After owning my little Citroen C3 for just over 6 years, the time has come to accept that this relationship has run its course and move on to better things. So I have finally part-exchanged my C3 and, hopefully, bid farewell to endless visits to the garage and constant repair bills!
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Advantages: Spacious, economical fuel consumption, looks good Disadvantages: High repair and maintenance bills, unreliable, doesn't look so good on the back of a tow truck!
After owning my little Citroen C3 for just over 6 years, the time has come to accept that this relationship has run its course and move on to better things. So I have finally part-exchanged my C3 and, hopefully, bid farewell to endless visits to the garage and constant repair bills!
Like most relationships, this started so well. It was love at first sight when I set eyes on the C3, which was a relatively new model when I bought mine ... ...were looked at by a Citroen garage a few months' back and they run a diagnostic check on the car (for which I had to pay another bill for) only for it to come back clear and the mechanic just said 'it could be anything or nothing.' He claimed to have cleaned some pipe or other which he felt should resolve the problem but within the space of a fortnight the same warning lights were flashing up left, right and centre again! Their only real recommendation ... more
After owning my little Citroen C3 for just over 6 years, the time has come to accept that this relationship has run its course and move on to better things. So I have finally part-exchanged my C3 and, hopefully, bid farewell to endless visits to the garage and constant repair bills!
Like most relationships, this started so well. It was love at first sight when I set eyes on the C3, which was a relatively new model when I bought mine back in November 2002. The design of the car is quite funky for a small, relatively cheap hatchback or what is known as a 'super-mini'. It has an attractive curved exterior and looks very modern and stylish. The interior is even more eye-catching with its digital mileometer display, smart curved dashboard and adjustable steering column. It certainly looks like a more expensive little car than the price tag suggests.
It has a very spacious interior for the size of the car and it has been well-designed. The boot is extremely generous and even managed to fit in our old monster of a travel system as well as several bags of shopping. If needed, the rear seats folded forward to make even more room in the back which was ideal for bringing home flat-pack furniture and the like. There was plenty of leg and head-room, even for my husband who is over 6 foot tall. As a small but accessible family car, this certainly looks impressive and is comfortable and easy to drive.
My C3 (the 1.1 L) was the bottom of the range model and cost me just under £7000 from a main dealer back in 2002, when it was sparkly and brand new. A quick google informs me that C3's are currently available for roughly the same sort of price but, in the current economic climate, there is probably scope for some haggling. To be honest though, I wouldn't bother. No matter how much of a bargain you manage to get, it wouldn't be worth the long-term costs, not to mention all the time and trouble of taking this car to be repaired every five minutes.
The appearance of this car is pretty much its only positive feature. I would say that it is economical to run but the repair bills far outweigh any savings in any other areas! To be fair to the C3, its fuel consumption is very good and it is cheap to insure and to tax. (My road tax cost £120 for the year but I understand that newer models fall under the £35 per year banner.) In spite of this, I can't bring myself to describe this car as being anything approaching 'good value for money.' Yes, it looks more expensive than the £7000 than I paid for my car from new six years ago. But sometimes things are 'cheap' for a reason. Citroens in general depreciate in value very quickly because they have a reputation for being poorly made and not very durable. I would certainly say that is a fair assessment based on ther performance of my C3. As for the actual depreciation, I ended up receiving just under £2000 for the car at six years old (although I wouldn't want to pay more than a tenner for a used C3!) so it lost £5000 in six years.
Now, I've already hinted at the unreliability of the car but do have to admit that it didn't perform too badly until after the warranty expired after three years. (Although you wouldn't expect anything less from a brand new car!) Certainly for the last 18 months, my C3 has had a catalogue of faults, repairs, breakdowns and performance issues. I probably can't even remember them all because I think I've tried to wipe them from my memory to avoid thinking about the cost of all these repairs! Here are some of the highlights, bearing in mind that my car was only five years old when most of the faults appeared and hardly an old car, by anybody's standards.
- Faulty suspension spring snapped. - Exhaust and oil sump corroded. Both had to be replaced. - Faulty temperature sensor indicating that the car was over-heating when it wasn't. - Right-hand light constantly fusing and needing to be replaced. - Loose link rod which constantly rattled sounding as though the car was going to fall apart at any moment. (This was replaced and the same thing started to happen again within a month.) - Windscreen motor faulty and had to be replaced. - Air bag warning symbol lighting up for no apparant reason. - Engine Management warning symbol lighting up for no apparant reason. - Battery warning symbol lighting up for no apparant reason. (Battery replaced about 6 months earlier.)
All of the last electrical faults were looked at by a Citroen garage a few months' back and they run a diagnostic check on the car (for which I had to pay another bill for) only for it to come back clear and the mechanic just said 'it could be anything or nothing.' He claimed to have cleaned some pipe or other which he felt should resolve the problem but within the space of a fortnight the same warning lights were flashing up left, right and centre again! Their only real recommendation was that I consider buying a new Citroen! I don't think so, somehow! I'd rather throw my money down the drain (actually, that is pretty much what I have been doing with my C3.)
So, at long last I have stopped throwing good money after bad and traded my C3 in for a lovely little Toyota Yaris. No doubt I shall review that in a few month's time, hopefully with a more positive conclusion. As for the C3, I certainly wouldn't recommend buying a used model and if you wanted to buy one from new, bear in mind the speed at which its resale value will depreciate and the likelihood of constant repairs and maintenance bills as it gets older.
Advantages: Looks, Price, Equipment level, Storage Disadvantages: Does not get you from A to B
...we ended up at the citroen garage. It was one of the regular cashback offer times (usually in time, and as often as a DFS sale).
In short, we were getting more car, higher spec, larger engine and paying less. THE POSTIVES. Looks-
We loved the look of the car. Some see it as 'cute', some love the 'bubble' shape, some people hate it. Fuel economy-
I never got out my calculator to work out the MPG but we did not seem to fill up any more regularly ... ...dealer (Stoke-on-Trent). Also, contacts with Citroen UK were as fruitless as they ket passing us back to the dealer. The dealer said that if we had a problem we needed to go to citroen UK.
*FIRST*
- The car locked us in on two occasions. On the first occasion we had to get out "American cop" style (through the windows). I felt like sliding across the bonnet afterwards. The problem righted itself overnight.
We phoned the dealer next day. Said that ...
LetzSea 28.02.2006
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Citroen C3
Advantages: looks and comfort when it drives properly thats about it Disadvantages: everything - including having to deal with citroen who dont have a clue how fix them
...sent me to evans halshaw citroen a couple of miles up the road. I left my car with them for a diagnostic check and was told they would contact me later in the day. I recieved a call later that day to tell me the manifold pressure sensore had gone and that they had ordered the part and would be ready the next day, i got a call at 3pm the next day saying my car had been fixed so me and my partner got a lift to pick the car up. When we got there citroen ... ...petrol. We went back into citroen very angry they told us they would look at it straight away 1hr later they told us they were checking if the new part had been put in right and would be back to us in 15 min, another hr later they returned to sat that they put it back on the diangnostic and it was still coming up with the same problem even though everything looked ok so they would be keeping the car to run more checks. We had to fight for over an ...
natielou 31.03.2009 (07.04.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Citroen C3
Advantages: Long distance ride comfort Disadvantages: Not so hot on corners, flimsy interior build
I always approach the rental desk of my chosen holiday car hire company with a degree of disinterest bordering on resignation. After all, one of those brand-spanking new cars outside is never going to be turned over to me is it? I’ll probably get the two-year-old Anonymous-mobile that I’ve driven a hundred times before.
Not this year. Turning up at the Budget desk at Faro airport was a refreshing experience – well, the one hour wait wasn’t, but ... ...Villas’ days in these parts. I also seemed to be the only one in the queue without golf clubs!
So I’d paid my £259 for two weeks (ouch!), got my paperwork filled in and been handed some keys. The double chevrons gave away the manufacturer, i.e. Citroën, but I guess I just thought I’d be getting a basic Saxo, the ‘outgoing’ model. Judging by the amount of luggage some golfing people were expecting to stuff in, maybe that should be a Paxo – stuff ...
BNibbles 21.08.2003 (24.08.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Citroen C3
Advantages: Clutchless Gear Box,Air Conditioning, ABS Brakes, Power Steering, Remote Control Central Locking, Electric Windows, Disadvantages: Performance,Grip On Wet Slippy Roads,
...i looked at was a Citroen C3 1.4 HDi SX SensoDrive 2004
this comes with some little extras.
Paddle shift (for that split second you can feel like a F1 Racer)
Climate control Chilled glovebox SensoDrive - I dont know the fall sicence around it but if you have look at the citroen website it explain all in all flashie lights. basicly is added to allow "clutchless gear changes", which is what the F1 Paddles around the steering wheel for, so you never ... ...full control at all time of the steering wheel. but if that aint your thing then you can still use the gear stick..as you pay more for a car with sensodrive....youd waste your money not using the paddles. Neutral and reverse selected using the gearlever. and if that wasnt enough you can channge the car to change gears for you just pushing a button....
Driving.
Started First time good plus...flicked it into first didnt seem to notice any major problems ...
xplosiv3 17.03.2008
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Citroen C3
Advantages: Looks Disadvantages: Reliability, service, and pretty much everything else
My wife and I purchased a second hand, 52 plate, Citreon C3 Exclusive 2 years ago, and have had nothing but problems with it since its arrival.
Firstly the car was damaged in the showroom, and had to be repaired - this was done eventually.
Then the electrical faults started
Any time a passenger sat on the front passenger seat the airbag warning light would show on the dashboard, and an audible warning would sound. It was returned to the garage, ... ...This was the story over and over again. Eventually new connections were placed on the wiring looms, and the wires were tensioned - no difference. The wires were replaced - no difference. In fact the car is still doing this today. The big question is do the airbags still work if the computer thinks that there is a fault? The dealers say yes, but as they don't know what the fault is I find this difficult to believe.
Driving along a main road at 60 ...
DavenAilsa 10.12.2006
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: helpful Review of Citroen C3
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