Marc's C3 Aircross SUV, Rants Raves & Everything Else

[GiveMeABreak]

I thought it about time to start a new blog on the 'Chili Hornet'.

Here's a few small pics before she boarded a transporter in Kent and made the 320 mile trip to arrive on 30th December.

We have these options:

• Techno Pack: HiFi System with equaliser, amplifier and subwoofer in the boot, Head Up Display, Colour Dash Binnacle Matrix, and Wireless Charging*.
• Grip Control: This is the advanced traction control system. We have Standard mode, Snow / Ice Mode, All Terrain Mode (Mud, Damp Grass etc.), Sand Mode and Off. It also includes Hill Assist Decent control.
• Park Assist Pack: So front & rear parking sensors, semi autonomous Parallel and Bay Parking and exit, Top Rear Vision & Blind Spot Monitoring.

I've tried out the Hill Decent System and boy is it effective. It really does edge you down a slope (in forward or reverse) so will be really great for our 1:10 hills round here in the winter. Add the Grip control too and that should be pretty effective at getting us up the hills in the snow and ice.

As for the parking - I'm still not quite ready to 'hand over' control yet - so for now I'll leave that for occasions where I've cricked my neck or worse!

I already bought a few 'bits' in readiness.

I wanted some decent sill protectors, and didn't fancy the stickers or the plastic looking things, so splashed out on some nice shiny stainless steel ones. Even better they are made in the UK , so was very happy about that. They were packed really well and protected and arrived in a solid cardboard tube.

These are the fronts

Rears

These are custom made for the Aircross and are a perfect fit. The rears are quite small, but the rear sills only have a small flat section before it widens and curves up, so that's probably the reason why. Anyway, they went on really well and will protect the sill paint for many years I hope.

I should say the mats are pretty tacky - they're just an old 'new' set I had lying around to protect the Aircross ones underneath - which I suppose it pretty daft really - protecting the car mats . That's my OCD kicking in. I'm now thinking of getting some new custom mats with red trim to match the interior.

[mickthemaverick]

Looks nice Marc and the sills should be fine. You may have a supplier for mats already but if not I used these guys a couple of years ago for C5 tailored mats and when they arrived I was so impressed I ordered them for the MX3 and the Celerio as well. The MX3 mats they were not allowed to embroider with "MX3" due to copyright but they were happy to do them with "MiX3" which looks fine and of course is personalised for me
https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/carmatsonlin ... 2749.l2754

[GiveMeABreak]

Thanks Mick - I will have a squiz.

So far on the research side, I've looked at these three UK suppliers:

Carmats4u

Car & Van Mats

Car Mats UK

They all seem to offer a basic mat and then jack up the price according to options, including weight of the carpet.

I would like something like these - red heel pad and red stitching and outer trim to match the interior 'Urban red' trim highlighting:

I will have to start looking at owner reviews next to see if they are any good!

[mickthemaverick]

This is my rather dusty MiX3 Mat, I went for the black heel pad but I could have named my own colour,.:

Own work

[GiveMeABreak]

Thanks for putting that up Mick - I will check the link as soon as I can - just had to put an additive replacement guide up for another member.

[mickthemaverick]

Marc, Sorry to say I put the wrong link up!! That one for carmatsonlineuk was the place I returned some to because they were too thin, the place I got them from was:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citroen-C3-A ... 1284894919

[GiveMeABreak]

Ok, clocked that. They look very similar to some of the others - I'll have a squiz tomorrow.

[RichardW]

I've got grip control on my 3008 - not had much reason to use it - almost no snow last winter, and no going out this winter! However, on one day where it was a bit slippy it did seem to work - it just kept going whereas I would have expected to struggle without.

[GiveMeABreak]

Yes looking forward to testing that out Richard.

Seems good enough for the Italian Alps:



A good test is at time index 08:18 in the video where he tests starting off without the snow mode on where is swerves and struggles a bit, and then at 08:32 where he switches it on. I like the reversing up the ice covered hill at 09:52 - there's no way my C5 could of done that.

Crikey those Italians can't half waffle!

[GiveMeABreak]

The next thing I've done is to get a Screen Protector for the Connected Nav touchscreen.

Before I bought the one below, initially ignoring it because of the model, I bought a cheap one from some vendor for a 9.7" tablet - that was a waste of time as it was far larger and was larger than the described diagonal size to also cover the other area of a tablet! So watch out for those.

There are very few of these about and I wanted a tempered glass one. So I did a bit of research and compared part numbers with the latest standard C3 and the touchscreens have the same part number. As it happens there are plenty of these about for latest C3, so I took a punt on one of these:

These are made in Germany and was here within a week.

Bought from Amazon. This one is a little reflective it may seem from the pictures, however driving out and about today whilst going for a mountain walk we actually had some sun, and it didn't affect the display at all. There is a Matte version too, so that should be even less reflective.

This offers 9H hardness and is very flexible to put on.

Don't use any alcohol or solvent to clean the screen first - I just used some reading glasses cleaner that doesn't contain any of these as you don't want to take off any of the screen coating.

I also made sure there was little to no floating dust about in the car (as best you can) and used a few credit cards to gently smooth out the the air as it went on a little at a time. So I just gradually peeled the backing a little at a time as I flattened it on with the cards. Took less than a minute. I do have about a 1mm gap on the left but can live with that. I just didn't want to risk misaligning it. If I need to replace it in future with the Matte version, I'll maybe leave a little extra space on the right.

Link here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08 ... UTF8&psc=1

[GiveMeABreak]

So many of you know my ranting about the abysmal state of the roads where I am, well yesterday whilst out for the weekly shop, I noticed a nice little crack in the windscreen on the driver’s right side. This soon turned into a 10” crack by the time we got home .

Then began the long saga of phone calls, being on hold and not being very happy. It turns out that when I finally got through, they needed my car into one of their centres to undertake the ADAS calibration. The issue is that the windscreen repair place was about 75 miles away and a one and a half hour drive away.

At the time I was more concerned about driving the car that distance and the crack widening, apart from potentially being in breach of section 40 of the Road Traffic Regs.

My insurance company uses National Windscreens which I hadn’t seen to many good reviews about...

So just to see how much the job would cost privately I decided to get a quote from Autoglass. They initially gave me the incorrect information, saying my car didn’t need calibration and gave me a price of £455. So looking at the official documentation in front of me that states the calibration is essential if replacing the camera or windscreen, we had an argument about that, and after 20 minutes of putting me on hold and checking info, she admitted they were wrong and that my vehicle did need this.

She then said, wait for it, “the good news is that the price includes the calibration...” and before I could say anything she started recalculating the price... “...so that will £750 all in to fit and calibrate”.

Well scrub that, so did some research and it seems I can drive the car as long as my field of vision is not obstructed and on the way for a repair. So booked that in and of course, the windscreen is on back order so won't be in for a week or 2.... That means a whole day allocated for this, a 3 hour min. round driving trip and a 2 hour wait whilst there.

My lesson here is when checking for insurance next year, I will be seeing who they contract windscreen work to. Autoglass although expensive privately, has a centre much nearer to me, so will be looking for a company that contracts with them.

My insurance company wouldn’t compromise when I suggested they come out and do the windscreen using their mobile service, then I could get the calibration done at my dealer and reclaim the costs from them!

So if anyone has any ADAS systems in their car (Collision Alert, Autonomous Braking, Lane Departure Warning, Speed Sign recognition, Active cruise etc.) it might be worth checking out who does the windscreen replacements and where their nearest centre is to you....

For now it will be an opportunity to give the other C3 a run until we get the repair done on the Aircross

[CitroJim]

Gosh The potentially hidden costs of running one of these modern wonder-boxes is horrifying...

I think I'll stick to my cars from the last century!

[GiveMeABreak]

Indeed Jim - that's 'progress' for you! No doubt I shall be reporting back after the entire stress-inducing episode has been completed in a weeks' time.

[mickthemaverick]

That is, to me, a ludicrous cost for a cracked windscreen when you consider that I bought the C5 I have just sold for £550, spent £283 on maintenance and repairs over a two year period while travelling 17000 ish miles and sold it for £750 despite the screen issue, it is easy to see why I am with Jim!! Plus I suspect my C5 Exclusive SE 2.2 HDi was a more comfortable and competent performer than the vast majority of modern cars!! Having said that the replacement Subaru has everything the C5 had except the ride of course, and is equally capable but then it is only 3 years younger!!

[GiveMeABreak]

It's the way it's all going unfortunately - you'll be hard-pressed to find a new car without some sort of driver aids - and of course these will ultimately filter down over the years onto the second /third hand market.

I think back now at the launch of the C5 MK I when I had mine and when rain sensitive wipers and auto lighting were all new and not on many other popular makes at the time and the auto windows opening and closing and all that - which cars don't have that now? (Apart from Jim's Saxo maybe )