Citroen C3 Pluriel 1.6i 16v Sensodrive

I traded my lovely old car in for a 1 year old C3 Pluriel, a 54 plate which had only had one other owner. I was so excited as it was the car i had always dreamed of! It was the 1.6 Sensodrive version with all additional extras - luxury! The first 4 weeks were fine and then i noticed that the car was less responsive when pulling away at junctions. A week later it got stuck in 1st gear and then broke down. Being an 'intelligent' car, the AA were unable to restart it. I was towed away on the back of their lorry. After a repair and new part was fitted, it was fantastic again! Until it started ... more

I strongly advise people NOT to buy one of these cars. The leaking roof of the Pluriel model is the least of the problems I've had. We bought a low mileage 2004 model in April 2010. We'd only had it a week when it suddenly decided it didn't have a gearbox and cut out dead in heavy traffic. The dashboard display showed no gears available, the snowflake and AUTO symbols flashed, the starter motor had been disabled, it was stuck in some gear and we were unable to push it out of the way. About ten minutes later, it suddenly displayed the gears, started up and proceeded as if nothing was wrong. The ... more

Car ran Ok ish up to warranty expiry and then as by magic it fell apart - one problem after another, and just been relieved again of £500 due to gearbox problems. Add this to constant error messages that Citroen couldn't trace or fix (actually they caused this at one point by incorrectly adjusting the software!) and a series of other problems- head gasket blowing at 30k miles plus coil replacement , which didn't solve the problem. The Citroen dealer acknowledges the difficulty in tracking faults from the computer which is why they couldn't trace the fault over a long period .On personnal terms ... more

A nice looking car but that's a far as it goes. The roof was leaking on my car (apparently a very common problem). It was replaced under the warranty but when the roof was first opened in the spring time the clips broke. Citroen informed me that I would have to get the full roof replaced again at the cost of £3000. They wouldn't accept that it hadn't worked since the new roof was put on. There is obviously a design fault that Citroen have chosen to ignore. If you look on the net there are many other people in the same situation as me. The seats are comfortable, one of the only pluses. The car ... more

Before you read anything passed this point please keep in mind I worked with cars for the last 20 years and had the pleasure of driving over 300 models of vehicles spanning from USA through Australia. I strongly urge everyone to do their own research before purchasing a vehicle. Please do yourself a favour ride a bike before spending one penny on this excuse for a vehicle. The issues are as follows; - transmission; noisy, terrible shifting 0/10 - roof leaks when it rains - wind noise after speeds of 80 km/h - shocks brutal - road noise - window seals are weak - roof material discolours easily ... more