2012 Citroen C5 X7: stick or replace with C5X?

[NickGood]

We've had our 2012 X7 HDI Tourer Nav+ manual since 2014 and it has been a phenomenal car. Extremely reliable, comfortable, plenty fast enough, economical - really the best car we have ever owned by a long way.

Apart from a windscreen wiper needing replacement in 2016 (Citroen wanted to replace both at a cost of £1100.... I bought one off ebay for £40 and fitted it in less than an hour) and CV joints last year, nothing has gone wrong and it's only needed consumables (including timing belt etc) at it's services (to my shame, we have followed the service schedule to the letter, meaning it only gets one every 2 years, not even needing oil topped up between them).

We have though just had to replace the steering rack but have been expecting this for years so can't complain. However at 14 years old and 125k miles, we are wondering whether now is the time to replace it before more expensive things go wrong. So, two questions:

1. What kind of problems/expenses would you expect at this mileage and age, ie, cheap stuff or potentially major borkage?

2. If we replace, we are thinking of getting rid of our (appallingly built) 2015 Fiat 500 which is largely used for local stuff including my wife's 16 mile total daily commute, and potentially dropping to one car but going for a hybrid on basis most of our driving is local so would be super cheap, but we can easily do longer journeys such as 300 miles up to daughter's uni here and there. If we do this, then I am strongly drawn to the C5X 1.6 PHEV but am a little worried that with so much complexity (in particular the hybrid components and battery but also the adaptive dampers) will come long term unreliability/high running costs?

As you will have read, we tend to keep cars for a good long time (10 years or so) and really want to make the right decision, which might be to stick with the C5 for longer if your consensus is that we should get a few more years of reliable motoring out of it. One further idea is to get rid of the Fiat and replace with a leased Renault Twingo Etech for commute and local stuff when it comes out next year, keeping the C5 for longer journeys or where we need the space. We haven't leased a car before but suspect there will be some cheap deals and can get it through the company scheme so saving tax making it pretty cheap.

Apologies for this super long post, but very undecided and would really value your expertise and opinions!

[mickthemaverick]

I don't know about expertise but happy to give you my opinion.

I would say that you can happily run the C5 up to 180k+ with good maintenance but I would consider reducing your service periods to 1 year and keep an eye on the engine bay for leaks. As to selling the 500 and leasing a new Twingo I'd say don't!! No problem with the Twingo but leasing really is a good way of spending money with nothing to show for it at the end of the lease. I used to sell car finance packages, mainly contract hire and lease to companies and it is not a good way to go for the private individual. Better to get an independent loan and buy the car outright so that at the end of the loan repayment period you have a car to show for it.

[Sloppysod]

The C5 X7, being a tourer it's got hydropneumatic suspension. The front to rear pipe fractured while I was preparing it for a MOT, I scraped too much corrosion away! Lucky for me this was in my garage, but unlucky for me getting a replacement pipe was, near on impossible. So I bought my C5X PHEV. But, before the scrap man a cometh a repair became possible, and I put the car back on the road, sold it and it's still going (now with more than 104,000 miles).
C5-X7 vs C5X, X7 was definitely more comfortable on a run suspension wise as the 5X does wallow a bit when fully loaded. it's also a bit noisier than what I remember my X7 was, but that could be me or, the fact it's a modern car, with very thin metal work and 19" low profile tyres.
Comfort: Seats, visibility, steering, auto box, maneuverability is great, definitely can get it in smaller parking spaces than the X7.
Economy: depends how you drive it. Fully charged battery and upto around 100 miles, 90+mpg, then starts dropping off. Empty battery, loaded, 60-65mph, 55(ish)mpg. Electric only summer/winter 38/22 on a charge. As I do a lot of local miles, I only use petrol on long journeys.( this is a summary from this year so far). I'm anorak and keep records of all the fuel it's hadsince I bought it. (September was 1,100 mile trip to Belgium and back)

Overnight charge for £0.92p, on a 13amp plug, that's at worse £0.04p/mile.

Reliability: biggest failure is batteries, there are two, underbonnet(Lead Acid) and in the Armrest (AGM), service schedule says change every 4 and 5 years, but I'm a replace if required servicer, so I'll find out how long they last eventually .
Servicing: I don't use my Citroën dealer, did for first two to keep warranty. Now it's oil change every year and MOT £190. Anything that needs doing As & When (If).

Your worries, some early cars did have rear suspension warranty claims, but apparently the replacement parts were not much different - knocking over bumps - mine doesn't.

If mine was written off tomorrow, would I buy another, probably not, as there are far more efficient cars out there, but then again are they as comfortable? . I'll cross that bridge when I have to, but at the moment I have a car which I like that suits my needs.

[Richard_C]

I had exactly the same model X7 tourer, one of the best cars I've ever owned and I regret selling it.

Like you I have typically bought recent pre-owned and kept them for several years. It was getting on a bit and Mrs me - we are also getting on a bit - had some arthritis issues and getting out of the fairly deep front seats could be difficult. We got a C4 Picasso, absolutely fine, but long trips like to the alps with 4 of us to ski felt like an event in the X7, the Pic seemed very efficient and ordinary. I think that 160 engine 'outperformed its specification': all that torque meant you could fly along autoroutes with no effort. Emotionally I would keep the X7, have full recovery berakdoen cover andt be prepared to 'throw it away' if anything big fails.

The C5X is a very attractive alternative. I ended up with a C4 ("We don't need anything that big and it won't go in the garage") and tempted by deals got a new one. Absolutely fine, but all the built in avionics drive me mad, dealers seem useless and I do wonder about it as a long term proposition: maybe 3 years or perhaps 5.

If you bought a decent recent C5X it will probably depreciate by £200 a month initially, so that pays for a lot of X7 fixing.

Dorking - how often do you need to drive into the ULEZ? Might be a factor.

Dorking - also a breed of chicken - not a lot of people know that, even people who live in Dorking. Spectacular silver cock.