Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Thu 31 Aug 2017 01:25

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - Christopher Meechan

Looking to buy a used car but it has just passed an MOT with 4 advisories, should I ask the garage to do the repairs before entering into a contract or is that not something they will not do?

Nearside rear wheel bearing has slight play (2.6.2)

Front break pads wearing thin (3.5.1g)

Offside rear tyre worn close to legal limit (4.1.e.1)

Oil leak ()

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 08:08

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - gordonbennet

Have a poke nose on HJ's Reviews, above, especially in the good and bad sections.

In all honesty the car sounds a bit uncared for, what with worn pads and one odd worn tyre, and an ucared for 1.6HDi especially if its mated to an automated box and with the dubious benefit of an electric parking brake is not what i would want unless so cheap it was chuckable, if its cheap enough to throw away if an expensive failure happens then fair enough.

Mainly what you do NOT want to see is a new turbo on the car if it's a HDi, plenty of reading around the place, and the whole internet, to confirm, and if i saw a new turbo in one i'd be off down the street fast as my legs could manage.

Edited by gordonbennet on 31/08/2017 at 08:36

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 08:15

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - badbusdriver

With regards to the repairs, yes, they should be prepared to do them if it means selling the car.

However, I have concerns about whether or not you should be buying the car at all!. You don't give any details about the car, such as age, price, and if it is petrol or diesel. Older Citroën's don't have the best reputation for long term reliability, certainly with regards to electrics and trim. I'm assuming you are looking at the grand Picasso because you need the 7 seats, so with that in mind, I'd suggest you look at the mazda5 and toyota verso/corolla verso. Both of these are likely to be much more reliable than the Citroën.

And, again, without knowing your budget it's difficult to make relevant suggestions, but the mantra you should be sticking to with slightly older cars is, keep it simple! (petrol engine, manual gearbox). The less complex the car is, the less there is to go wrong, and the less it is going to cost to fix what goes wrong.

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 08:19

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - SLO76

Looking to buy a used car but it has just passed an MOT with 4 advisories, should I ask the garage to do the repairs before entering into a contract or is that not something they will not do?

Nearside rear wheel bearing has slight play (2.6.2)

Front break pads wearing thin (3.5.1g)

Offside rear tyre worn close to legal limit (4.1.e.1)

Oil leak ()

How much is it and what engine and gearbox are in it?

Edited by SLO76 on 31/08/2017 at 08:20

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 10:57

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - pd

I'd want to check out what the oil leak is. This could be anything from a slight weep on a power steering hose you can ignore to engine oil dripping out the bottom.

The others are just used car sort of stuff but it really depends on a the price point as to whether they're something which should be there or not. If it's a £2.5k 90k mile car then it is par for the course but if it is a £7k 30k main dealer car probably not.

I'm personally not a fan of the EGS (auto) versions of these but some seem to like them. Apart from reliability concerns they're not very nice to drive. Also check the rear suspension is level.

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 13:44

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - RichardW

For a Citroen these hold their value remarkably well - especially when you consider that most of them are fitted with the 1.6 HDi that has a less than glowing reputation.

We've had one for over 5 years, and it's great. It is a 1.6 HDi, and there have been some engine related problems, but the only other non-maintenance repairs have been a front wheel bearing and both front strut top bearings, hanbrake cables and a rear calliper, and it's now nearing 110k. The interior has held up well to abuse from 2 small children!

Ref the car the OP posted about, I would want those sorted if I was paying retail - the rear wheel bearing is with the disc (although it can be changed separately) - if the discs are worn I would want new ones on it to go with the new bearing. There are a reasonable number about, so it might be possible to find a better one, but I would avoid the 1.6 diesel and the EGS box, which does rather reduce the number available. There are a few nice looking 2.0 HDi manuals kicking about at the moment.... I have half thought about changing ours.

For some reason the E-handbrake struggles on the MOT although it never feels inadequate. I might fit a new primary cable before next year's test.

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 15:31

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - Christopher Meechan

Car details are

2009 hdi vtr+ 1.6l auto 70000 miles

£2995

I only hold an auto license

Edited by Christopher Meechan on 31/08/2017 at 15:32

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 18:07

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - RichardW

Diesel or petrol?

Run away if it is a diesel. If it's a petrol, then OK, but check you can live with the somewhat lurchy EGS gearbox, and no creep function. Also, if it's not had a new clutch then bargain hard, as it's probably due one, and it's not a cheap job.....

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 18:15

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - SLO76

Car details are

2009 hdi vtr+ 1.6l auto 70000 miles

£2995

I only hold an auto license

Probably the worst thing you could buy at this sort of money. One of the worst gearboxes both for drivability and reliability combined with the most unreliable Diesel engine on the market. Walk away.

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 18:18

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - SLO76

Now we're ruled out the Citroen let's look at alternatives.

What is your maximum budget and how are you financing it - cash or borrowing?

Do you really need an MPV?

How many miles roughly do you do in a year and is it mostly distance or local stop start driving?

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 18:52

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - Christopher Meechan

Now we're ruled out the Citroen let's look at alternatives. What is your maximum budget and how are you financing it - cash or borrowing? Do you really need an MPV? How many miles roughly do you do in a year and is it mostly distance or local stop start driving?

Max budget is £4000 on finance, yes I need an MPV as I have 4 kids. Yearly miles prob about 15000.

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 19:37

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - badbusdriver

Now we're ruled out the Citroen let's look at alternatives. What is your maximum budget and how are you financing it - cash or borrowing? Do you really need an MPV? How many miles roughly do you do in a year and is it mostly distance or local stop start driving?

Max budget is £4000 on finance, yes I need an MPV as I have 4 kids. Yearly miles prob about 15000.

Deary me, that is going to spring up some compromises as there are no 'perfect solutions' out there for your needs/budget!.

Looking on autotrader with £4k upper limit and 70k miles there wasn't very much to recommend.

As far as petrol goes, were it not for the auto requirement, the toyota corolla verso would probably your best bet, but at this age and budget the auto option is the 'multimode', which i think is an automated manual (SLO?), and if so, maybe best avoided. The mazda5 is a great option, but auto's are like hens teeth, currently 1 on autotrader (£3495). That leaves bigger buses like the ford galaxy and toyota previa, which are both reliable (especially the toyota), but will be thirsty.

With diesel, in addition to reliability questions, you need to think about which candidates may have DPF issues. But i noticed one kia carens 2.0 at £3695, and a couple of 2nd gen sedona's, which are pretty reliable and powerful, but not that economical (big old 2.9l engine).

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Thu 31 Aug 2017 22:26

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - SLO76

This is a challenging one. Unfortunately there's no easy answer but here's my take on it.

Firstly if you're borrowing from the dealer then you can make your money work a fair bit harder. Loan rates at smaller dealers are typically high so let's figure you're borrowing £4K at 12.9% APR over 36mths this would mean repayments of £133.23 without factoring in any of the unnecessary fees such as document fee and final purchase fee smaller garages typically hit you with. So that's a total of £4796.27 plus the typical £200-£300 in fees, so let's say £5096.27 or £1096.27 in interest and fees.

Now instead of taking the dealers finance you can go to the bank. Borrowing £6,000 at say 4.5% over an extra year on a bank loan costs £136.58 a month with a total cost of £555.71 in interest. Or better yet borrow over £7.5k and that rate can go as low as 2.8% APR. £7,500 over 60mths @ £133.98 a month leaves the total cost of credit at £538.94.

You still awake?

Well my point is that your £4,000 budget isn't high enough to get a good 7str auto MPV, not unless you want something that would drink the Welsh rugby team under the table or something that will cripple you with repair and car hire bills. You need to put more money in and it needent cost any more to do so in fact borrowing £7.5k costs half as much as £4K borrowed from a typical used dealer.

Now with a more realistic budget you open up possibilities such as these...

Auto Trader:

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20170712732...4

Auto Trader:

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20170610631...4

Auto Trader:

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20170817842...4

I'd normally steer buyers on a budget away from diesels but the 2.0 PSA unit in the big Ford is good and opting for the auto does eliminate the DMF issue these all suffer from at around 70-80k. The only petrol auto at this sort of money is the greedy 2.3 petrol and it's over £500 a year to tax and won't break 25mpg.

The Mazda is very useful with the sliding doors especially in tight spaces plus it's very reliable with few vices and is generally a very pleasant big wagon to pilot. Not fast but it'll always get you there.

My choice would be a Toyota Verso 1.8 CVT though. As already mentioned by my good friend bbd avoid the earlier Corolla Verso with the rather nasty MMT automated manual box. Just as with Ford, Citroen, VAG and pretty much everyone else no one has managed to make the technology reliable in the longterm. The later cars are reliable if properly maintained, compact, reasonably economical and easy to sell on again.

Over all more money spent up front in this case will mean less spent in total. Lower interest rate, fewer repair bills and a car that's still worth something in 4-5yrs time instead of having been scrapped and replaced again.

Edited by SLO76 on 31/08/2017 at 23:13

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Fri 1 Sep 2017 12:41

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - corax

I'd normally steer buyers on a budget away from diesels but the 2.0 PSA unit in the big Ford is good and opting for the auto does eliminate the DMF issue these all suffer from at around 70-80k.

SLO, is that a TC autobox, I thought they were powershift. A new DPF is apparently around £2000 from Ford.

How about the 1.6 and 2.0 ecoboost models, are they reliable? I would assume they're still expensive as they came near the end of the production run for that model.

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Fri 1 Sep 2017 12:56

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - pd

I think it depends on the model year with the Fords. I've certainly come across plenty of Mk 4 Mondeos with 2.0 diesel and a "proper" auto. I think they used the common TF80 in the early ones and maybe Ford's own 6-speed in the later but don't quote me!

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Fri 1 Sep 2017 13:39

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - SLO76

"SLO, is that a TC autobox, I thought they were powershift."

The Galaxy got the Powershift box in 2010 so you need to verify before buying one built in that year. Easy to do as it produces substantially lower emissions than the older TC box.

" A new DPF is apparently around £2000 from Ford."

The 2.0's all have one I believe but it's just one of the risks involved in buying a modern diesel. There's will be cheaper options than buying a Ford part though but I can't vouch for their quality.

"How about the 1.6 and 2.0 ecoboost models, are they reliable? I would assume they're still expensive as they came near the end of the production run for that model."

These are based on the Yamaha 1.6 Zetec SE and the 2.0 Mazda L series/duratorq engines that Ford have been using for years. I'm confident they'll remain reliable if serviced correctly. Sadly though these will all come with that unreliable Powershift gearbox if you want an auto however.

Edited by SLO76 on 01/09/2017 at 13:45

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Fri 1 Sep 2017 17:39

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - Considering buying car - corax

Sadly though these will all come with that unreliable Powershift gearbox if you want an auto however.

Hopefully the DMF for a manual petrol should last a lot longer than the diesel version.

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