Citroen C3 buying advice - 1.4i or 1.4HDI?

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Citroen C3 buying advice - 1.4i or 1.4HDI?

Post by Citroenmad »

We have been looking at C3s to replace our little Seat, so today ive been out having a look at some and what is available etc.

Cant quite decide if it should be a 1.4 petrol or 1.4HDi, so i was wondering if any C3 owners have oppinions on their petrol/diesel C3. I know there are a few people on here with them.

We are looking at the 1.4HDi 70 and 1.4 75hp petrols. Looking to spend around £4500-£5000 for a facelifted version hopefully, 06 onwards. When shopping around on autotrader we should be able to get a good version for this, preferably Desire or above.

I had a drive in a 57reg 1.4HDi Cool 30K, which was very nice, seemed to pull well for a 70bhp car with 4 people inside. Economy was shwoing 53MPG over the last 3400 miles, which is pretty good. Though the engine was very noticable at idle and in traffic, it got much more refined as it got moving. It was more money than we really want to spend, it was at a citroen dealer for £7000 and had a very noticable dinks and scrapes.

Im yet to drive a 1.4i petrol, though i hope to tomorrow. The petrol is appealing as a better/newer/lower mileage car could be had for similar money for a higher mileage and slightly older HDi version.

It will only be doing around 5K miles a year, which i know doesnt warrant the extra spend on a diesel model, but the refinement on a long run (probably be doing more miles than our current small car as that is pretty unrefined at high speeds, one reason for changing it), extra MPG and better resales are nice. Though mainly because we like diesels and a HDi models seems more appealing.

However a 1.4i petrol is easier to find, you can get very low mileage cars on up to a 57 plate for similar prices of a 55-06 HDi which have more miles. So the petrol is in favour at the moment, unless we find a very good HDi version.

I was very impressed with the C3 today, drive very nicely i thought, excellent little car and will fit our needs well.

Any C3 owners like to comment on their cars? I know there isnt much on here about the C3s, so thought id ask in this thread for opinions.
Chris
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Post by Peter.N. »

It depends largely on you annual mileage, if its high the diesel would be favourite but sadly modern diesels are not as bombproof as the old IDIs and can be expensive to repair if you do have a problem, if your mileage is low, the petrol will be less economical but not prone to so many problems.

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Post by Deanxm »

ive not driven either but \ guy i work with has one and bought it new, its the hdi and he has just had a big bill for doing the glow plugs....they had to take the engine out to do them............this alone would steer me towards the petrol especialy since Peter says you dont do the mileage so the derv would end up costing more money in the long term than the petrol.

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Post by Citroenmad »

Hmm, ive not heard too much that goes wrong with the 8v HDi, though injectors seem the most problematic thing.

Having to remove the engine to fit new glow plugs, thats pretty poor.

Might have to be a petrol one then.

Yes, mileage will be low on it, only around 5K miles a year.

Has anyone got experience of the 1.4i 75? Is this the TU engine? Any good? faults?

It will be mainly used in town with occasional long trips and will be kept for a few years, so needs to be reliable.

I really like the C3, i think its an excellent car and like the looks and quirky features. The 1.4i sounds the better of the bunch maybe? Probably wont have a DMF either, as i bet the HDi does.

A exclusive 1.6 would be nice but most have sensodrive gearboxes which i wouldnt like.
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Post by myglaren »

My eldest daughter had a 1.4HDi and quite liked it but found it rather cheaply built and 'plasticy', they traded a Civic in for it and found the C3 a bit more spirited and much more frugal.
I never drove it but was a passenger a few times and thought it quite a pleasant car.
It was losing value quickly though so she sold it and bought an 'S' reg mini cooper that would increase in value instead. It didn't! :(

Friend at work with a Belingo wanted a SAAB, wittered on for the past half year or more about it. Test drove one the weekend before last, with the 1.9 Fiat diesel in it. It broke down 20 miles from the garage, his wife and three year old son in the car with him, stuck there for an hour until the garage could send someone to rescue him.
So he went to look at C3s and C4s. Came away disappointed, shoddy build quality and he was looking at less that a year old ones, trim falling off every single one he saw.
Both he and my daughter were in agreement that the build quality is poor in comparison to the Berlingo and the C5s.
He said the same of the 307 too.
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Post by Citroenmad »

Yes they do seem a little plasticy inside, though the later (facelifted ones) do seem improved over the earlier generation.

Thats not exactly great for the car to break down on a test drive is it. I guess this is going to be an ever more common prolem for manufacturers, since they are intent on sharing engines with other companies. Before too long you will only be chosing the shape of car, as every car will be identical under ths skin! Vectras also use the 1.9 Fiat diesel, the 1.3 fiat diesel is pretty poor too.

I wouldnt mind knowing which modern car is actually reliable, as i cant really think of very many at all.

C3s and C4s do seem a little poorly built, one i looked had had the mesh grill missing at the front, another cars grill had slipped beding the lower bumper. Interior seemed reasonable, but being honest interior quality hasnt really been great on Citroens since 2001 onwards. C5s not exactly brilliant in my opinion.

C4s do seem to wear quite badly ive noticed. Look at some a couple of years old and many have very shiny interiors and worn looking seats. I also think the trim quality is poor, especially under the bonnet.

307s seems like nice cars, but are well known for electrical gremlins. That and the 2.0HDi 110 has a FAp on the 307.

Doesnt leave very many PSA cars to choose from now does it!

I think we will swap to the Seat to a petrol C3, hopefully it will be a good little car and prove reliable. It wont be doing many miles but we will probably have it for a few years.
Chris
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Post by citroenxm »

1.4 HDi any day!!

30 quid YEAR to TAX!! Whats better then that!!

If thats the market your after..

Plus 56 odd to gallon..

My brother has one, dad has a 206 SW, both same engines.. They love them

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Post by Citroenmad »

No reliability issues with them then Paul?

Whats the mileage like on those?

How does the 1.4HDi fair with higher mileages?

Considering getting a HDi C3 myself at the mo!

I think the 8v seems more reliable than the 16v in the HDis.
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Post by citroenxm »

Not as yet, though, Ive not heard of many problems with the 1.4 at all, even in the Ford Fiestas..

Id stick with the 8v, they seem perfectly nippy enough in the C3 bubble, however, strangle in the 206 SW its a different story.. I guess the 206 is heavyer..

I actually thought my brothers C3 had the 16v lump in it, but it hasn't, its the 8v.. that was the difference in performance I noticed!

Paul
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Post by Citroenmad »

Thats good news then, there seems to be very mixed reviews about C3s on the internet. Some people rave about them and others say about endless reliability problems. Lookint at around 06-07 in reg, hopefully slightly later ones will be a bit better than the earlier ones.

Yes, i was impressed with the 1.4HDi 8v i drove at the weekend. 4 people in and it was pulling well.
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Post by Citroenmad »

Well we are thinking about a C3 now since some cars have now moved on. Looking for one no older than 56 plate. However, we thought about getting an older one as a runabout for a few months to see what they are like first.

So after finding one, a petrol exclusive with 50K miles and full service history for a good price i thought its surely worth a look. We rang the owner a few times today getting info and it sounded a good car, described as very good condition etc.

So i drove the 120 miles to see it, bringing along the cash and ready to HPI check the car when i got there through the text method thing.

That wasnt needed as on first appearance it was awful. In fact id all ready decided that it wouldnt be a good car just by the area i was driving through. Anyway, i got there and the car was still in the garage, despite having rang to say we were a few miles away.

The body looked reasonable apart from a few scratches, but the alloys looked good with good tyres. It was very clear that it was a awful example however. Despite asking if the interior had any marks or cig burns and being told it was very clean with no marks, every seat and backrest was holed with cig burn holes and full of stains. The headlining was a mess, green mildue and very dirty looking, even though its current owners didnt smoke.

So it wasnt a very tidy car at all, however, i then popped the bonnet to find the radiator hanging in place by three cable ties at the top and nothing holding the bottom on at all. The car was running, water was squirting out of the small hose leading to the radiator, the coolent was just water and no coolent.

Despite it having had full citroen service history, the last service carried out just one thousand miles ago inclusing a cambelt, the aux. belt was very worn and the tensioner had huge groves in it. So obviously this car had never been near a garage never mind a dealer for a camblet change. Obviously i couldnt see the cambelt but im sure the aux belt wouldnt have been left in that condition.

The worst thing was, and its what i noticed first, the drivers airbag had obviously been deployed in the past and the steering wheel had been gluded closed. Now obviously there would no longer be a bag inside the wheel. After seeing that i had a check around the front (obviously i was not going to buy it from the first second i saw it, however thought id have a look to see whats being disguised) and the front had obviously been repaired badly, odd coloured screws had been used to hold the bumper on, the wings didnt line up etc.

The owner tired to say the car was good and that it had never been in an accident, the radioator was fine etc. I actually think they might have bought it bumped and had it badly repaired. If not they must have known about its accident.

I only stayed about 5 minutes and went, as it was such a waste of time. So i didnt actually take a look at the history as i wasnt interested but i suspect it was either fake or lacking.

I do feel sorry for the person who will end up with that car, im sure someone will. I wouldnt even drive it to the scrap yard never mind use it.

I know im quite picky about cars but it shouldnt be too hard finding a good example. Ill put that one down to experience. There was so much wrong with it that i found in the 5 minute look around i had. Its the worst car ive ever been to see. Its very annoying when something is described as a good car, then traveling over 240 mile round trip to find its scrap. Mind ive had this situation before and will probably have my time wasted again. We all must do at some point.

It does rather make me wonder what some people are driving around in though. :shock:

In contrast, the people who bought our VW last week had an AA inspection carried out on it. The AA man was here over 3 hours checking the car and gave it a test drive. He didnt find anything at all wrong with it and commented that he very rarely sees cars in such a condition (this was a 2003 with 95K miles which we had owned for 5 years). He reported back to the seller who phoned us and said they would have it. They told us that the AA man had told them if they dont buy it then he is considering it himself!

Anyway, ill keep looking :)
Chris
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Post by Peter.N. »

There's no substitute for viewing it yourself, I once went to Edinburgh, which included an overnight Travelodge, to see an XM estate that was supposed to be good, it was worse than the one I went up in!

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Post by Citroenmad »

No your right, you have to view or you might miss out on a good car.

Ive had that with an Xm too, estate as well. I drove to kent, about 350 miles from here, with the view to bringing back what was described as a very nice Xm estate 2.0 16v auto. It was an awful awful car. I had booked a hotel for the night, but seeing as though i had already wasted most of the day going to view it and it being rubbish, not wanting to waste the next day driving home i cancelled the hotel and drove the 350 miles back home in one go. 700miles to view a car was a lot, ill not be doing that again in a hurry!

Still, you have to do these things dont you :lol:
Last edited by Citroenmad on 23 May 2010, 22:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Sl4yer »

We're looking for a C3 too. Had a test drive in a main stealer's 1.4i on Saturday, and it was completely gutless! Although I suppose it's just poor compared what you get used to. Think we'll go for a diesel.

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Post by Citroenmad »

Yes it probably is, which is why id like to try a 1.6 petrol, though these are often mated to sensodrive gearboxes and are to be avoided.

The 1.4 HDi isnt excactly fast, its leisurely, but not slow. It does depend on what your used to yep and what you expect from the car.

Our C3 will mainly be a town car, so i feel a HDi wont really be needed. The only thing which slightly dissapointed me with the HDi was you could really hear the engine at slow speeds and on tickover. It did get quieter once going but as a town car a petrol would probably be nicer.
However i believe they are down to £20 a year for road tax now!

Im yet to drive a 1.4i petrol, ive heard they are ok, usually reliable engines and the owners ive spoken to with them seem to like them.

Ill see, wouldnt mind either the 1.4i or 1.4HDi.
Chris
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