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MotoGrandad   
Mon Apr 30 2012, 12:09am
Member No: #24292
Joined: Feb 15 2012
Location: Corby, Northants
First impressions on delivery, I think I made the right decision on the colour (wicked red with the black top package), I had only seen this in the brochure and on the Citroen website so was just a tiny bit worried but no problems there. Into the cabin and "where's the grab handles?".

Coming from a Xsara Picasso I was used to using these to get seated properly as I'm a bit lacking in the leg mobility department. The upholstery, however seems to have more "slideability" than the old Pic. and it's not such a problem. Taking the delivery driver to the station I stalled it first time, more due to the slight resistance of the auto handbrake and not wanting to rev it too much more than anything I think. On the move and "Ooh, isn't it quiet", and smooth, and quick!

The gearchange is a vast improvement on the older Pic. feeling less remote and without that sense of lots of pieces in the linkage nearly working together that the other car had. So, first job, convert it into a van to take loads of stuff to no.2 daughter's in York and pick up the MotoGrandma. Piece of wossname to do that and after loading a table and 4 chairs (child size), a 5 foot wide roll of loft insulation (don't ask), two Ikea storage racks for her garage, a box of paper briquettes for her fire plus my overnight bag we were ready for the off (phew!).

I have about 15 miles of A43 to negogiate before the A1 which gave me a chance to acclimatise myself with the performance, which is more than adequate! Overtakes have never been so easy. No need to drop down gears as the pick-up in 6th from reasonably low revs was sufficient to dispose of 40 mph artics etc. So, onto the A1, this was it's normal Friday afternoon self up until Grantham so was not able to set the cruise and give my right leg a rest.

Once the traffic thinned out a bit engaged cruise at **mph and relaxed a bit. Being used to the operation of the cruise control on the older Pic., when I came to the end of the 50 limit section at Elkesley I just held the + button down to take my speed back up not realising that the displayed cruise speed was going up a lot quicker than the actual road speed.

As I passed 95 mph I thought I'd better stop doing this or I'm going to be in trouble!! So, another little difference to be aware of. Arrived in York after a two-and-a-half hour journey feeling remarkably unstressed and with no aches and pains. I've got to hope the novelty wears off regarding the perfomance though, as I'm coming to the end of my second tankful at 850 miles!

I must admit to being absolutley smitten with the car, thinking "this is too nice to be mine". OK, if your name is L. Hamilton you may find the handling and roadholding not up to S-Max levels but I'm at the age now when comfort is more important than those things. Having spent 30 years of my working life in a bodyshop and driven endless different makes and models of car I hope I can be reasonably subjective about it despite having just forked out 18k for the privilege of owning one.

As long as the reliability is up to scratch, I will be a happy bunny. I realise that the problems seen on these forums are (hopefully) the minority compared to the number of cars sold so we'll see. Finally, an unashamed plug for UK Car Discount, - Click Here - who saved me just over £5,100 on list price on my car which was more than double the amount my local dealer could offer even on a cash sale.

I shall update you all on my progress with the car once I get to grips with all the bits of technology in it. Hope I haven't waffled on too much.
1 User said Thank You to MotoGrandad for this Post :
 iscom (01 May 2012 : 14:19)
Dave_Retired.   
Mon Apr 30 2012, 01:46am

Member No: #1
Joined: Aug 07 2006
Location: Northumberland
Nice review. Please keep it updated
iscom   
Tue May 01 2012, 02:20pm
Member No: #20936
Joined: Jul 21 2011
Location: Ireland Fermanagh & Galway
I enjoyed reading this posting and look forward to your updates
Dave_Retired.   
Fri Aug 17 2012, 02:53am

Member No: #1
Joined: Aug 07 2006
Location: Northumberland
UPDATE from MotoGrandad(moved)

Having just seen the odometer go over 7k since my first post in May, I thought it was about time I posted an update on how living with my C4 Picasso is going.

Before I make any comments let me state that my previous car was a Xsara Picasso and my opinion is therefore influenced by that. Compared to that vehicle, the storage spaces aren't so good. No underseat drawer for the driver (handy for road atlases and hi-vis vests, France for the use of).

The rear floor bins won't take the first-aid kit that the other car did or extra bottles of hooch from that little distillery in the Charente. Also, what happened to the take-away hook on the back of the driver's seat? Right, moans over on that front, we're getting used to having smaller "stuff" and distributing it more around the car.

Performance, aaah the performance!! Quite sufficient thank you very much. Even the MotoGrandma says how easy it is to overtake in this one. Did you know that 3,000 revs in 6th shows 100mph, as seen on an autobahn of course.

Fuel economy is improving from the high 30's when brand new to the mid 40's according to the computer.I can't tell you how many miles I get to a tankful because I've yet been able to leave re-fuelling that long. Let me explain, when the gauge gets to one bar you get a bong, the warning light comes on in the R/H display and then the pump symbol starts flashing in the centre of the fuel gauge.

WHY? Do we really need two warning lights? Since this symbol is flashing on the edge of my peripheral vision I find it at best annoying and at worst distracting. Therefore I am filling up before I really need to. I've yet to get more than 50L in the tank.

We come to the handbrake, a bone of contention between me and my co-pilot. I've eventually come to terms with using it, she's having a few problems. I've got her to be a bit more "robust" on her take-offs and it seems to be working. I think there is more clutch wear taking place simply because of holding the vehicle on the clutch rather than using the handbrake.

Because we both have the seat fairly well back it means we have to reach forward a fair bit to operate the switch. Invariably the seatbelt locks before the switch is reached making it a more awkward operation than it should be.

I wonder why Citroen didn't put in a low washer fluid warning light, there seems to be warnings about most other things. Having been stuck in the middle of France at half-past midnight having just driven through a cloud of insects and only one squirt before the washers expired, I'd vote for it.

This might seem like one long moan (yes John, it does), however I am really pleased with the car otherwise. We did just under 3000 miles door-to-door on holiday in France and were perfecly comfortable. It was so easy to drive, I set the radio onto Nostalgie at Calais, didn't touch it again, filled up at Auchan in Boulogne (£1.08/litre!!!) and then set the cruise to 130kph. All I had to do was steer.

Had to deal with a few locals who didn't like being overtaken by a rosbif, but with the amount of oomph available this wasn't a problem. Have they forgotten Agincourt?

We did glimpse one other C4 Pic Exclusive with a black top coming off a ferry at Dover, but that has been it, even in France. Are there any more out there?

Reliability has been fine, let's hope it continues that way.
 

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