Anyone run an old Citroen Xsara Picasso?

Seen an 04 plate one at a local garage.

Looks very tidy – FSH, recent cambelt and clutch change – but its got 110k on the clock.

Is 110k on a 1.6 petrol getting towards the end of its life?

Thanks!

It’s a French car so it is at the end of its life the day it rolled out the factory.

I’d avoid it personally but only knew a garage owner who used to tell me entertaining stories about French cars.

Oh, and a mate who had Duty /Standby Renaults, both identical, both shit in totally different ways but commonly, electrical nightmares.

Ours is a 2001 1.6 115k its been a great car but its falling to bits now. Engines still good but rest of car is worn out.

Is it the the 8v or 16v? Both can do well above that mileage but would need a proper checking over.
Head gasket
Gearbox noises
Rear arm bearings ( rare fault but expensive )
Picasso isn’t a bad car at all there were in production for so long ( W plate was the first year ) that most common issues where sorted a long time ago!!!

Looked at these a few years back when buying a car for the missus, went for a 1.8 Almera Tino in the end, far, far better car for the money IMO. We paid £3.3k for an 05 with half leather, climate, reversing camera etc and 30k on the clock 3 years ago so cheap as chips too.

I had one as a company car briefly a few years ago.

TBH, it wasn’t as bad as one might imagine. The only real criticism I can level at it offhand was that they’d filled the suspension with custard. It leaned really quite a startling amount when going round corners.

10 yrs old and 110k miles- it’s just reaching the point at which it will become a money pit. Clutch, alternator, starter motor, wheel bearings. Suspension bushes will all be on their last legs.
Picasso’s aren’t bad cars, but they aren’t particularly good either. Built with typical french care and attention to detail the trim and electrics will be beginning to fall apart as well.
As mentioned above, an Almera Tino is better in almost every respect and will be far more reliable.

Mine is a 02 HDI with 125k. I’ve owned it for 3 years and driven around 40k in it. It’s been generally very reliable. It’s had a clutch and some welding for the last MOT (check the sills carefully). It’s bland and tatty but practical, comfy and inoffensive. I’d have another. It is my 30th citroen though,some maybe I am more tolerant of their faults!

Its so wide- I attempted to put my Thule aero bars ontop- they don’t reach across 8) because its quite a wide car its also quite stable into bends/corners when you lean on the inside front wheel. Its also alot more comfier on long distances than say a Berlingo of similar vintage.

Its an ugly car, slightly quirky though which does help/rescue this part.

TBH OP there are soo many Xsara Picasso’s out there that you can chose one thats on less miles IMO easily for the same money and/or newer.

Mines on 67k – I’m going to keep it until I’ve spent money on a new bathroom and sorted out my fireplace and flooring. It’ll come in handy again for the many trips to the tip. When thats done I’ll get rid and buy a money pit to consume my money again.

On the ‘getting tired’ – surely all you need to do is refresh alround on the suspension droplink/bushes.

All cars feel tired with mileage and a refresh on bushes etc works wonders to make a car feel ‘toight’ again? True?

We had one a few years ago, I hated it more than any other car we have ever had.
Everything about it was terrible.
Plenty of space, thats it.
I still have nightmares that I still own it which I wake up screaming from. 😆

an Almera Tino is better in almost every respect

Almost? What’s the Tino’s Achilles heel please? (considering getting one)

It has something to do with Renault..

We have a 05 plate 1.6 8v 40k which I bought last year as a school run car

They are basically white goods – i.e driving it is like operating a dishwasher, you switch it on it does its cycle and then it switches off.

Seems reliable (touch wood) but they are so underpowered that with four adults and luggage they struggle to keep up with traffic on motorway inclines

Build quality isn’t that day to day but they don’t seem very strong i.e loaded up with a couple of bikes and a canoe the suspension looks like it might collapse!

There are literally hundreds for sale and some with very low mileage (like mine 05 bought for 2k with 33k last August) so I wouldn’t bother with anything over 100k unless it was free

Not sure on the stats but the later 1.6 is 16v as opposed to 8v and the latter is 110bhp which isn’t too bad power-wise.

yeah, the 8v is 95bhp and seems to have some limiter on it – just has no go
but then its mostly driven in a 40 zone so i don’t really care

…its also quite stable into bends/corners when you lean on the inside front wheel.

Now that I’d like to see! 🙂

I take some of my earlier post back….
I just had a look on autotrader and you can pick them up for sweeties, as a reasonably big car shaped thing to chuck bikes/surfing/camping stuff in the back I think they would be great. There is one on there for less than £400, my last bike service wasnt much less than that!

You can fit a double inflated mattress in mine. The rear 3 seats come out to make a flat space. I like the digital dash and the dash located gearstick position.

Personally a few design line changes and it’d be a gem.

Fast fwd I can keep this and buy a Honda S2000 or buy a Saab 2.3T aero 9-5 estate.

Don’t get the 9-5 aero estate – too much power for the chassis and the front wheels to handle. The 9.3 aero is a peach though and doesn’t break down so much

We had one a few years ago, I hated it more than any other car we have ever had.
Everything about it was terrible.
Plenty of space, thats it.
I still have nightmares that I still own it which I wake up screaming from.

What aspects? I know everyones different but I’ve driven just about everything and I actually like the XP. True its ugly but for the money .v. practicality and long journey comfort its hard to fault at all. It also doesn’t steer or wallow badly like alot of its contemporary competitors.

Heres my lunchtime shopping trip

One of the worst cars I’ve ever driven, really, I didn’t like it

Most annoyingly the steering wheel, seat and pedals aren’t in a line. I can cope with this if the car is fun, the Xsara Picasso I drove (basic HDI) was awful

Very cheap to run though!

I saw that on a STW post a year or so ago. I must have offset legs- it seems ok in that respect to me!

Saying that I once drove an Aygo to Germany and back and Aygo seats have no support at all and I felt comfortable…

Only driven a Picasso once, was a TD and did ok up the motorway but the one thing that stuck in my mind was the seats. They are incredibly narrow, found them quite uncomfortable after a short while.

Done quite a few long (>5 hour) journeys in a mate’s Picasso, never been a problem – two bikes in the back with the front wheels off, luggage, etc. Not the most exciting of cars I’ll grant you, but then you knew that already…

edlong – we’ve just taken the almera tino to Germany and are going again on Thursday (annoyingly my new company car is turning up next week). The only things I can say against it are that the driver’s seat isn’t height adjustable, at 6’4″ I’m close to the limit. Still comfy though. Also it could do with a 6th gear and cruise control for the motorway but not major issues for a cheap car that spends most of it’s life on the school run. When I was driving it I kept between 70 and 80 and was getting 39mpg (trip computer, not calculated), wife was doing 85ish and it dropped to 35, still not bad for a 1.8 petrol. Plenty of poke too. Oh, stereo/climate/computer controls aren’t exactly intuitive.
Handles well in corners for what it is, way better than a Picasso, don’t know what hora is on about, as usual. When I sat in a Picasso of the same age I felt instantly depressed that we might end up owning one. Was delighted when I found out about the Nissan and still am.

Heres my lunchtime shopping trip

Doing some brewing by any chance? (or is your tap water just minging!)

davosaurusrex everyones different, I’ve not driven a Nissan that I’ve actually liked.

Yes- Manchester tap water has far too chlorine in it.

hora – glad you like yours, I’m only commenting on the fact you think they handle well, the one I drove was awful. Suspension could have been completely shagged mind.
On the subject of tap water I was looking at the old log books for the supply works nearest to my house a few weeks back (industry subcontractor), in the early 90s the water was leaving the works with chlorine residual of 0.2mg/l, now it’s 0.7, no wonder it tastes rubbish!

On suspension- its one of those cars that when it starts getting tired people dont throw any money at them at all.

On the chlorine- why have they hiked it? Is it a cheaper way to process/clean the water??! Its hideous. When I’m over in Huddersfield the stuff tastes like nectar compared.

On the cornering bit…. this morning I drove a LHD 1971 camper van to the specialist for a MOT/work on and I cornered as I normally would…..jeeeeeeesus it scared me abit! 😆

I’ve just read what I posted, its probably a bit harsh

Its a dull grey, bland, vanilla car. It fulfils its purpose without any fun or character. But its a cheap car and it does the job of being a car fine I suppose!

We have my father in laws one every year for 2 months while he is abroad. My wife said “it doesn’t actually feel like the steering wheel is attached to the wheels” when talking about the handling.
I never dare calculate the MPG as the fuel guage drops alarmingly when you use it round town (and I am used to 1.6 petrol cars).
I fixed something on it and the build quality is on the scary side of terrible.
They look hideous.
They smell a bit odd.

Positives:
They must be great for kids as you can walk, yes walk, into the back seats and out the other side like you are getting on a bus.
The front seats are nice and comfy for long motorway drives.
The dash is bonkers.
You can see over hedges easily.

Saying all that – you have my permission to come and shoot me if I even consider buying one. So many better cars out there.

Robdob get your FiL’s suspension/steering rack looked at. That doesn’t sound right. BTW- that camper ^ just failed its MOT and is going to cost c1k to put through….my XP didn’t cost much more than that 😯

Chlorine – not 100% sure. Think a lot of it is fear of litigation so as long as they are under the “safe” dosage and don’t get too many taste and odour complaints they err on the side of caution. will ask a process scientist next time I see one.
Super chlorinating the water and passing it through a contact tank before dechlorinating with sulphur dioxide to leave a residual chlorine dose to keep it sweet in the reservoirs and pipes is the most common way to do it. Increasingly moving to UV treatment now though – cheaper, takes up less room, less canisters of gas transported around the place and also kills cryptosporidium and other stuff super chlorinating doesn’t. All good as long as the lamps containing mercury don’t get broken……good thread drift this. What were we talking about? Oh yeah, Citroen Picassos – rubbish.

Yes but the Pic may allow me to buy a two seater again…

Hora – we took it through a full service and MOT while we had it and there are no issues. They are just vague wallowy sofa like City barge for shuttling kids around.

Sure you dont mean the C4 Pic with the electric steering?

Mines firm/old school.

Fair enough if it’s a means to an end but I still think you can do better for the money

A Lexus GS300? 🙂