Confessions of a Citroholic

[RichardW]

Gawd I hate buying cars....

There are some odd things going on though - provided you are prepared to keep them, later cars are not really any more expensive than older ones! Improvements in fuel efficiency and therefore road tax (as long as they are pre-Apr 2017) pushes the running costs down, till it more or less cancels out the purchase cost (and means I won't have to go looking again for a long time!).

Later 308s are chp to run, but I am unconvinced about the small steering wheel - we had one on hire last year, and I found it just got in the way of the instruments; and I think long term there will not be enough room in the back for growing sons. 508 SW a possibility, but mostly larger engines, so running costs are up. C4 Picasso cheap to run, and plentiful, but I'm not sure the driving position agrees with my left knee - although I may end up driving the one we've got, so will have to get over that! Berlingo / Partner multispace has a lot going for it, but need to go post 2015 to get Euro 6 engine which is a lot more efficient, so pushes the running costs down - trouble is they have not come off lease yet, and you really need the 120 BHP version to get cruise and 6-speed box - of which there are only 2 for sale 2nd hand, both little more than a year old... The Pug / Cit dealer in Glasgow has versions of most of these in stock, so planning a visit on Saturday.

Or I may still yet be welding the 307 up to eke a bit more life out of it, to wait till the right car comes along! I think it would get through a test with new strut top bearing and the welding -although it may also need a front track arm.

[RichardW]

An instructive couple of hours spent at Cit/Pug Glasgow yesterday...

Partner / Berlingo - rejected as despite the rear room, price and sliding door advantages, there is quite severe shoulder intrusion in the rear outer seats, and the driving position is just too upright.
308 - rejected as there is *no* leg room in the rear when I am driving. A bit of fiddling showed that I could probably get the wheel in the right position to see the instruments however.
C4 Picasso Mk 2 - rejected. SWMBO just couldn't get on with the driving position; the wheel seems to be set really low compared to the current model.

So then we looked at a 5008 (sister to the C4 Grand Picasso) - because this has run on and has only just been replaced (with an SUV cross over thingy....) it is available with the 120PS E6 engine,and the driving position is familiar, and therefore OK. However, the majority of them are top 'Allure' spec, and come on 18" rims with daft 215/45 tyres - which are not available in Cross Climates or Hankook Optimo 4S. Seem to be available in Vredestien Quatrac 5's however (have had those before). I have a found an 'Active' spec one in Edinburgh which comes on slightly more sensible and available 215/50/17 tyres. Lots less toys mind you, but then again we always managed without them before! Probably go over later, but that also involves a trip to Ikea which is on the way....

[CitroJim]

Sounds like choosing a new car is a bit of a minefield Richard...

Time to crack out the welder and sort out what you have - better the devil you know

And likely to be more satisfactory overall than anything new...

[xantia_v6]

Why not buy an Allure and swap the wheels?

[RichardW]

Things took a slightly unexpected turn yesterday, and I did something I was sure I would never do - right up to the moment I did it! I had thought about buying a 5008 Allure and putting new wheels on it; but if you're honest about these things, UK insurers can get arsey about it; and most of them were strong money - and add in the the thick end of a grand for a new set of wheels and tyres, and it wasn't looking appealing.

We went over to Edinburgh to see the 5008 Active, but as we got there, there was a family piling out of it, and after a few minutes mooching about in the showroom looking at the new cars it became clear they were going to buy it. Bugger. This area of Edinburgh has lots of dealers along the road, and the Cit dealer was next door, so we wandered along there, and had another sit in the C4 Picasso in the showroom, then managed to get a test drive of a 17 plate 13k mile one they had, up for about £14k. Once on the move with the seat adjusted the problem went away and it felt OK to drive. Back to the showroom, and after a bit of a chat he says, We've got some pre-reg ones, and they're on Sale.... they were already discounted by >6k, and they were knocking another 2 grand off, making the 'new' one only a little more expensive than the 2nd hand ones, and a bit of number crunching shows that over the life of the car, it is not really any more expensive than the second hand ones (even the cheaper ones at 6-7k, given their shorter expected life) - there was even a choice of colour! So there we are, a 67 plate 'Feel' spec (don't ask!) Lazuli Blue C4 Grand Picasso BlueHDi 120 will join the fleet in a couple of weeks They registered it in Sept last year, so it's sat around a bit, but hey ho, sure it will be OK - and even if it isn't it's got a warranty - never had one of those before So, bit of contrast between the new one and the 10 year old one on the drive. Hopefully I will get a couple more years out of the old one; then we have to go through this charade all over again SWMBO will use the new one - although when she's teaching forest school (which usually involves filling it with wet gear) will use the old one. Somehow I think I am getting the poor end of the deal...

[CitroJim]

Excellent Richard Well bought... A quite amazing deal!

You pulled a similar deal as I did on my C1... Pre-reg, an unloved poverty-spec one that sat around for a while and one of the last made resulted in an absolute steal of a deal..

[RichardW]

I'm beginning the suspect that the rumbling noise from the front of the 307 is the diff.... It's developing really quite bad torque steer as you put the power on / off - which I don't think is the front arms. Anyway, picking up the new one on Friday so it only has to last another 300 miles, then it will get laid to rest!

Realised that we now have FOUR C4 Picassos in the family - our 2 7 seaters, and my Parents' and Sister's 5 seaters. Quite likely that we will end up with all four of them here at some time

[Mandrake]

You neighbours will be wondering whether you're breeding them.

[Hell Razor5543]

You neighbours will be wondering whether you're breeding them.

What you should do (to REALLY worry the neighbours) is to buy a few toy C4 Picassos, and then (when there are two or more full sized cars there) have a few of the toy cars parked near to the normal ones!

[lexi]

I like the size of those C4 Picasso. Good luck with her Richard.

[RichardW]

The new C4 has arrived

Radio initially was refusing to work, but it sorted itself out. Got to love French Electrics! Initial impressions are that it's much quieter and more refined than it's predecessor, and it seems to ride OK. Course, I have only driven it about 3 miles The air filter is still shoved over the top of the engine, although changing it appears to be a bit easier than on the MK1. The intercooler is hidden away under the driver's headlight somewhere! I read the handbook which appears to consist of 15 pages of how to unlock the doors and seats, and not a lot else - so I resorted to just pressing buttons instead. Found my way to configure the screen; you can change what it shows you. I think the boot is smaller than the MK1 - the rear is slopier; and the roof line is lower, so we might have trouble getting the camping gear in...

[RichardW]

Spanners are not dead

Came to work in the old C4 this morning - to be greeted with a rumbling wheel bearing (wasn't doing that when I last drove it a week or 2 ago - SWMBO had remarked the other day that it was noisy, she didn't expand on it) - looks to be the NSF as that is the only one that's not been changed yet. Then I stopped at a junction to be greeted with smell of hot brakes; and a quick feel round shows the NSF to be hot, so it must be sticking as well. And during this examination, realised that the OS dip beam is out

Really got the short end of this straw!!

[Mandrake]

I have never met anyone else whose cars ate wheel bearings for lunch like yours do Richard!

Is it something about the road you're travelling on ??! More than the Scottish average number of potholes ?? I've had one wheel bearing get noisy on me in 27 years of driving...!

Spanners will never be dead, even once our EV overlords take over...

[CitroJim]

Spanners will never be dead, even once our EV overlords take over...

Exactly It's something we'll always need...

Long live the spanner and it will - for ever

[Mandrake]

Spanners will never be dead, even once our EV overlords take over...

Exactly It's something we'll always need...

Long live the spanner and it will - for ever

In the future we'll definitely need a laptop and diagnostic tool in our toolkit as well as spanners, but one could argue that point has been passed already on any car made after about 2010 for anything other than trivial or purely mechanical jobs!