[Closed] New (to me) car day. Caution French car content.

Post back when it develops an electrical fault.

A touchscreen in a french car?....are you mad?

Come on in, the waters lovely! Usually pooling at your feet or leaking in your panoramic roof.

Welcome to the club.

2015 Peugeot partner outdoor 1.6hdi here.

Had Peugeot/citron since 2008. Electrical faults.... Nil.

Only got lured into something this new by low residuals thanks to the doom mongers such as above. Consideeably Less than half price at 5000miles/3 years old.

Remind me again about your Passat molgrips

[q] had Peugeot/ citron since 2008 [/q]

Fair comment, most of the are lemons I suppose.

Pay for your call. It keeps the bills small....

Oh no I mean keep up the good work it keeps my bills small 🙂

Having had a Renault 5 Gordini, two 18's, a 19, a 25, a Scenic and, currently, a Grand Scenic and also a Peugeot 205 and a 405 over the last twenty something years I can confirm that all of these fabled electrical faults must only happen to Citroens because I've never had one.

I had a peugeot 307 from almost new on a 54 plate. Never any electrical faults at all. Only a catastrophic gearbox failure, two days after the manufacturers warranty ran out.

It got replaced by VAG, and I've never gone back. Other opinions are available, but i wont be having another. Excpet for a 205 GTI perhaps. Or a 306 GTI6. Or maybe a 405 MI16...

I had a 306 tdi 15 or more years back. Loved that car, it was great fun to drive, never missed a beat......then the lights packed in swiftly followed by the radiator springing a leak(it was now 5 years old) so traded it in. Was honestly sorry to see it go.

Looking for a new car myself just now and seriously considering a 3008 but have this niggly feeling about reliability.....

Ive had a 309 GTI, 106 GTI, Clio Williams, 306, Clio valver, Clios of various variants and indeed a Clio now.

French cars get a bad press imo.

Enjoy your new car!

Weird how everyone I know who has had a modern Peugeot has not had a complaint.

Spoke to a mate today who has had 3 AA lifts home in his brand new Audi S3.

Also Google VAG electrical faults and there are plenty.  I have had it with: stop start system, flap motor In the air con breaking (very common), dodgy alternator, water pump going again! Amazing these VAG cars (my car was less than 3 years old when most of this started).

I love an old stereotype me.

Edit: everyone knows the 307 was shit 😆

@nealglover

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Fair comment, most of the are lemons I suppose.</span>

Chapeau!!

I’ve had a few French cars; two 205’s, a 306, a Talbot samba, a 2cv, a Renault 5, only three of them fought fire. What put me of was the fact the dealer told be the 306 I had had 36 permeatations of drive belt, they could tell me which one was right!

New ones are probably fine, and bound to be more reliable than a BMW, Audi or Range Rover. Having said they I have a Skoda on order!

A work colleague has just got rid of a 2014 S3 at a substantial loss due to reliability problems. Failed injectors damaging both lamda sensors. 1.2k to put right. 2 months out of warranty. Car nearly caught fire because the Audi garage didn’t put a clip back on the fuel rail and car starts spraying petrol over hot engine. Last straw was the 4wD failing to engage when the snow came last month. Oh how we laughed as we pushed him up the very slight incline up to work. It’s not 4yrs old yet!

Traded in for a Mercedes A250 AMG.

Ps on his fathers VW Up they had to take the head off to safely change the plugs! That was an expensive service!

Most reliable car I’ve ever had was a Ford Focus  .

Last straw was the 4wD failing to engage when the snow came last month. Oh how we laughed as we pushed him up the very slight incline up to work.

Didn't engage or matey thought 4wd means the rules of friction and gravity no longer apply ?

I had 306 D Turbo was a great car. Then I had 308 HDi which was a steamy pile of shite.

Hoprfully you have better luck.

I have a renault scenic, 2010, with the 1.5 dci grenade engine.

got 87k miles on the clock, its broken down once not long after i got it, the electric handbrake seized, probably because the car had sat around for a couple of months before i bought it at 50k.

replaced under warranty.

its long outside the warranty now, and recently the pax side front window has stopped working, it’s getting done in a couple of weeks when it goes in for pre mot.

battery recently died, on an 8yo car, replaced.

i will be honest, I don’t like it, but its a decent enough comfy car. The stereo has to be heard to be believed, its frickin awesome.

I wouldn’t buy another, i’m going back to Subaru next time.

but unreliable? Not really.

Having had a Renault 5 Gordini, two 18’s, a 19, a 25, a Scenic and, currently, a Grand Scenic and also a Peugeot 205 and a 405 over the last twenty something years I can confirm that all of these fabled electrical faults must only happen to Citroens because I’ve never had one.

This explains a great deal about your sense of humour

My first car was a 306 td in diablo red. Electrics were spot on but suspension was fubard but that was because I was doing my first house up at the time and it got abused.

Had an alfa romeo 156 which was superb and faultless.

Since then I've had vw's which have had electric problems but has been easy cheap fixes.

Just waiting on delivery of a 2013 Renault and wondering if I've made a mistake?

It'll be fine.

I have both a Skoda (our 4th), a Fabia, and a Peugeot 208 GTI. Our Skodas have broken down as much as our Peugeot (once each) but the Peugeot was the cheapest and easiest fix.

The build quality of the Peugeot us a bit crap compared to the Skodas, and things like the indicator stalks aren't nice. A lot of things on the Skodas, like operating the cruise control and speed limiter are much more intuitive. It's like the French haven't tried that hard. But then the Skodas aren't that much fun to steer, it's like the Germans have tried that hard. The 208 is much better to drive than our old Fabia VRS. The VRS pre 2013 was notoriously unreliable too, while the 208 GTI engine is famously dependable .

Both are good, but in different ways.

[b]molgrips[/b] wrote:

Post back when it develops an electrical fault.

Lots of other things failed on the 406 I had for 13 years (pretty much all just standard wear and tear stuff), but I never had one of those.

Remind us again about the electronics on your German car?

I do love how most people above list the French cars that they’ve had great reliability from but are pre 2000 for the most part. Post that, French card struggled for market share in the UK, in part due to reliably, build quality and lack of innovation. Peugeot and Citroen upped their game, before Hyundai and Kia stole more share, but Renault would have struggled more if it wasn’t for the Clio, Commercial and Dacia/Nissan.

I’m sure you’ll be fine with the newer one’s OP.

Well, I wish you better luck than we've had with our modern-ish French cars.

My Wife bought a 59 plate 308 1.6 petrol which turned out to be a turd of a car. It was 14 months old when she bought it and she sold it within 18 months because she had no faith it would get her where she needed to go.

The cat collapsed in the exhaust system (which thankfully was covered by Peugeot) and it would kangaroo down the road when cold; funnily enough the same 'feature' that our current Citroen C3 Picasso also possesses, with I believe the same engine.

Aside from the reliability aspect, the design was lazy (large-ish car with a glove box you would struggle to get a pair of gloves in), wipers still set-up for LHD, stupid ratcheting seat back adjustment that was either too upright or laid back.

Good points were it has large aspect ratio tyres so soaked up bumps well, the boot was a decent size and the headlights were very good.

My sister currently has a 308 CC and every time I speak to her there is another tale of car woe. The last one was the electric windows randomly dropping down and refusing to come back up again.

Our 59 C3 Picasso conked out on the way home from the  dealer (Richard Sanders in Northampton - avoid like the plague, if I was you). Took them 3 attempts to diagnose that it was a faulty fuel level sensor, so even though display 2 bars of fuel left the tank was actually empty.

The fuse blew to the power sockets (cigarette lighter) even though we hadn't used it for ages.

The passenger door lock failed meaning every time you shut the passenger door with the ignition off it would completely lock the car, fold the mirrors and set the alarm.

Our car has auto wipers, but to fit that feature in Citroen decided to get rid of the one-swipe function on the wipers. And the auto wipers seem to only have two modes - barely wipe or wipe with utmost fury.

During hot weather it displays an anti-pollution fault, that goes away once the temp drops a few degrees.

It uses about 0.5l of oil every 700 miles.

Apart from that....there interior space is great for a car of its size, headlights are again good, the boot is great and the seating folds completely flat in about 20 seconds which I love.

It must be luck of the draw because a bloke at work has always had Citroen's and swears by them.<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">  My in-laws had the original Xsara Picasso and did many miles in that with no real oroblems.</span>

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">And touch wood, aside from drinking oil and the anti pollution warning light in warm weather we haven't had any specific issues for about 12 months now.</span>

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">But suffice to say, I won't be risking another French car.</span>

trail_rat
Remind me again about your Passat molgrips

More to do with it being flipping ancient that French/German, no?

Had an 03 Berlingo - trouble free for the 2.5 years I had it on the road - turns out rolling it down a hill sideways stops it working. Now in a 14 Partner Tepee and it has also been very reliable.

Bought the partner second hand ex-mobility, very low mileage diesel (very short trips), so engine needed a clean - a standard fault with today's diesel engine, not a fault of the brand.

They are good cars, no better or worse than any other country...there is less badge snobbery though so less issues all round - if something isn't quite right there tends to be very little song and dance about it unlike with German brands...slightest issue and it is like the world has ended...

I have a 2011 peugeot 5008 - planet-raping 2L diesel.

I've been waiting 7 years for the catastrophic electrical failure.

(there is a bit of a squeak from the central binnacle-thingy though - and if anyone knows how to turn off the "chilled" storage I'd love to know)

[img] [/img]

we got bored of it all grey taxi look and the cheap insurance that driving what is basically a no frills appliance brings so modified it to differentiate it.

[b]angeldust[/b] wrote:

More to do with it being flipping ancient that French/German, no?

About the same age as my 406 IIRC which didn't have any of those problems. There is something wonderfully ironic about molgrips commenting on cars he doesn't own having electrical problems!

the touchscreen is going to take some getting used to.

I'm not sure its worth spending much time doing that 🙂

I had a peugeot 307 from almost new on a 54 plate. Never any electrical faults at all

Mine must have had your share.  I had a 51 plate xsi which was great fun to drive but it had random electrical and sensor faults till the day I sold it.

if anyone knows how to turn off the “chilled” storage I’d love to know)

My Peugeot had a wheel type open/closing thing in the glovebox for the chilled glovebox, when I say chilled, that would have happened only if the air con was working, which it wasn't. Although the glove box handle fell off anyway.

Hiya,

My two pennies. succession of Skodas:

1. Octavia 2006 - failed dual mass fly wheel started to fail traded in before anyone would notice.

2. Yeti - Kept cutting out injector failed was due for replacement so gave it back rather than paying the £400 replacement fee.

3. Yeti - Actually no problems at all,but i finished the job so handed it back

Now a Renault MK3 camper van no issues at all dealer much better than Skoda, shock horror.

Incidentally Wife's Renault Twingo infinitely more reliable than the Honda jazz it replaced which had the following fault in 50K of motring

1. Failed MOT three years old due to heavy corrosion on wheels. Honda replaced for Free.

2. Sump guard seal failed replaced under warranty

2. Boot leaked changed seals and sunroof drains, but discovered the panel fit sealant had failed and was leaking everywhere.

3. Gearbox failed at 50K apparently common

The Honda was the most unreliable car we ever had...It was actually scrapped in the end because the costs of fixing it all was too much...The seal problem was going to be £1400 to replace and the gearbox would be £1200. So traded in before it decided it was enough...

One other important note Renault warranties it's cars for four years VW only three 😉

JeZ

Had 3, 307SW's years ago when the kids where little. Great cars, did intergalactic miles in them including travelling around France every year as well as skiing etc. Of the 3 1 has a gearbox issue which cost me about £1k to fix. When I sold my 3rd one it had over 150k on the clock and the guy who bought it couldn't believe everything worked perfectly (including freezing air con)

My advice with any car is Just hit every service early.

I have a Peugeot van, nearly a year old now.

The ride and interior are indeed very, very good.  The engine is too.

The touchscreen?  It doesn't so much take getting used to, as getting used to how much you will swear at it.

Hateful thing, even when it is working.  When it decides to stop working then it's really very upsetting indeed.

I'm fairly sure the frogs got hold of a job lot of old BBC computer processors to put in it.

There is something wonderfully ironic about molgrips commenting on cars he doesn’t own having electrical problems!

Might be if there weren't loads of other posters agreeing with me...

I've hired and driven other people's French cars that weren't old and weren't displaying electrical faults at the time - still wouldn't buy one even without.  In 2000 drove a Citroen Saxo with the pedals too close together and not lined up with the seat and steering wheel.  about 15 years later hired a Citroen and it had the same thing!  They designed it like that!  Also put the heating controls by my right knee.  So not only could I not see them to operate them whilst driving, but the passenger couldn't either!  For ****'s sake!

I did have a hire Clio in Ireland about 4 years ago, that was really nice.  Amazingly comfortable for a cheap small car, really smooth ride, and the 3cyl engine was so ridiculously underpowered it actually became entertaining.  You had to absolutely rag the nuts off it to get it to go anywhere - proper red lining and fast shifting - all whist trying to get to 60mph to safely merge onto a motorway.  Great fun! A bit like riding your bike around as a kid making neeeer neeeeer motorbike noises.

There are good French cars and shit French cars. Surprise.

My C8 banger just sailed through its MOT with less issues than the good Mondeo had last month (clean sheet actually)

Pedals are offset for impact protection stuff...they go to the side so your legs have a tiny bit more space in a collision...apparently.

DickBarton
Member
Pedals are offset for impact protection stuff…they go to the side so your legs have a tiny bit more space in a collision…apparently.

Yeah, right! Sounds like an excuse for not being able to optimise the position when they converted from left hand, to right hand drive (or just poor design in the first place). Not the only car to suffer from that by a long way. Recent cars RHD conversion cars with better reputations for engineering and quality (A4, Tiguan) have suffered the same. It's more noticeable if you have big feet, and drive a manual.

Nice to see Molgrips being called out for being a dick though. 🙂

I've had 2 x Renault Meganes. 1 on a 12 plate the other on a 15. Both excellent cars although the improvements on the latter over the former were very noticeable.

Currently scutching round in a Citroen C3 which I am liking a lot to be honest.

Also recently been over in Aus where I had use of my B-i-L's Peugeot 3008 which is a fantastic motor.

French cars? Love 'em.

VW on the other hand...

I was coming round to the idea that all modern cars were decent so shouldn't rule out French ones due to past reputation (Also see Skoda). My pal had a base spec 208 and liked it very much, so much so he changed it for a high spec 308.

Huge mistake as it's had problem after problem the biggest of which required a rear axle change that the garage lied about having done on it's first visit to get replaced. He's sick of the car and sick of the dealers so will never buy another.

Good enough for me to ignore the French brands for a while longer. Why take the chance when there's so much choice? It's not like any of them do anything class leading.

Have not seen anyone else doing berlingo alikes .

Anyway I'm deducing my tpms on the new car isn't working - put my winter wheels on which i know have no sensors in and still the car is not registering a fault 😀

Probably is broke it would be the very french thing to do.

im chalking it up as a win in my book.

if you cant tell a car(that doesnt have run flats) has a flat tire then you should probably hand your license in.

Ford, Fiat, Mercedes, Vauxhall?

doblos smaller(but does have more petrol engine options) , mercedes is a renault , vauxhall and ford are still vans with seats and windows and drive as such lacking curtain airbags and other such frivolities for your passengers.... - unless in fords case you opt for the minibus tourneo version at nearly double the cost of the blingo/peugeot.

In mine it bings at you when you have a slow leak, which is a good warning to go at put some air in/get it fixed/fit a motorbike valve cap to a valve that a tyre shop numpty has mullered.