Upgrading car C5 Tourer or C4 Grand Picasso

[kettlesimon]

Hi all,

I have owned a 2.0HDi C5 tourer for 3 years and now looking to upgrade car. Looking at either a C5 Tourer (160ps), or C4 Grand Picasso (150ps). Budget is @ £12000. Anyone have experience of either of these models, would love to hear your views, good or bad.

[vborovic]

I own a C5 Tourer, 163 PS to be exact ... ... what would you like to know about it?

[kettlesimon]

Just looking for obvious mechanical gremlins. Advice on spec levels, etc.

[vborovic]

The car was exactly 3 years old, 103.000 km, when I bought it, in almost new condition, no flaws inside or out, really well kept and maintained car ... that was last September, since then I'm currently near 120.000 km, and still no mechanical issues whatsoever, and nothing out of the ordinary ... regular maintenance as prescribed, nothing more ... however, my car is being hammered with my working on it, upgrading it with every bits I can squeeze into it, that it currently doesn't have ... basically, making an exclusive out of a vtr+ ... ... now, as far as I've researched, the exclusive trim/spec is really broad, just the other day I saw one 3.0 biturbo saloon, exclusive ... except the leather and the xenons which were hard to miss, and the hydraulic suspension, everything else was like a vtr+, if not less ... it didn't have a sat nav even, which came as a surprise to me ... and I know of several other exclusives (standard exclusives, checked by the VIN number), which by equipment are far behind mine (especially after my upgrades ... ) ... the thing I like about my 2.0 HDi is that it averages 6.5 l/100 km, when being light on the gas pedal ... if I'd drive more dynamic for a month, it wouldn't go over 7,5 ... that is, rough accelerations every opportunity, overtaking, driving over 200 km/h ... that sort of dynamics ... ... which is a fair fuel economy in my mind ... the latest C4 Picassos (smaller and the Grand one) are nice, but I wouldn't enjoy them, too much screens and forcing the touch screen is overkill for me (even though I like gadgetry very much ... but not in the car, where a more practical and useable approach should be required) ... and they feel more clunky, due to them being somewhat taller cars, the C5 Tourer has a more streamlined look ... no offense to C4 owners, but that's just my personal opinion ... anything I've missed to point out?

[kettlesimon]

Thank you for your reply, some useful information there.

[qprdude]

I have a C5 X7 Exclusive saloon. I suspect mechanically, the tourer would be more or less the same. That is a very decent budget you have and should get you a lot of car. I have the original 2008 model and a very thirsty 2.2 HDI 173 engine. I love the car . So far, I have had the air-con re-gassed, the tyre pressure monitors replaced and a front off-side (leaking) suspension strut replaced, thankfully all under warranty.( 2 years+ ownership). The hydraulic suspension struts have a slight history of leaks I think, but other than that everything seems to be pretty good. I have a lot of the "optional" toys, like full leather electric heated massage seats. Sat-Nav,front and side accoustic windows(nice and quiet), window blinds, all round foot and puddle lights, photochromic rear views and a host of other stuff. The newer cars have bluetooth while I have a sim card slot and in car phone. My MPG is fairly poor but with careful driving, I can get around 38 MPG on local/A road trips and a disappointing 47 ish on the motorway. Not great, but the torque to overtake without dropping gears kind of makes up for it. 2 years or 20,000 mile service intervals could be a bonus but I like to cut those in half if possible. It is a great motorway car, but maybe not so good for SWIMBO to slot into the multi-storey car-parks. The exclusive with Hydraulic suspension (Hydractive 3+) I absolutely the smoothest drive I've ever encountered, beating my Saab, Rover 75 and S Type jag by a country mile. No experience of the steel sprung cars. I don't do a massive amount of miles so MPG isn't important, but the later 2.0L cars are much better, and road fund costs are also lower. (Mine is £210 a year).
There are a lot of Citroen owners who would never have anything but the old cars but if you are ready to modernise, you could do a lot worst than the C5 X7

[Richard_C]

I had the same dilemma about 3 years ago. I went for a C5 tourer, 163 VTR+ Nav, steel sprung, not through choice would have preferred proper suspension but it was the right car at the right price. The first owner had ticked all the options, glass roof and suchlike. Inside and out is was spot on, slightly high mileage for age. You are fishing in a small pond for C5s.

The Grand P is nice to drive, you have to watch out for spare wheel if that is important to you because most don't come with one. I was reluctant to rely on an aerosol in remote places. Some GPs have self levelling rear suspension which uses up the space for a spare anyway. I saw quite a lot of recent Picassos with scruffy interiors. Much more flexible space and better visibility than the C5, which is a pretty big beast overall with fairly small back windows and not easy to manoeuvre in tight spaces.

It came down to what I use it for. A lot of very long journeys, sometimes just me and sometimes with 4 of us, but never more. The C5 won it as being a better and for me me more comfortable long distance cruiser. I have had no trouble, now up to almost 60k miles, very pleased. A comfortable quiet armchair to take me across Europe.

My next car might be a new Un-grand Picasso when they get cheaper and when my C5 gets hard to fix, I ususally buy 1 year old cars and keep them 5 years or so. I will probably drop to a 1.6 115bhp, the 163 is nice but in the real world a bit unnecessary.

Both are good cars, both good value second hand, decide what your needs and priorities are and also be guided by the actual cars you see. If I had come across a "spot on" Grand Picasso first, I would probably have gone for that.

[DickieG]

I've had my 2.2 Exclusive Tourer for two years and about 20k miles, it's got the options of full leather, sat nav, xenon's, panoramic roof, 19" alloys and averages 44mpg, just after I bought it I replaced the AC condenser plus the large pipe from the compressor and one tyre pressure sensor due to being damaged by the previous owner by running with a flat tyre. Overall I love it to bits, effortless performance, very comfortable with toys galore, highly recommended.

Today I had the utter displeasure of driving a horrid device aka as an Audi A4 3.0 Tdi auto, vile device with sooo much lag it was impossible to squirt and go for a gap yet at other times the throttle was way over sensitive making smooth progress a distant hope, oh and as for the harsh ride, tiny sat nav screen, uncomfortable seat and clumsy auto gear lever, it really did highlight that following the lemmings over the cliff isn't a sound decision. Oh and don't even start me on how unreliable VAG cars are

I feel quite sorry for Citroen that they produce a decent car such as the X7 yet it gets outsold by a pile of poo such as an A4

[kettlesimon]

Thanks for the input guys.