picasso

[colin-yorkshire]

hi all, quick question any one had a 1.6 diesel C4 picasso what are they like. any major issues I should look for.
need another motor as someone ran into the Meriva and wrote it off.
been looking at different cars for a couple of days. and the Picasso seems to be favourite but still have a open mind on what to replace the Meriva with.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

Are you still towing these days, or is the car just a run-about?

 

[Jaydug]

Is this as a tow car or just for solo work? IMO 1.6ltrs is a bit under powered for towing but having said that loads of Continental caravanners use them happily enough. The DV6 engine is actually from Ford and the one my daughter has in a C4 has been trouble free for four years. If the engine maintenance has been neglected they have a tendency for the turbo to run dry and end up throwing bits into the engine causing it to seize. Because of this, a few years ago Citroen gave all their dealers specific instructions for engine maintenance which included using the correct oil and not using suction draining .

 

[colin-yorkshire]

hi guys. thanks for that. no I don't tow a van any more got the static in the lakes. just tow the boat and the odd trailer full of garden waste to the tip.
shame really as I liked the Meriva a lot. I have to have the MPV type of car now because of the wife and her scooter and wheel chair [have to carry both permanently] but because of the measly amount the settlement a much better car is out of the question, the Picasso's seem to be about the right size and the 1.6 hdi looks like it may be as good as the Isuzu 1.7 cdti engine was. I wanted to replace it with another Meriva but good ones are very rare around here. Zafira's dont tick any boxes for me, and the hire car Iv'e got [ford Galaxy] is just too big and complicated it seems to be as near a driverless car as they come. it wont do this if you dont do that. most of the modern ones seem similar. and there out of my price range anyway.
Picasso's on the other hand seem simple. there's plenty of good ones around and price is right on the money.
just thought I would ask before committing to buy one.

 

[Jaydug]

Since you're not towing, a Picasso should be fine. If it comes with a maintenance history so much the better. I've been driving Citroens since 1990 and maintaining them myself. We have four PSA's in the family.

 

[Woodentop]

Do bear in mind that French cars are generally mechanically good and reliable but are sods for electrical problems.

Others to look at given your needs:
Renault Kango or Citroen Berlingo
VW Touran 2L

 

[Jaydug]

Do bear in mind that French cars are.............. are sods for electrical problems.

Does that advice come from first hand experience - or hearsay? From 27 years of driving Citroens and family ownership of 9 PSA cars, my experience is that they are no worse than any other marque.

 

[colin-yorkshire]

Do bear in mind that French cars are.............. are sods for electrical problems.

Does that advice come from first hand experience - or hearsay? From 27 years of driving Citroens and family ownership of 9 PSA cars, my experience is that they are no worse than any other marque.

well they can't be all bad two of the other Woodentop suggestions are also french. my son had a clio once and had some issues with the engine sensors. took about 4 attempts to find the fault so I suppose I can guess where that came from.
I did look at a Renault Kango but the door opening wasn't that great and the seat position with it as far back as possible sort of reduced the the manouvering room to get in with the dodgy knees the wife has.
afraid this problem reduces the scope of what to look for. been looking at a couple of 3 door models that fit this criteria but not found any at the right price yet.
going to look some more this weekend as we are at home for a couple of weeks, need this sorting though the Galaxy is doing my head in. nice motor but. getting it going and parking is more like going through the pre flight plan of a aeroplane.

 

[colin-yorkshire]

thanks for all the info guys. I taken on board what has been said. looked at more cars today than I have seen in quite a while. in the end I went for a 08, xsara picasso, 1.6 vtx, 53000 miles, full dealer service history, one owner from new, picked it from a main dealer trade in row. got a decent deal for a cash sale there going to give it a full service and replace the front tyres. sounds great, looks mint, so for less than 2 grand I think it's going to do just fine.

 

[Martin24]

Glad you're sorted Colin. How long before you can collect and get rid of the spaceship?

Even after nearly 4 years of the D-Max, Mrs B has said at least the new car will have proper dials for the heating controls. Too many buttons for her to cope with. You're not alone with wanting things just a bit simpler.

 

[colin-yorkshire]

Glad you're sorted Colin. How long before you can collect and get rid of the spaceship?

Even after nearly 4 years of the D-Max, Mrs B has said at least the new car will have proper dials for the heating controls. Too many buttons for her to cope with. You're not alone with wanting things just a bit simpler.

about a week Martin. it should be ready next Wednesday. insurance has promised to send the settlement by then I can go settle up for the car get the papers and tax it [need those for the tax exemption]

yeah Galaxy [space ship] :lol: :lol: I like that. don't get me wrong it's a fine car. just not that used to the level of sophistication inside the cockpit. for instance the centre console is multi function that has to be navigated to change anything yeah great but while your driving. not good. every time something or someone get nearer than 1 meter the proximity alarms goes off. even when tootling down the road passing parked cars. and the heater yeah agree with Mrs B changing from the air con to proper heater involves 5 mins of re programming the climate controls, there is probably a 100 other things it does or supposed to that I haven't found the button for like orbit control

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

there is probably a 100 other things it does or supposed to that I haven't found the button for like orbit control

have you found the button for re-entry after the visit to cloud 9?

 

[colin-yorkshire]

there is probably a 100 other things it does or supposed to that I haven't found the button for like orbit control

have you found the button for re-entry after the visit to cloud 9?

not yet :cheer: :cheer: :cheer : but I wish that dammed drivers seat would stop moving every time I get in the car.
think it's been programmed for one of those little green men. I get in it resets the seat. I move it to my position. get out next time same thing. and then there's the engine start. but I will not go into that. suppose there is a way to override all this stuff but I won't have it long enough to work out how to do it.

 

[ProfJohnL]

there is probably a 100 other things it does or supposed to that I haven't found the button for like orbit control

have you found the button for re-entry after the visit to cloud 9?

not yet :cheer: :cheer: :cheer : but I wish that dammed drivers seat would stop moving every time I get in the car.
think it's been programmed for one of those little green men. I get in it resets the seat. I move it to my position. get out next time same thing. and then there's the engine start. but I will not go into that. suppose there is a way to override all this stuff but I won't have it long enough to work out how to do it.

Ask the Grand kids to do it for you!

 

[otherclive]

Do bear in mind that French cars are generally mechanically good and reliable but are sods for electrical problems.

Others to look at given your needs:
Renault Kango or Citroen Berlingo
VW Touran 2L

I think that your views are based on out of date information. In the 2016 JD Power Survey Vehicle Dependability Survey Peugeot, Citroen and Renault all came well above some prestige marques. In fact BMW, MB and Audi all languished near the bottom of the rankings with Land Rover. Strange that Audi came low as Skoda and Volkswagen and Seat came much higher up and they share the same parts bin. Perhaps Audis integration and installation of the parts isn't as good as others in the VAG group.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Do bear in mind that French cars are generally mechanically good and reliable but are sods for electrical problems.

Others to look at given your needs:
Renault Kango or Citroen Berlingo
VW Touran 2L

I think that your views are based on out of date information. In the 2016 JD Power Survey Vehicle Dependability Survey Peugeot, Citroen and Renault all came well above some prestige marques. In fact BMW, MB and Audi all languished near the bottom of the rankings with Land Rover. Strange that Audi came low as Skoda and Volkswagen and Seat came much higher up and they share the same parts bin. Perhaps Audis integration and installation of the parts isn't as good as others in the VAG group.

The recent edition of Which? magazine made the point that more upmarket models often have a lot more gizmo's, and its the reliability of some of these that lets the big bucks models down. But as more of these gizmo's are integrated into the cars systems, its more likely a minor fault can render a car less drive-able .

 

[otherclive]

In the words of Admiral Gorshkov "The better is the enemy of the good enough". Or as some may prefer "KISS".

 

[timhowarduk]

Do bear in mind that French cars are generally mechanically good and reliable but are sods for electrical problems.

Others to look at given your needs:
Renault Kango or Citroen Berlingo
VW Touran 2L

I think that your views are based on out of date information. In the 2016 JD Power Survey Vehicle Dependability Survey Peugeot, Citroen and Renault all came well above some prestige marques. In fact BMW, MB and Audi all languished near the bottom of the rankings with Land Rover. Strange that Audi came low as Skoda and Volkswagen and Seat came much higher up and they share the same parts bin. Perhaps Audis integration and installation of the parts isn't as good as others in the VAG group.

True story: I had a 2.0 Petrol Picasso. It started having an irritating electrical issue - I'd suddenly lose speedo, most dash lights, the indicator fake relay noise played through a little speaker (this amused me, the blinkers still worked but the relay is so deep you can't hear it and the designers obviously thought it mattered), also displayed totally random fault messages, some of which were rather unnerving for passengers like "Brake System Fault". So I took it to a main dealer 3 times, spent over £600 trying to get it diagnosed and each time the reset the computer, it worked for a bit, then suddenly would be back to square one. The only rather unhelpful clue was that if I turned left at speed it sometimes fixed the problem (!) and then randomly the dash would fail again. In the end I gave up spending money on the problem. I had to disconnect the battery when I stopped and leave it unlocked because sometimes the central locking refused to work at all when I returned to the car.
A year later when I had resigned to not knowing how fast we were going or having any warning lights, things developed. We were driving down a country lane and my wife changed from radio to CD, and the car which had been working suddenly went into what we had by now christened "mad mode" with the dash going mad then failing. It occurred to me to change back to radio, and unbelievably the dashboard came back to life. We tried this a few times, and the pattern held. Surely not....! SO when I got home, I pulled out the radio, and drove around, and sure enough the car behaved perfectly. Then I got home, and picked up the radio where I had left it on the front lawn and heard a clunk. Took top of radio and there was a penny in the CD slot. Hence the turning left 'fix'!
Now fair enough, any modern car with CAN bus wiring has the delightful possibility that a radio (or anything) can mess up the entire electrical system. But since that experience I am biased against French electrics in cars (totally unfairly) for evermore!

 

[Raywood]

When my daughters Peugot broke down some time ago, the AA man who attended did say that he felt that electrics were the weak point in most French cars. She still has one though because it was the only make she could find with three ISOFIX fittings in the back and to be fair it is very comfortable.