Does anyone have any real world experience of owning a Grand C4 Picasso.
We currently have an A4 estate bit could do with the option of carrying am additional adult at times and the two child seats in the back currently make it impossible.

We test drove a 2014 Citroen at the weekend and I was pleasantly surprised, it was the 2.0l diesel with a full auto box.

Since then I’ve been looking for some real world reviews. Honest John had one as a long term test and overall they liked it but said it suffered from some weird electrical problems. I assumed French cars had moved away from this stereotype… Apart from that I’ve not found any info.

So, does anyone here have one and what do they think? Was do you like and dislike and would you buy one again?

We have had three, all the 2.0l Diesel full autos, and couldn’t fault them. Had them all from new and swapped every four years, approx 80,000 on each of them.

Changed the last one last year only because we got a black Friday deal on a Tourneo Custom which was a steal or we would have still had it now.

Thanks, that’s good to hear. I like the ride and coming from the Audi found it very relaxing and despite technically being marginally small than the A4 felt absolutely massive inside. The seat in the boot might some in hand at some point but the three individual “middle seats” were a real stand out for me

Had an older one, I will never buy a Citroen again in my life. When I tried to trade it in they said keep it we’ll give you the money off anyway. Currently languishing in my drive because the battery went flat and I now can’t open the doors. Initially did like it but I think any people carrier would have been the same.

Friends had one for 3 years, then a Pug 5008 with no issues and we’re coming the end of 6 years in Pug 5008* (2 cars in that time). No electrical issues over all 4 cars. **

The middle row seats also have the advantage of all having isofix and can be slid fore/aft to arrange combinations of adults/kid seats. We’ve had 3 car seats in the Pug middle row. When I’ve sat in the back with 2 kids seats, moving my seat forward helped give extra shoulder room between the kids.

We would have replaced the 5008 with another or a C4 but our son’s just got a wheelchair & walking frame much bigger than the last so we’ve had to go for increased lugging capacity in an Alhambra and sliding rear doors to make it easier for him to get in and out.

* Didn’t see much difference between our friend’s C4 and our Pug and as the electrics etc are shared so thought I’d chip in.

** caveat being I’ve just handed back a 308SW- the touch screen did have a weird quirk in that occasionally when starting the displayed screen was different to what it was when last used. For example have it displaying the radio- 90% of the time that shows next time the car starts. For the other times it would be on sat nav/car settings/phone. I was the only driver so it’s not that someone else was altering the settings.

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You will look hard as nails driving it like Ronnie Pikering

Thanks for the link ajaj. We’re basically I’m a similar position. Drove it and liked it but do worry about reliability. Our Audi has not been great and is still costing is money but overall just had a solid feel to it. All in all it seems a bit mixed

I have a 2010 grand picasso thats not been serviced in 4 years and its never missed a beat. Anything that has broken has been fixed with nothing more than a screw driver (bulbs and tailgate handle). Its a 1.6d manual and i would happily get one again, its so versatile and its spacious enough that it can be measured in acres! I dont really mind what it drives like as its just for carry kids,bikes and shopping.

2012 with 105k it’s huge has been very reliable but some electrical gremlins starting to show shut front door all will lock if you leave keys in would need to send for spare 🤭or use hammer plastics don’t stand much abuse boot seats only good for kids and look vulnerable to any impact at rear wouldn’t get another had 2 Renaults rear seats lift out fully giving prob as much space as the grand
Guess it’s pot luck anyway if you get a crock or not good luck there is a c4forum!

Might be completely different, but we’ve got a C3 Picasso and won’t be going near Citroen again.

I want to like it as it does everything we need it to for a small family and is practical, but it’s not been very reliable (mechanical and electrical), drinks a lot of oil (it’s the 1.6 120 vti petrol) and has some annoying functional quirks….

I was sceptical about getting it based on tales of French car unreliability, but was swayed by several Citroen owners singing their praises. We must have got a lemon….

The C3 is French (Poissy) but the C4 Picasso is Spanish (Vigo).

Currently languishing in my drive because the battery went flat and I now can’t open the doors.

Could be worse, we have a Merc A-Series cluttering up our arrivals area, it came in just over a week ago, the battery went flat and now we can’t move the car! It’s stuck in gear, (auto-box), so we can’t start it, because obviously it has to be in neutral.
Modern cars are getting too complicated for their own bloody good!
🤬

Cabin size is it bigger or smaller than a berlingo?

I will never buy a Citroen again in my life. When I tried to trade it in they said keep it we’ll give you the money off anyway.

Sounds great.

stumpy01

Member
Might be completely different, but we’ve got a C3 Picasso and won’t be going near Citroen again.

And now the windscreen washer motor appears to have packed up….

I wasn’t gonna post a list of faults, because I’m not sure I can remember them all, but after this latest failure…..

Bearing in mind this is a car that we bought with 30k miles on it

– Fuel level sender in the tank was faulty causing the car to report fuel in the tank when there was none. Fuel ran out on the way back from picking it up from the dealer just as I joined the A14 (joy of joys) and it took 3 attempts to rectify, leaving us stranded twice & I had to end up doing my own fault diagnosis (thanks Richard Sanders, Northampton).
– 12v power socket in the front stopped working
– passenger door lock failed & needed replacing.
– rear exhaust bracket completely rusted through and needed replacing
– random ’emission fault’ that appears in hot weather & goes when it cools down again. Traced to a faulty sensor, but we won’t really know if that’s cured it until we have a few weeks of hotter weather.
– high oil consumption, which apparently is completely normal – have to stick about a litre in every 750 miles. Oh, and a dipstick that is impossible to actually read the level on.
– recently failed emissions at MOT – perhaps because related to above random emissions fault and/or high oil consumption
– and now the washer has stopped working – hopefully just a fuse?
– oh, and it’s booked in next Wednesday for some new exhaust bits, because a ‘blowing exhaust’ was highlighted at the MOT.

Reluctantly bought an older one a few years back (’07 plate, 50 k on the clock). Ran it in to the ground. It did 80 k miles and total cost including servicing (excluding fuel and insurance) was less than 10 p a mile.

It wasn’t without it’s issues. Definite electrical gremlins, but nothing “major”. Occasionally the windows would struggle to go up/down. The mileage display etc would often go on the blink. It eventually died due to leak in air suspension that wasn’t worth fixing.

Bang (space) for buck if you need/want three isofixes across the back and the option of 7-seats, they’re hard to beat.

We upgraded to an ’18 plate. Bought without driving and was genuinely surprised by how much nicer it felt than the old beater. The new semi-auto box is a massive improvement.

I had one has a hire car a few years back when my flight home was cancelled due to high winds. I wrote a short review for another forum:

—————————————————————————————

Too long, didn’t read summary:
“It’s very Citroen.”

The bit you’ll need when you hire one and just want to go:
“The parking brake release is next to the hazard lights button. See previous statement.”

After my flight home was cancelled today (seems no one was brave enough to fly into Leeds this morning) I pulled my usual trick of booking the cheapest, nastiest car I could find on the Avis website for a one-way trip and headed over to their office to pick it up.

Usefully – and inevitably – they didn’t have any in stock that they were willing to abandon 200 miles away so I was handed the keys to a brand new Citroen Grand Picasso instead. Diesel engine of some description. No idea what but it made noise and went quite quickly if you put your foot down.

So, the good bits:

* The engine is surprisingly pokey considering the weight of the car.
* The seats adjust easily.
* The turning circle is AWESOME.
* Visibility all round is excellent.
* The sat nav works well.

No instrument binnacle on this thing. Instead, you get a TV screen the size of which would embarrass most cinemas. Three themes, all of which are pretty ugly but clear enough to work.

That’s where the good bits end. Everything else is controlled through a smaller touchscreen in the centre console which has to handle sat nav, climate control, radio, media, car setup, and anything else that might ordinarily be handed off to a single button. Volvo do this properly. Citroen phoned it in.

It. Is. Appalling. In fact, I think appalling is being too gentle. I spent more time drifting over the rumble strip onto the hard shoulder trying to figure out where Absolute Radio was hidden on the system than actually in the lane. There are about 30 buttons on the steering wheel, none of which are labelled. In addition, there are FOUR thumbwheels, some of which seem to duplicate each other and some which appear to do nothing. There are also two further unlabelled buttons on each stalk.

When the sun hits the centre console the screen reflects it directly into your eyes. You also can’t see the screen at that point to do anything useful with the car. You can’t view the map on the main screen unless you tap an unresponsive touch button, which means taking your eyes off the road completely.

Changing the instrument cluster theme involves shutting the car down and letting it reboot. You can’t select a preset on the radio without going out of navigation mode. You can, however, set the big TV screen to show a slideshow of photos from your phone.

What’s it like to drive? Well, assuming you haven’t crashed it into a ditch trying to find Radio 4, not bad. Will pull nicely in 6th from 40mph, comfortable ride, and direct steering. A bit wobbly in the wind today but not terrible.

Fuel economy? Averaged 74mph on the motorway, tested the 0-60 out of the services twice and faced a 40mph headwind most of the trip. 58 mpg brim to brim, which is astonishing considering that from the front it has the aerodynamics of an Aga. It may have been slightly better than that, in fact, since it showed 85% when I picked it up and I dropped it off completely full.

It. Is. Appalling. In fact, I think appalling is being too gentle. I spent more time drifting over the rumble strip onto the hard shoulder trying to figure out where Absolute Radio was hidden on the system than actually in the lane.

One might have thought that sorting out what radio station one wished to listen to would be something to sort out before driving off in an unfamiliar vehicle, not leave it until you’re doing 70 on a motorway somewhere.
Or is it just me who prioritises the choice of audio entertainment before I move an inch?

My brother (with 4 kids) has one, bought a 16 plate 1.2 petrol a year ago, he hasn’t mentioned any issues with it yet (though he was coming from a 17 year old Zafira so he’s probably used to putting up with niggles).

One might have thought that sorting out what radio station one wished to listen to would be something to sort out before driving off in an unfamiliar vehicle, not leave it until you’re doing 70 on a motorway somewhere.
Or is it just me who prioritises the choice of audio entertainment before I move an inch?

Hello Captain Sanctimonious,

I would have thought that if your driving is so ropey that you consider it dangerous to touch any control while on the move, you might well be safer not driving.

Thanks everyone. They seem a bit love or hate which makes it really hard to make a decision on. We liked the one we drove bit it was probably for a total or 20 minutes, 30, 40 and 60mph limits and it went well. I’ve been hearing some pretty awful stories about the touch screen system though (not just on here) and I suspect that’s the sort of thing that would bug me if we owned one. Also vowed my next car would have Android auto bit this one is slightly too old (64 plate)

Almost went for one of these as like the looks and ‘frenchness’. Drove nicely too. In then end went for the larger Seat Alhambra which really is a hidden gem of the people carrier world, which looked more robust with 3 small kids.

I’m on my second, first one 3 years no issues, 1.6 diesel averaged 55mpg.
Currently had second one for a month, I’ve found them great cars, comfortable, reliable and vast inside, panoramic roof makes the inside very light and the three full size seats in middle row are great to have when you have two kids seats. Admittedly the dash is quirky but you get use to it. The worst thing is its new name SpaceTourer, the badge on the back is about 12 inches long!

Thanks everyone. They seem a bit marmite, but I love marmite so am picking one up tomorrow.

It ticks a lot of boxes for us so let hope it doesn’t come back to bite me