selling point, but they thrown it away for an ill thought out current trend.
Mrs Interloper has a Cactus, I don't think the ride is too bad. Actually I like it, for a 3 cylinder buzz box it really isn't too bad and copes comfortably with longer journeys. The best thing about Citroen has always been the ride, it was their unique selling point, but they thrown it away for an ill thought out current trend.
Also its a smaller Citroen in the mould of the Ami, ZX etc and these never had the fancy suspension systems. So you really shouldn't expect it to ride like DS.
I think the Cactus is really cool. It's one of the best looking family cars around, and it takes both daring and conservative colours well.
I looked into them, and had Citroen send the sales brochures as my wife and I changed our cars earlier this year. We ended up with two Hondas, but the Cactus was a close run choice for both of us. Mind you, by the time we'd finished thinking about what we really needed, the closest we came to buying a Citroen was for my wife's car. We looked closely at the C5 diesels, which are excellent cars, before buying a Civic.
I looked into them, and had Citroen send the sales brochures as my wife and I changed our cars earlier this year. We ended up with two Hondas, but the Cactus was a close run choice for both of us. Mind you, by the time we'd finished thinking about what we really needed, the closest we came to buying a Citroen was for my wife's car. We looked closely at the C5 diesels, which are excellent cars, before buying a Civic.
MarshPhantom said:
My old man had a couple of Xantias, massively unreliable compared with the two BXs he'd had previously.
Jesus, faint praise indeed. My dad had a BX that he kept for too long, ran it to 150k miles, was always meticulous about maintenance and every year it handed him bills for the MoT. Every year he coughed thinking he'd get it to the stage where it would settle down. It never did. Meanwhile I had a Cavalier, no Mot horrors, nothing broke, never missed a beat.ABC 123 said:
I heard somewhere that Britain's roads are so terrible because they've been made to withstand lots of rain, which makes it generally uncomfortable. Sadly, we can't have the nice stuff here because they weren't made for loads of rain 
We don't get much rain in the UK though, cloudy skies yes. Many parts of Europe get more rain and maybe more importantly, really heavy bursts of rain. I can imagine a high freeze-thaw count would affect Tarmac choice though. SuperHangOn said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Huntsman said:
What are we left with? A load of indistinguishable mass market blandness.
The Cactus may have many faults, but being mass market blandness isn't one of them.CABC said:
ABC 123 said:
I heard somewhere that Britain's roads are so terrible because they've been made to withstand lots of rain, which makes it generally uncomfortable. Sadly, we can't have the nice stuff here because they weren't made for loads of rain
We don't get much rain in the UK though, cloudy skies yes. Many parts of Europe get more rain and maybe more importantly, really heavy bursts of rain. I can imagine a high freeze-thaw count would affect Tarmac choice though. www.autocar.co.uk/opinion/tester-s-notes/ever-wond...
Edited by ABC 123 on Saturday 12th November 22:02
battered said:
RemyMartin said:
WJNB said:
The car for pricks perhaps?
You own one then?
The actual reason for the name Cactus is because of its great fuel economy. It's frugal. (like a cactus, you only have to water it very occasionally)
I get an average 63 mpg on mine, mix of London suburbs and motorway. It's just brilliant. If it was my wife's car, she would only need to fill up 3 times a year!!!
Edited by TwigtheWonderkid on Sunday 13th November 08:39
I had one as a courtesy car for a month, and although I quite like the design, I couldn't get on with the controls. Most things inside are controlled by an iPad type device on the dash, so you have to take your eyes off the road to look at the buttons, as opposed to tactile buttons you can feel your way around on an ordinary car. In order to change music or temperature you have to navigate through menus.
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