2012 Citroen C5 X7: stick or replace with C5X?

[NickGood]

We've had our 2012 X7 HDI Tourer Nav+ manual since 2014 and it has been a phenomenal car. Extremely reliable, comfortable, plenty fast enough, economical - really the best car we have ever owned by a long way.

Apart from a windscreen wiper needing replacement in 2016 (Citroen wanted to replace both at a cost of £1100.... I bought one off ebay for £40 and fitted it in less than an hour) and CV joints last year, nothing has gone wrong and it's only needed consumables (including timing belt etc) at it's services (to my shame, we have followed the service schedule to the letter, meaning it only gets one every 2 years, not even needing oil topped up between them).

We have though just had to replace the steering rack but have been expecting this for years so can't complain. However at 14 years old and 125k miles, we are wondering whether now is the time to replace it before more expensive things go wrong. So, two questions:

1. What kind of problems/expenses would you expect at this mileage and age, ie, cheap stuff or potentially major borkage?

2. If we replace, we are thinking of getting rid of our (appallingly built) 2015 Fiat 500 which is largely used for local stuff including my wife's 16 mile total daily commute, and potentially dropping to one car but going for a hybrid on basis most of our driving is local so would be super cheap, but we can easily do longer journeys such as 300 miles up to daughter's uni here and there. If we do this, then I am strongly drawn to the C5X 1.6 PHEV but am a little worried that with so much complexity (in particular the hybrid components and battery but also the adaptive dampers) will come long term unreliability/high running costs?

As you will have read, we tend to keep cars for a good long time (10 years or so) and really want to make the right decision, which might be to stick with the C5 for longer if your consensus is that we should get a few more years of reliable motoring out of it. One further idea is to get rid of the Fiat and replace with a leased Renault Twingo Etech for commute and local stuff when it comes out next year, keeping the C5 for longer journeys or where we need the space. We haven't leased a car before but suspect there will be some cheap deals and can get it through the company scheme so saving tax making it pretty cheap.

Apologies for this super long post, but very undecided and would really value your expertise and opinions!

[mickthemaverick]

I don't know about expertise but happy to give you my opinion.

I would say that you can happily run the C5 up to 180k+ with good maintenance but I would consider reducing your service periods to 1 year and keep an eye on the engine bay for leaks. As to selling the 500 and leasing a new Twingo I'd say don't!! No problem with the Twingo but leasing really is a good way of spending money with nothing to show for it at the end of the lease. I used to sell car finance packages, mainly contract hire and lease to companies and it is not a good way to go for the private individual. Better to get an independent loan and buy the car outright so that at the end of the loan repayment period you have a car to show for it.