Come about March we’ll be looking for a new car. I’m trying to steer the other half away from SUVs and into something more practical. The C4 Gramd Picasso looks to tick the boxes. Big interior, lots of glass to give the kids good visibility, small-ish economical engines and good value. However, I never thought I’d be looking at buying a french car with my own money.

What are the thoughts on one of these then? For what it’s worth we’d be looking at a 2-3 years old example and would be doing about 6-7k a year in it, max. I’ve looked at other vehicles, other mpvs, estates, even SUVs but this seems to tick the most boxes.

Team-fazzini had a 2008 C4 Grand Picasso a few years back. I was very dubious of the 1.6 hdi engine but it was very good. Not the smoothest, but enough power for what we needed. We had the VTR+ model.
Originally bought as the 3 proper rear seats were a must at the time, it was cavernous inside, very comfortable, economic, and had all of the necessary ‘period’ toys. The boot as enormous – more than enough space for camping gear for 4, along with roofbox, and travel cot, pushchair etc. Presuming the newer models are better still?

Had a straight Picasso with the deeply unfashionable but really quite good 2l petrol in it. Superbly versatile and made shifting family around easy however I had the air rear suspension which inevitably failed. So inevitably that if I had had one with FSH it was a free recall and repair by Citroen. It was a huge bill otherwise so it had to go. So, if you do get one either make sure it has had the repair done or does not have the air suspension.

My mum had two straight C4’s both with the 1.6HDI lump in it. First was bombproof to well over 100k miles. The second Mrs D inherited and it was a world of problems. Undiagnosable random electrical faults which Citroen kindly charged us just to update the firmware on the ECU before they would even consider looking at it.

With this in mind I personally wouldn’t have another Citroen of any type however I am sure there are more happy owners out there than unhappy.

Had a couple of Picassos, they were good. One i took from 100,000 to 180,000 miles without anything other than consumables.

Thought it was OK to drive when I had a diesel one as a hire car. About 60mpg up the M1 into a stonking headwind. Comfortable place to sit.

Infotainment / driver displays were simply terrible – almost unbearably slow. Suggest you have a play to see how you get on. Also, the steering wheel controls are many and labelled in black on a black background, if Citroen even bothered to label them at all.

Had an original Piccaso 1.6 diesel 110bhp from new which gave the family 10+ years and ~170k miles of largely trouble free motoring, the only big expense being a replacement clutch and dual mass flywheel at ~80k but it had done a lot of those on the M25 during rush<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”> hour traffic.</span>

Replaced it with a pre-reg/new C4GP 2.0 diesel 150bhp (no air suspension) which has been great for the last 8 years.  The ride is a bit crashy in the C4GP compared to the original pic but it is bigger, faster, has 7 seats and a glass roof.

Both cars have been great family cars, cheap to run, takes 2 week’s worth of holiday packing and 5 bikes on the towbar/roof.

Would happily buy another Citroen.

I’ve got a non-grand 2016 Picasso … 1.6 blue hdi ..has it 2.5 years now and it’s been great. We already have a 7 seater car so we didn’t look at the Grand but we did want 3 individual (isofix) rear seats , space for dogs in the boot etc.
Much like you I never thought I’d buy a french car but now I have two because we just got a Peugeot 5008 (which incidentally is bloody lovely)

The MIL had a few Citroen’s and I really took to them hence we ended up looking at the Picasso. As long as you ain’t buying new they’re good value. It’s basically what we needed – practical, cheap to run .. that’s not to say I don’t like it. It’s kind of quirky (ugly some will say!) but we like it.
£0 tax, 55 mpg … just needs adblue every 10k or so but otherwise it’s been pretty faultless.

I currently have a 2015 grand C4 Picasso with the 1.6 diesel engine. We’ve had it about 18 months and do about 5k a year. I’m completely sold on it and think it’s bloody brilliant. My previous car ownership as been Golf, A3 then A4 Avant. Build quality doesn’t feel as solid but I’ve not found anything to really complain about and all that is out wieghed by how practical it is and how much the kids love it.

My girls were 5 and 2 when we bought it and we were looking for something we could also fit my MiL in when we all went away together. The three individual rear seats are brilliant for that, especially if your kids are still in car seats. At 6’1″ I can fit in the middle seat no problems.

Rear two seats and rarely used and are quite small but we’ve done the odd short journey 6 up and my wife, 5’3 can fit in them no probs.

We’ve got the ‘exclusive’ trim level, that gives the panoramic roof, better seats and the family pack. The family pack is ace for the kids (little tables in the back of the front seats, pull up window blinds etc.)

Only downsides for us are the lack of android auto but if you’re buying slightly newer you might be in luck.

Cost wise, it’s only been a service and consumerables since we bought it. Whislt we don’t do many miles, it gets a long journey (200 miles ish) every 6 weeks or so (or it used to!) and I think that helps keep it clear

In case you can’t tell I think it’s ace!

Thanks for the replies. We are hoping to go and look at one as a family as a tyre kicking exercise, hoping they’ll let us put our kiddie seats in etc, but I’m pretty sold on them. Just need to convince the other half. Hopefully the driving position will be high enough to convince her that she doesnt need an SUV… I think if we went for one (17-18 plate so possibly crossing into Space Tourer territory?) with a panoramic roof that would be enough to sway the kids (nearly 5 and 2 and and a half respectively when the time comes to change). My dad had three of these over a ten year period through Motability and loved them all and had no issues but then he did very few miles so it’s good to get other real world experiences, thanks.

We had three, one after the other, all 2.0 ltr auto exclusives. Never had a problem with them. Loads of room in the back and 4 bikes on the towbar rack to the Alps on a regular basis. Did about 20,000 miles a year.
Only got shut of the last one as got a too good to miss deal on a Tourneo Custom a couple of years ago.

To add, we test drove the 2ltr diesel with the auto box and that was nice, the 1.6 engine is alright but the auto that you get with a 1.6 isn’t a proper auto (can’t remember the name of it) and that’s apparently not great. We’ve got a manual mainly because that’s what came up when we were looking, the 2.0ltr are quite rare and seem to demand a significant price difference.

My kids were the pretty much the same age as yours when we got ours, the eldest loved all the nice little touches in the back. The youngest is still in a rear facing seat so it’s all kind of the same for her at the moment.

Also, it feels massive when your inside but I checked the dimensions and it’s pretty much bang on the same size as our A4 Avant was. The turning circle was really good and it has a short front end so parking is pretty easy (even if the reversing camera quality leaves a bit to be desired)

Had a c4 gp a few years ago, now looking to replace my civic type s with another gp. Had the egs gearbox but wouldn’t recommend it, not the best in use and can be fault prone = big bills. I’m looking at a manual for now.

The fold flat rear seats are brilliant and make it really versatile. Had the 2l 16v diesel and it was a cracking engine.

Driven lots for work, armchair comfort while driving, about the only flaw is that the dash info is set in the centre, rather than directly in front of the driver, which is a bit cockeyed as far as I’m concerned, I like relevant driving info, like speed, etc, to be right in front of me.
An alternative might be the Zafira, got a decent turn of speed, decent seats, the auto ‘box is what I’d go for, the clutch return spring is very strong, needs a lot of pressure on the pedal, which gets very tiring in slow, stop/start traffic.

I owned a 2014 1.6 diesel Picasso for 3 years as a lease car. Overall very happy with it. Plenty powerful enough for family holidays to France with four on board plus roof box and bike on rack. Comfortable car to spend lots of time in. No notable problems during the three years.
My only gripe with both the regular and the grand Picasso is the restrictive roof bar fix points. For a car encouraging family outdoor activities, having roof bars so close together on roof is not great, particularly as I added an 18.5ft sea kayak to my fleet. Cars owned since have rails so bars can be spaced further apart for greater stability without resorting to V bars. Not a problem if you don’t intend to carry long items on the roof.

Just bought a 3 yr old GP to replace a Alhambra. A step down in size, smaller boot and tighter fit rear seats with 3 car seats/boosters in place. Rear 2 seats are kids only and no sliding rear doors. Lower quality too.

Positives are a nice drive, the 120hp diesel is plenty, very comfy driving position, great mpg (10mpg more than the SEAT), and nice tight turning circle. Plenty of kit.

With reference to comments on the auto ‘box, the recent Grand C4 SpaceTourer’s (not called Picasso anymore) have the EAT8 8 speed auto which is a proper automatic with imperceptible gearchanges, unlike the earlier 6 speed semi-auto which was just an automated manual.

The egs was fine once moving, it was always a bit hit and miss when pulling away. The wandering bite point and will it/wont it made busy islands interesting. Had the same gearbox in the Nemo, it was no better. That citroen dropped it in favour of a proper auto speaks volumes.

We had proper roof rails and could fit four bikes on. The xsara picasso had fixed mounting points that were very close to each other.

Our grand picasso has roof rails as part of the trim level but the points at which you attached the bars are fixed. There is a small slot on the inside into which one if the attachments tightens which means you can only have the bars are certain points. You can probably get different bars that don’t use these slots but we’ve not had problems carrying bikes on ours as they are (except lifting the wife’s heavy traditional bike above head height!)

Thanks for all the replies and advice. I think I may be fighting a losing battle with this one and we’ll end up in something smaller and less useable, not to mention more expensive.

My idle c4 gp browsing is slowly creeping toward Berlin go territory. Any use to you?

Looked at one of these as it ticked all our boxes too. Bought an S-Max instead!

My brother (who has 4 kids) really likes his and from what I’ve seen it looks a nice interior. It was pricey though (even a couple of years old second hand) but I think that’s mostly as he wanted a petrol auto and they’re like rocking horse shit