What car?

worried_jim

27col wrote: »

Have a look at Citroen C4 Picasso or Grand Picasso. Very impressive statistics and plenty of good user reviews.

Or not....

2008 car bought in 2010 with around 16k miles. In less than 2 years it arrived home on the back of a recovery truck three times - and limped into the dealer four more times, all with engine management issues. The main fuse box had to be replaced, both fog light lenses came loose, the front windscreen washers failed on three separate occasions and finally the nearside wiper started parking itself at the side of the screen - and staying there.

At that point we gave up and bought a Qashqai.

It's a real shame because the Picasso is a very practical, comfortable car and nice to drive too. I did think the rate of tyre wear seemed quite high, and some of the trim seemed quite fragile - the plastic was easily scratched and some of the switchgear was wearing - but they were minor niggles: If it hadn't been for the comical unreliability we'd have been delighted with it.


bought secondhand from dealer 29,000 miles on clock. i thought this car would be a good buy after reading many good reviews on here, but i was so wrong. the wife has done less than 3,000miles now and its been in the dealers as much as its been at home.

continuous problems with the egs gear box. the car doesnt know what gear to select and jump up and down the gears,

slow driving in traffic can be a nightmare, all it does is keep jerking forward and then stopping, its also the same when you try and reverse park.

its the worst auto car i ever driven, first and last citroen i will buy.

wasted so much of my money and time on this car, so dont waste yours.

The 1.6TDI is fine in a narrow rev band but a bit sluggish either side of that.

However I would recommend that nobody buys one of these because the reliability has been terrible and the dealer support very poor. The car was bought second hand from a dealer with 22,000 miles and at 30,000 the clutch failed. Citroen paid £500 towards the £1,250 cost of replacement. The boot catch failed, there was a problem with the engine management system and at 40,000 miles the clutch started to feel wrong again.

A citroen engineer said that the clutch wasn't as it should be but the garage still wanted us to pay £1,250 for a clutch replacement so that they could see if it was faulty and then refund if it was.

We have just sold the car and bought a Ford Galaxy.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-reviews/citroen/c4_grand_picasso/36043

Jamie_Carter

con1888 wrote: »

The Ford fusion does... well big enough for what I need as does Kia Ceed. Have not looked at the inside of the Meriva.

Will go have a look atyour suggestions.

The fusion is really a van that has been changed into a car (hence the square boxy shape), and it drives live a van. So it isn't the most comfortable for long journeys.

If you are buying from a dealer, then I would recommend trying http://www.evanshalshaw.com . When I was looking for a car they were cheaper than autotrader and ebay in most cases, and they do give a price promise. In fact I took my car to them for an MOT recently (I got the 2 year service and MOT package). They phoned me to say that the only thing wrong was the orange indicator bulbs on the back had faded. They said that they would cost £26, to which I said "if I'd known that then I would have popped into Halfords on the way there and paid just a few quid". But when I picked my car up, they only charged me £10 for the bulbs, apparently because I had mentioned Halfords, so they had done a price match. I must say that I didn't expect it to also cover servicing.

Jamie_Carter

27col wrote: »

Have a look at Citroen C4 Picasso or Grand Picasso. Very impressive statistics and plenty of good user reviews.

Citroens do have a high spec, but they are very low quality, and very unreliable (especially the electronics).

I'm car hunting for my daughter at the moment, and as a general guide we are staying well away from Peugot, Citroen, and Fiat.

Jamie_Carter

worried_jim wrote: »

Or not....

2008 car bought in 2010 with around 16k miles. In less than 2 years it arrived home on the back of a recovery truck three times - and limped into the dealer four more times, all with engine management issues. The main fuse box had to be replaced, both fog light lenses came loose, the front windscreen washers failed on three separate occasions and finally the nearside wiper started parking itself at the side of the screen - and staying there.

At that point we gave up and bought a Qashqai.

It's a real shame because the Picasso is a very practical, comfortable car and nice to drive too. I did think the rate of tyre wear seemed quite high, and some of the trim seemed quite fragile - the plastic was easily scratched and some of the switchgear was wearing - but they were minor niggles: If it hadn't been for the comical unreliability we'd have been delighted with it.


bought secondhand from dealer 29,000 miles on clock. i thought this car would be a good buy after reading many good reviews on here, but i was so wrong. the wife has done less than 3,000miles now and its been in the dealers as much as its been at home.

continuous problems with the egs gear box. the car doesnt know what gear to select and jump up and down the gears,

slow driving in traffic can be a nightmare, all it does is keep jerking forward and then stopping, its also the same when you try and reverse park.

its the worst auto car i ever driven, first and last citroen i will buy.

wasted so much of my money and time on this car, so dont waste yours.

The 1.6TDI is fine in a narrow rev band but a bit sluggish either side of that.

However I would recommend that nobody buys one of these because the reliability has been terrible and the dealer support very poor. The car was bought second hand from a dealer with 22,000 miles and at 30,000 the clutch failed. Citroen paid £500 towards the £1,250 cost of replacement. The boot catch failed, there was a problem with the engine management system and at 40,000 miles the clutch started to feel wrong again.

A citroen engineer said that the clutch wasn't as it should be but the garage still wanted us to pay £1,250 for a clutch replacement so that they could see if it was faulty and then refund if it was.

We have just sold the car and bought a Ford Galaxy.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-reviews/citroen/c4_grand_picasso/36043

I know someone who bought a brand new Citroen van for £27k (including conversions), and it was nothing but trouble. When it was 3 months old it had 18 faults.

wba31

Honda Civic has a huge boot, but also has a high lip which caused a problem for my old dog when he got old.

Accord Estate has a big boot and tax is low on the diesel, unsure on petrol models...

Jamie_Carter

wba31 wrote: »

Honda Civic has a huge boot, but also has a high lip which caused a problem for my old dog when he got old.

Accord Estate has a big boot and tax is low on the diesel, unsure on petrol models...

Honda's are normally reliable. However I know someone who recently got rid of an Accord estate because it was a complete lemon. First of all it needed a new engine (although Honda did pay for this), and then the motor packed up for the electric boot closing, which cost him over £600. And there was no way to manually over ride it.

con1888

I want to avoid private sales and stick to garages, Arnold Clark, Evans Halshaw, Peter Vardy etc.

Going to test drive the fusion soon. Whilst I am there I will mention the others mentioned and ask to have a look at them

Thanks again!

Tigerprint

How about a Focus C-Max? Pretty large boot space?

steve-L

con1888 wrote: »

I want to avoid private sales and stick to garages, Arnold Clark, Evans Halshaw, Peter Vardy etc.

Going to test drive the fusion soon. Whilst I am there I will mention the others mentioned and ask to have a look at them

Thanks again!

I'd think long and hard and do more research.
Be very sure what that means in terms of if anything goes wrong.

I can summarise...
If some small thing that is cheap to repair goes wrong they will probably accept it and fix it.
If anything major goes wrong they will likely give you the run-around.

Before you buy read:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/713560/publications/reports/consumer-protection/oft1241#.URnqcI4oyaA
(Know your rights)....
But also remember many people struggle to exert these rights....

You're paying quite a bit extra (perhaps) to go through a big name dealer yet people have poor experiences with them all.
Sometimes this is due to expectations ... what buying a 3 or 6 yr old car means and sometimes its due to the dealers trying to wriggle out and make it difficult for you.

IMHO, Start on the basis of a private sale value.
Once you have this price (from Parkers/AutoTrader) for something you would like then work out if the (in practice) limited protection is worth it from there.

So I'm not saying don't buy from main dealer... but do so with your eyes open.

Jamie_Carter

steve-L wrote: »

I'd think long and hard and do more research.
Be very sure what that means in terms of if anything goes wrong.

I can summarise...
If some small thing that is cheap to repair goes wrong they will probably accept it and fix it.
If anything major goes wrong they will likely give you the run-around.

Before you buy read:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/713560/publications/reports/consumer-protection/oft1241#.URnqcI4oyaA
(Know your rights)....
But also remember many people struggle to exert these rights....

You're paying quite a bit extra (perhaps) to go through a big name dealer yet people have poor experiences with them all.
Sometimes this is due to expectations ... what buying a 3 or 6 yr old car means and sometimes its due to the dealers trying to wriggle out and make it difficult for you.

IMHO, Start on the basis of a private sale value.
Once you have this price (from Parkers/AutoTrader) for something you would like then work out if the (in practice) limited protection is worth it from there.

So I'm not saying don't buy from main dealer... but do so with your eyes open.

I was surprised to find that Evans Halshaw were actually cheaper in most cases than private sales listed on ebay and autotrader.