should i avoid French MPV's?

dominate2010

Hi

We are looking to buy a second-hand MPV vehicle as we have baby number 3 on the way.

Have been looking at various makes and models. Renault and Citroen seems to be very popular, but I've never owned a french make car before so i called up my mechanic and i was warned off both of these makes and peugeot due to electrical faults. I was told that if we were buying from new it wouldn't be a problem as they come under a three year warranty. But there's no way we can purchase a brand new car. We are looking at 2009ish years and we only have about 5k-ish to spend. He said to look at ford and Japanese makes such as Toyota Verso.

Any opinions? Is he right? Also any opinions on diesel v's petrol?

Thanks

jaydeeuk1

Electrical faults will plague every modern car at some point, they're all computer controlled and spend all of their lives outside and then being vibrated and banged about on our roads. Solder joints loosen, insulation wears, wires split, water leaks in... Car can be exemplary, full service history, immaculate and throw a bill at you - my IQ had a £400 bill to replace an airbag that threw a warning light.

Stats don't lie though, toyota, lexus and honda sit at the top for a very good reason.

I hate diesels still, slow and noisy unless you can afford a 535d, stick with petrol and you won't have to worry about acronyms like DMF, EGR, DPF or !!!!!!.

(ps, i own a french car and so far so good)

Ebe_Scrooge

How long is a piece of string ?

It's true, French cars do anecdotally suffer from electrical problems, more than most others. But there's nothing to say you can't find a good example.

Likewise, Toyotas are generally considered to be pretty reliable, but you can still pick up the odd lemon. Ford - well, due the huge numbers they sell globally, generally OK and cheap to fix, but again you'll always get one bad apple spoiling the barrel. Have you looked at the Kia range ? The cars are pretty basic, but good value for money and fairly reliable.

Diesel vs Petrol - the age-old question. I'm going to open up a whole can of worms here, but ...

The generally accepted advice is that you need to be doing something like 15k miles a year to make the increased fuel economy outweigh the increased purchase price. Also, if you're only doing short journeys, petrol every time. A diesel needs a good blast down the motorway on a regular basis to keep the DPF clean, otherwise you could be looking at some pretty uncomfortable repair bills. Currently, diesel fuel is cheaper than petrol, but it's not been that way round for many years. I've no idea how it's going to pan out in the near future, but be wary of buying a diesel just based on the price of fuel.

Personally I drive a diesel, but I'm doing 30k miles a year so it's a no-brainer.

Whatever you're interested in, if you've got a tame mechanic who you trust, then get him to look over the car before you buy it. Hopefully this should lessen the chances of anything major cropping up in the near future.

RichardD1970

I have a 2008 Citroen C4 Grand Picasso, 1.6 Hdi EGS.

No electrical problems, so far. Also never had a DPF problem despite it being driven in completely the "wrong" way. Get 40mpg average (according to Fuelly) predominately very short journeys.

That's just my car though and others may be totally different.

FreddieFrugal

Should I avoid French MPVs?

Yes

[Deleted User]

I've had 2 French cars, never again. Get yourself a petrol Zafira and keep it serviced and you won't go wrong. I have a 1.8 petrol with 107000 miles and is good as gold... I get 38 to the gallon on short runs and is super practical with extra 2 seats when needed. My only issue is some of the paintwork is flaking off which is probably down to stone chips. I hope to keep mine for as long as possible.

mcpitman

IanRi wrote: »

Should I avoid French MPVs?

Yes

Couldn't agree more, avoid, avoid, avoid.

reeac

My son and his family have had a 1.8 petrol Zafira from new for around 8 years now as a second car/general workhorse and have always seemed pleased with it. I've been in it as a passenger and have found it to be good. With a new version just out the older ones should be pretty cheap.

teffers

Anecdotal evidence of course but the Renault Scenic 05 we had was the literal definition of a money pit:

The 'common' dash failure occurred - Renault part paid for that.

Coil springs / packs would periodically fail in what seemed to be a synchronised display of amazing regularity.

Electric windows failed.

And a menagerie of other various annoyances that you don't expect on a 5 yr old car really.

We went Mazda 5 in the end.

gonzo127

as has been pointed out you can get good ones and bad ones, no matter what make, i had a Renault Clio and got a 240k miles out of it before anything really went wrong beyond the normal ware and tear items, whereas one of my mates had a VW golf which seemed to spend more time in the garage getting fixed than on the road being driven and that only had 80k on the clock

as to petrol or diesel, it does depend on the mileage you do, but with the age you are looking at you might not have the dreaded DPF issues as they didn't become mandatory until 2010

Indout96

The only thing I can say regarding French cars is that I bought a 6 month old (ex rental) Clio 1.2 in late 2000, sold it to my friend in 2002.
From 2002 to when it was traded in last year it was serviced twice. (Friend has zero interest in cars) it had 1 minor "breakdown" which did not actually cause it to stop running. repair cost was less than £100