Talk me in or out of buying…. A Citroën C4 Piccasso!

Not a make It would have considered before TBH but after the aborted ownership of a Cmax we’re looking for a similar sized but different MPV, in an auto only…

We Looked at one over the weekend and I found I quite liked it, my wife wasn’t totally put off either and you seem to get quite a lot for the money. Convince me it’s a shite vehicle STW…

I’m getting rid of my C4 because it’s awful. Dull to drive, ugly and falls to bits.

It’s French, it will self destruct, and its made of plastic.

Test drive it, that should be enough.

Every control possible, both driving and comfort, in the wrong place.

My neighbours have one (the older model, maybe three or four years old?) and think it’s great.

That said, they’re not really car people, but they do do a heap of stuff that involves packing up the kids and kit and heading off for the weekend.

Whats wrong with the Cmax?

(edit: at that size I would have looked at Mazda 5 and Toyota Verso)

I thought they were meant to be more reliable than a scenic. But that’s not much praise

Doesn’t look great on here.

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/reliability/search/74

JD Power rated them highly at one point but that reflects badly on JD power which works on opinions not repairs

Its a bit smaller but the Toyota Verso looks like a more reliable MPV

it’s crap and will shrink your knob

job done

Every control possible, both driving and comfort, in the wrong place.

See I took that as part of its “quirky charm”…

My neighbours have one (the older model, maybe three or four years old?) and think it’s great.
That said, they’re not really car people, but they do do a heap of stuff that involves packing up the kids and kit and heading off for the weekend

Yep Sounds like us, and we’ll be looking at the older version not the most recent face lift one…

Other option seems to be a zafira, which just doesn’t flick my switch in the same way…

My last 4 cars have been Citroens. Enjoy the fact that the sheep all believe they are ‘French crap’ and bag yourself a good second hand bargain.I work with a lot of people with premium/German cars and I don’t have any more bother than them.

We have a 2010 grand picasso and other than a few bulbs its been faultless. Anyone telling you its not an exciting drive should realise you are driving an mpv and not buying it for its handling and driving experience.

Whats wrong with the Cmax?

I loved it but we had “transmission malfunction” warning coming on all the bastard time, gearbox was shagged I reckon and and the dealer was useless and hadn’t sorted it within a month so it went back, ‘er indoors then revealed she didn’t “like how it went round corners” so I figure we’ll look at something else…

We have a C4 Grand Picasso for the kids – its massive and good for the bikes too.

No issues over the last 3 years of owning!

Most comfortable car I ever owned, and never had to be fixed between services. Perfect for loading up family and gear and heading for the Alps.

We are on our second Grand Picasso. Not had a problem with either of them. Both were 2.0 ltr full automatic. Great for room inside and full of extras. Gone to the Alps every year with them with four bikes on the back. The suspension on ours self levels. All the rear seats fold flat with no ledge to lift over. After eight years and 200000 miles between them we cant see anything else on the market that would tempt us away.

I’ve gone from a Picasso 2.0 HDI to a CMax 1.6 D to a Scenic 1.5 D (all from new) and IMO the Picasso was the most reliable having absolutely no issues over the 3 years. The CMax had loads of electrical issues, loss of power on long drives (faulty exhaust valve or something), engine management warning lights for no reason on hard braking and a clock that zero’d itself in bright sunlight……The Scenic was pretty average. I’d have another Picasso.

Yep missus is kinda taken with the “Grand” Picasso’s 7 seats as we can then transport the aging outlaws too. They are not much more expensive on the used market either it seems.

I did notice there’s a lot of leccy gubbins as standard folding mirrors fancy suspension systems, toys in the cabin, the logical part of me started thinking more to go wrong… But Then again…

Kia soul!

We looked at the normal C4 Picasso, but ended up with a Scenic – mainly because it was 1000€ cheaper. I quite liked the look of the C4, and as has been pointed out you don’t buy an MPV for the thrills. I presume you’re only going to use the 7 seats occasionally, though, I don’t think I’d want to be using them on a regular basis.

My brother bought one last year when I failed to discourage him. It drives like crap, it is falling apart, and the electronics regularly act up. He has nicknamed it ‘the Shitroen’.

HTH

Took a test drive in the original C4 Grand Picasso a few years ago. Thought it looked OK for an MPV and obviously was a good price. However the seats were as hard as nails, the controls awful (especially electronic handbrake) and it handled so badly I couldn’t get it back to the garage quick enough.

I’m no badge snob and to prove it we’ve subsequently picked up an old Xsara Picasso as a second car and its absolutely fine – comfortable seats, ok handling and apart from the pedals being in the wrong place the rest of the controls are ok – but I still shudder at the first junction in that C4 where I nearly drove into the oncoming car!

Kia soul!

What relevance has that got to anything in this thread?

My only offering regarding French motors, is that from cars to vans and back again, the French don’t know how to do electrics and something WILL fail.

Buy my Vw touran instead… Better drive in my opinion (having tried lots of the men’s with a latent petroleum tendency)

I drove a grand picasso 1700miles across europe one weekend 🙁

Thought it was pretty nice – very soft/wallowy suspension which was ace on mways but mrspants got a bit carsick whenever we were on a real road

ended up buying a peugeot 5008 as it was stiffer version of the same thing

Peugeot 5008 (S-Max lookalike)
It’s done nearly 50,000 miles without the inevitable catastrophic electrical fault
It’s a Peugeot, so I got it at a big discount with six miles on the clock
Drives fairly well for a van
For all you Top Gun fans, it has a head-up display (that’s actually great, despite me thinking I’d hate it)
Uses half the fuel my old E39 5 series did
Sadly, I can carry 6 kids in it

Having to look for one for Miss Houns as she ‘wants’ one 😐

I did find a good Mazda 5, look better than the Citroen (this one was black, with privacy glass) the sliding doors are useful and with all 7 seats up there is a little more boot room than the Citroen/vw. The citroen would have more toys.

Sadly the salesman put me off it as a couple of warning bells went off with him, shame as it the car was perfect and Miss Houns liked it too

“My last 4 cars have been Citroens. Enjoy the fact that the sheep all believe they are ‘French crap’ and bag yourself a good second hand bargain.”

What he said,, got a 3 year old diesel with 38k on clock for 3500 quid …….been driving that for 6 years now!

Got 2 now after a brief foray into the crap expensive unergonomic world that was a vw golf.

TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR – Member

Kia soul!

What relevance has that got to anything in this thread?

Everything, as they’re a very similar sort of style of family car, spacious inside.

I’ve had a couple of C3 Picassos and one was great, the other fell apart and was sold at a massive loss. When reading up on the C4 Picasso there were far far too many gearbox related issues and electric gremlins for me to consider them a viable purchase.

Hence why I went for the Kia.

Worst car i have ever driven…..

fortunately I only had to drive it for a couple of weeks whilst they repaired my focus after a non-fault accident…

buy an alfa…. you know you want to…

Update!

I pick up a nice C4 piccasso tomorrow lunch time, 45k on the clock it was lovely to drive when I tested it earlier, like driving a comfortable sofa is best way to describe it.
A shade under our budget, plus a tank of fuel.

Cheaper tax and better claimed Mpg than the Cmax we just got shot of. I am strangely excited…

Cheers for all the input…

My parents have had one for a few months. They seem happy with it. The seats are more comfy than their previous Xsara Picasso. They didn’t have any problems with that either.

In contrast I’ve recently bought a supposedly super reliable Honda Civic. It is not….

You do realise that if you’ve bought a 1.6 diesel Picasso and had a 1.6 Cmax previously (diesels) then they are the same engines.

I still think they’re good motors though.

Nah it was a 2.0 petrol Cmax 4 speed bag of shit gearbox, new one is a 2.0 diesel Citroën.

Engine wasn’t the issue on the Cmax it was the gearbox/gearbox controller, dealers were useless failed to sort it so we returned it. Citroën do their auto box differently, it’s an actuated manual 6 speed box and clutch innit.

Much Warmer, fuzzier feeling about this Citroën TBH.

One word don’t.

Having worked for Citroen I still wouldn’t touch one. they fall to bits and are crap to drive. If your lucky you mite get one that stays together.
It’s like owning a Alfa, but with none of the good stuff