I've owned it since new, and hope for a lot more life out of it yet. I couldn't afford to change it anyway.
Apart from routine servicing it's been pretty reliable, and has never let me down on the road. The emphasis here is on the 'routine servicing' bit, as I don't think the car would be tolerant of neglect. OTOH, there's nothing too difficult about it.
1) Recalled to have new rear axle beam fitted-wore out the first set of tyres in 18,00 miles
2) Has so far had four rear widows-the internal wiring breaks and then they can't be opened independantly of the tailgate. They were all done under warranty, now the current one has failed I'm not sure I can be bothered to fork out myself to get it fixed.
3) The rear silencer rotted out within two years, I believe the design has now been slightly changed. Anyway, I bought a stainless steel silencer from Longlife exhausts. A little noisier but half the price of a OEM replacement and guaranteed for the life of the car.
4) Failure of steering column UJ. Symptoms:Lots of play at the steering wheel rim, about 2 inches. Had to have a new column fitted which cost about £300 in total. Not an unheard of problem with the C5.
5) The infamous dual mass flywheel failed at about 90k, so I had it changed at the same time as the cambelt and pulley.
6) Absolutely essential to remove the rear calipers yearly to check for any corrosion buildup betwen the mounting faces. Copaslip on here, and also on the mounting bolts keeps everything sweet.
The engine is a chipped 2.0L Hdi. No Eolys fluid to top up, and low CO2 emissions, £110 road tax. Average fuel consumption on a long journey is about 50 mpg, on ordinary day to day use about 45-46 mpg, and I don't hang around.....
I do an oil and filter change every 6000 miles, with semi synthetic oil. To date, oil consumption between services is negligble.
A bottle of Forte diesel treatment every 6 months seems to keep the fuel system happy, no problems to report here.
No signs of any visible rust or decay on the bodyshell.
