So, then. I know everyone loves a car thread on here….

Having popped out a sproglet 3 weeks ago, my Wife has now decided that her 3dr Ibiza FR is not the most practical car for carting a baby & associated paraphernalia around in.
It’s not so much the boot space but with the baby seat in the back, the front seat has to go so far forward there is not a great deal of leg room left.

We don’t need/want a full-blown family bus, but I quite like the look of the C3 Picasso even if I am generally anti-French when it comes to car ownership (my Wife’s previous car was a Pug 308 that was an absolute dog).
It’s smaller than most mid-sized hatchbacks (a foot shorter than a Focus), has a decent sized boot, sliding rear seats to maximise leg room or boot space, the seats fold completely flat should the need arise (ahem, for sticking the bike in), great visibility (lots of glass), is kitted out well & they are cheap.

Not driven one yet – got a test drive arranged on Friday afternoon.

Has anyone got one/been in one and got an opinion/advice. Or even if you know nothing about them, feel free to pitch in.

There are tons of 1.6HDi engines about, but we are probably going to go for petrol as the annual mileage will be low & I don’t fancy running into DPF issues and associated nonsense.
The petrol options are 1.4 & 1.6 – the 1.4 seems more popular, but to my mind is going to be too gutless (it’s 92bhp, I think, in something that has quite a large frontal area & isn’t exactly svelte). But, the 1.6 seriously limits choice of cars available. The one I am test driving tomorrow is the 1.4, so will give me a bit of an idea.

An other similar suggestions?
We’ve considered the Qashqai, but they seem to hold their value very well so cost more for a fairly new, low mileage example. Plus, I am not sure they are that practical.
Then there’s the Nissan Note which I’ve not really looked into – seems a fair bit smaller than the Picasso & doesn’t have some of the practical features, like sliding bench seat.
Roomster, but my Wife thinks they look horrible (erm, and I have to agree).
Meriva – erm, it’s a Vauxhall (I have a dislike for Vauxhall’s after driving a Corsa that felt like the steering wheel was connected to the wheels via a complicated arrangement of elastic bands).
Focus B-Max – too expensive.

Fanks.

The diesels are pretty lethargic; they also drive/handle badly compared to a lower/smaller car. Build quality/interior is pretty cheap/basic aswell.

Probably the worst car I’ve driven to be honest.

davidtaylforth – Member

The diesels are pretty lethargic; they also drive/handle badly compared to a lower/smaller car. Build quality/interior is pretty cheap/basic aswell.

Probably the worst car I’ve driven to be honest.

Presumably you’re comparing it to a Clio 172? 😆

i liked the one we tested!

Bought a berlingo instead though as we could get the pram in without folding it down. We got a 1.6hdi berlingo which is same engine as in the C3 picasso. Had it 3 years no, no problems at all with it.

Some models of the C3 picasso have rear seats that can slide forwards which is good to increase your boot space if you need it. (well they did 3 years ago so i assume they still do)

my dad drove one a few weeks ago, 1.6hdi.
he wasnt overly keen and bought a renault captur instead, he reckoned it was a lot better to drive.
my dad likes to fling any car into corners and the renault handled that better.

My mate has one he loves it. I do too but alas I’m skint so I got a used berlingo

Presumably you’re comparing it to a Clio 172?

😀 Type R m8

Honestly though, I think they’re shit.

Honda Jazz. Seats don’t slide (although they do other funky things), but they don’t need to.

Another vote for the Jazz, had my 2011 1.4 EX CVT for almost 3 years now, I loomed at the C3 Picasso at the time, it’s physically bigger with a bit more room inside, but doesn’t have the seat flexibility of the Jazz.
Didn’t test drive one as the Jazz ticked the boxes and Honda wins hands down on reliability, quality and we have a very good local dealership.
The Citroen dealer was good, but misrepresented the car I was intetested in.

Cheers all.

martymac, had a look at a Captur that was on show at the shopping centre in town. I wouldn’t be buying new though, and not sure there would be enough to differentiate it from a normal hatchback like a Leon or Focus.

Not interested in hoofing it around, so comfort and practicality come way higher in priority than handling.

Good shout on the Jazz. Heard good things about space in them, will definitely have a look. Will be interesting to see how much leg room there is in the front passenger seat with the baby seat behind…my Wife has 34″ inside leg so needs a fair bit of leg room to get comfy.

We’ve had one as a second car / wife’s M-way commuter for 5 years and about 50k miles.

Small outside but very clever use of space. She regularly carries people and display boards for work – colleagues always amazed by space, rear legroom and what fits in the boot. Slide about rear seats are fab and not a gimmick.

Captur etc waste space with raised ground clearance. Taller cabin in C3 = more upright seating position = generally more space.

Comfortable and reliable. We find 1.6 HDi plenty fast enough (try 1.6 Dispatch or a 1.3 Nemo if you want to experience slow). I’ve done 400 mile round day trips a few times and felt fresh / found it comfortable.

Minor things we don’t like:-
Centre rear seat is a bit narrow and buckles dig in for anyone beyond child size (and won’t fit some booster seats in the middle)
If you are very tall, driver’s seat doesn’t slide back very far.
Centre dash display pod creaks a little when cold.
Tailgate gas struts are a bit weak (it sags a bit and have whacked my head on tailgate corners a few times).
Centre dash thing glows orange on the rear which reflects in the screen at night (could put some black tape over).

Evening, also look at Xsara Picasso Berlingo or C4 Grand Picasso IMO.

Citroen make ugly yet quirky yet capable cars.

Honda make the staid old Civic for people who are frustrated with their lot/car.

I like Hondas so was interested enough to want a look at the Jazz seats / boot etc to see how it compared – and the Honda website has totally failed to show or tell me anything 🙂

Whilst the Citroen site showed lots of clear photos simply by scrolling down the very first page!

Cheers for the info, mick_r. Very useful. I’m looking forward to the test drive tomorrow.

hora, c4 grand Picasso would be too big for our needs I think. That’s what I like so much about the c3. It’s still nice and compact, but makes clever use of the space and will offer plenty of room for our small family. The top of the range one has roof rails too, so can always get a roof box for camping etc.

We’re hoping the money we get for my Wife’s 12 plate Ibiza FR will cover the replacement sensible car…

When I replace my Ibiza, I think I’ll be getting a Civic or Leon estate.

Tbh as mentioned above also look at the Jazz. Why the **** do they persist in still calling it that here in the UK? Imagine it was called the Honda Matrix, the Honda Titanium, the Honda Pegasus, all these arent the best but better than a style of music last seen its heydey in the 80/90’s. It’d be the best seller. Even Honda Fit is much better name for it..

Just as an update to this – we ended up getting a C3 Picasso.

Drove the 1.4 Petrol with the mid-spec & in a bland burgundy colour. It was as I expected really, but the 1.4 was too sluggish & that particular car was over-priced. But, it was a local car & I just wanted to see if it was a go-er or not.

After a bit of looking I found a 1.6 59 plate in the top of the range trim with auto-everything at a decent price with only 33k miles on.
It drove as I expected to be honest – not the grunt that we are both used to from our diesel cars & I find it always takes a while to get used to a petrol engine revving away at 70, compared to a diesel barely ticking over.
But, it drove fine. A nice comfortable ride, nothing to write home about in the handling stakes which is fine by us – we’ve bought it to ferry a child around, not for doing trackdays with and the engine has enough pull to not be frustrating.
It’s actually quite nice to drive something that doesn’t try to be sporty or aggressive – I find myself just wafting around in it.

Never had such a well specced car which is nice, although I do wonder how many of the electronic widgets will be working in 5 years….
The buggy goes in the boot with tons of room to spare, the child seat can be put in the back really easily etc. etc…..

We did have a slight mishap on the day we picked the car up – which admittedly had me questioning the sanity of buying a French car – it cut out after about 20 miles on the drive back from the dealer. They recovered the car & sorted it out – it turned out to be a gunked up sensor in the fuel tank; something that we should probably keep an eye on. I am going to either put a couple of tanks of Optimax through it or buy some of that ‘in tank’ cleaner additive stuff to run through it.
On the plus side of this, I’d moaned about the lack of spare wheel so as a goodwill gesture for the inconvenience they have thrown in a full size spare which has a brand new Michelin tyre on.

I am yet to find the time to try my bike in the back, so can’t yet comment on how useful it is as a bike wagon. I suspect it will do a good job with all the seats down, but that will mean removing the ISOFIX base, so I won’t be testing it out any time soon….

Anyhoo – here’s a pic:

does it have the cheery bip-bop bip-bop sounding indicator noise 😀 Made me smile first time i heard that, better than the boring tick-tick of normal ones! Those quirky French…

meeeee – Member

does it have the cheery bip-bop bip-bop sounding indicator noise

HA HA! Yes, it does! In fact….I was doing my best attempt at reproducing it myself yesterday with my mouth until my Wife asked me to stop as it was really annoying her…… 😀

Of no relevance now, but I had some type of picasso thing as a courtesy car the other day – freakin’ massive and quick! It had the controls and displays straight from a spaceship and a stereo that was bewilderingly awesome (everyone tests the stereo on a new car don’t they?)

Such as shame it felt like I had very little say in which direction it was going in; was a bit ‘wafty’ along the Pennines.

Oh, and the displays froze at one point for about a minute, which was odd.

Also of no relevance, but my mate has just bought a C3 Picasso to replace his previous Picasso and is very happy with it. No idea about reliability, early days yet.

We have a c3 Picasso. Fits three reasonably proportioned men and three mountain bikes in with a bit of practice if you’re not kit heavy. It’s a dull drive admittedly but I drive for practical purposes not fun and it does exactly what is required.

1.6 petrol is ok, not exactly quick but it does go well enough. Runs high on revs at motorway speeds which is a little surprising to begin with but it’s happy enough up to 85 or so – never been quicker so couldn’t comment.

It does feel a bit wallowy it corners at speed but as cars go I’m happy with it though hardly excited.

Nice looking car, glad your happy with it and that it will meet you new family needs and is biking friendly.
Enjoy:D