Picasso autoboxes-known issues?

bxbodger · Unread post by **bxbodger** » 25 Jan 2006, 23:44

A friend of mine has a company lease Xsara Picasso, petrol with an autobox.

Its coming up to 3 years old and he has the option of buying the car from the leasing company. Despite its overall crappy build quality its a pretty good deal for him to buy it, BUT, its an auto and the transmission warning light keeps coming on.

He's going to book it in while the firm are still paying for it, but the dealer they use isn't particularly good so does anyone know of any issues with these boxes???Hopefully the warning light is being lit by a gremlin, but you never know......

Its done about 80000 miles and if he buys it he intends to keep it for another 2 or 3 years and claim the mileage, but he'll be paying for repairs,etc, himself!!!

All opinions/advice welcome!!!

Homer · Unread post by **Homer** » 26 Jan 2006, 07:59

A Xsara Picasso petrol with an auto box and 80k on the clock.

It would have to be cheaper than cheap to consider buying it.

Paul Mi16 · Unread post by **Paul Mi16** » 26 Jan 2006, 08:47

A new gearbox is £2000. I know of a 406 autobox that was repaired and that cost £1500 to do and the car was never quite the same again. I would suggest getting the diagnostic check done, but be prepared for some expense in the future.

bxbodger · Unread post by **bxbodger** » 26 Jan 2006, 10:17

Thanks for the replies.

Its a bit of a dilemma- its been reliable so far, even though bits of trim keep falling off, and the leasing company have just put new tyres on all round.

The worry is that the garage will say no fault can be found, if that happens he'll probably have to go for another company lease deal, because the risk won't be worth taking on it.

Financially, he'll be better off to buy it, claim mileage and and his plan is to get a TFL approved LPG conversion- this will pay for itself in about 6 months because the car will be exempted from the £8 a day congestion tax-after that he'll be quids in, but ONLY if the autobox doesn't give any bother!!!!

We were out in it last night, and the light kept coming on-there seemed to be no difference in the way it drove though,so we'll wait and see what the diagnostics say......

Paul Mi16 · Unread post by **Paul Mi16** » 26 Jan 2006, 10:31

I'd be careful of LPG coversions. A friend used to work for a conversion company, and I can tell you a few stories! Best ones are factory fitted and warranted vehicles.

Unread post by **Peter.N.** » 26 Jan 2006, 10:34

Many auto boxes fail at not much higher mileage than that, and as has been stated, the cost of a replacement usually writes the car off. If it was a diesel it might make a slightly better case, but even then, I wouldn't take it on. But then I dont like auto's or petrol!

mezuk04 · Unread post by **mezuk04** » 26 Jan 2006, 10:56

Is your friend skint or making a bit of good money from having had this company car incentive, if hes on the 'green' side of the money then its probably best he sticks with the company car however if hes naturally skint and struggling for money then it would appear he could do better with having his own car (as he should get more mileage allowance)

I have this problem coming up with the next couple of months, im not sure at all just yet about costs and company car tax etc etc etc but i am making quite a nice lump sum of money a month with the mileage allowance i get for driving my own car and since the zx and xantia havent cost me anything im still raking it in as they say, however i have no problem with spending £50 on spheres because it just eats a little into the money im making and once again not my 'actual' salary amount.....so i have to weigh up in terms of will i be better off money wise to have a company car or stay with my personal car...im looking at getting my own place asap so maybe if a company car doesnt 'hurt' me with the tax then this may be the better option as there wont be any hidden repair bills which obviously i may struggle to pay for once i have my own place

Clogzz · Unread post by **Clogzz** » 26 Jan 2006, 12:14

They are necessarily up to no good.

If you have that in mind, you will see everything fall into place around it.
Paying a car allowance is a trick to shift a cost of employment from the employer onto the employee.
What to do depends on what the car will get used for.
If the employer expects the employee to have a 'representative' car to show off to clients, then it's best to take the company car.
If the car breaks down, all you have to do is squeal to heaven, and it becomes their problem.
If the mileage allowance is to drive to different places of employment, then it might be a good idea to take the money for a cheap car that you can maintain and fix yourself on the cheap.
If and when the car is off the road with major troubles, they will tell you: We're paying you an allowance, son.
Also consider how using 'your' car for the job will complicate your tax affairs.
You would have to get and keep dockets with VAT for every penny spent.
It could become so complicated that you may have to pay for an accountant to do the tax papers.
As an employee, you shouldn't have to contend with that.

simonelsey · Unread post by **simonelsey** » 26 Jan 2006, 12:57

I used to have car allownace + mileage allowance , + massive tax rebate . .

This is what I used to do .

Take £350 per month car allowance .(pay tax on this)
Claim 11p per mile .
Govenment milage rate is somthing like 43p first 3000 miles then drops to somthng like 25p per mile.

Claim income tax for the difference of 11p mile to 43 mile is 33p
claim income tax back on difference of 11p mile ffrom 25p is 14 .
so if you do 30,000 mile you would claim the tax back on
3000 mile x 33p= £990
27000 mile x 14p=£3780 Total is £4770 you would claim this as the true expense .. I used to do really well on this method . Just means you got to keep accurate milage log of business places visited and private milage , and going to the office counts as private milage . Plus of course you got to do a tax return every year...PS dont claim for repairs unless you are self employed , the above govenment milages rates include this .I did thi for 6 years and Its was a good deal . You dont need a accountant . I worked it out

Homer · Unread post by **Homer** » 26 Jan 2006, 13:48

bxbodger wrote:plan is to get a TFL approved LPG conversion- this will pay for itself in about 6 months because the car will be exempted from the £8 a day congestion tax-after that he'll be quids in,

What about getting a new lease car with an LPG conversion?

We were out in it last night, and the light kept coming on-there seemed to be no difference in the way it drove though,so we'll wait and see what the diagnostics say......

If it's going off and coming back on then it definately needs sorting before he buys it.

But an auto petrol Picachu running on LPG will be slower than a slow thing on slow day. We had an dual fuel Astra and it needed so much revving to get anywhere when on LPG it blew the head. When it was running on petrol it didn't need half the effort.

dnsey · Unread post by **dnsey** » 26 Jan 2006, 14:15

What sort of warranty are the leasing co. willing to provide?
As it would be a business, rather than a private, sale, he will have the usual statutory rights. If he has a written record from an independent garage that the warning light comes on before it's sold, and the transmission later fails (within a reasonable period), I'd have thought that would count as good evidence that it was faulty when sold, and he would be entitled to have it repaired by the seller - but I'm no expert in these things!

wheeler · Unread post by **wheeler** » 26 Jan 2006, 18:29

the pressure regulation electrovalves are prone to failing on the later AL4 autoboxes,they should be changed to Borg Warner type.

bxbodger · Unread post by **bxbodger** » 30 Mar 2006, 11:40

The outcome of this was that the garage diagnostics system couldn't find anything wrong with the box, yet the light still comes on and off when he's driving it. It may be no more than an electrical gremlin, but the garage just can't say, so in view of this and its build quality issues he's not going to buy it.

So, if anyone sees a domestic-appliance white auto Picasso going through the auctions and fancies a cheap one, watch out: it may become more expensive than you think!!!

Kowalski · Unread post by **Kowalski** » 30 Mar 2006, 12:16

The real trick with the TFL tax exemption is to get the LPG conversion done then never actually run the car on LPG. That way you save the £8 per day and never have to have the disadvantage of running on LPG.

James.UK · Unread post by **James.UK** » 30 Mar 2006, 13:29

Wheeler said.. "the pressure regulation electrovalves are prone to failing on the later AL4 autoboxes,they should be changed to Borg Warner type".

I would agree with him on this, having diven cars with auto boxes all my life, I have found them to be very robust and reliable.. Are there any known faults with this box?? apart from the one mentioned by Wheeler? So far no other known faults have been mentioned?? And I don't recall any ever coming up on this forum.. I think its 99% more likely to be an elec gremlin, than a fault with the actual mechanics of the auto box... ..

My advice would be... Change the pressure regulation electrovalves for a Borg Warner type, and change the gear oil making sure the oil in the automatic gear box is of the correct type for that gear box..

Better still... Buy Marty's Black ZX 1.9D and make a fortune on your car expenses..