After 40,000 fault free miles in 20 months the Mondeo has gone, and having been a critic of Citroen on here previously I have bought a Picasso.
Is the 2.0 HDi SX, and am really impressed with it. Does remind me a tiny bit of driving a Transit, but it is very comfortable, and an excellent family car. Eldest daughter loves it- loves the fold out tables for drawing on and being able to see over the hedgrows.
Was surprised by how much interest it got from my neighbours too (although mostly young families round my way).
Did expect it to be a bit roly- poly reading the reviews prior to buying, but personally haven't noticed any of that.
Finally- thanks to all the Citroen owners- your comments about reliability were one of the factors in buying this car.
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with a softly sprung MPV like the piccaso or scenic you have to develop a whole new driving style to overocme the intial "lurch steer" feeling. Its call smooooooooooooth.
Its soon becomes great fun to drive the thing as smoothly and as rapidly as possible round twisties without heaving things around inside.
I think it makes you a better driver.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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As with any car, but especially those that are softly sprung or have a high roll centre, as well as not snatching the corner entry a big part is to pause - however briefly - between direction changes. This lets the vehicle body settle instead of whacking in to the new direction with a load of momentum behind it.
I enjoy being chauffeur smooth even when "making progress" and this technique worked a treat on the Caravelle T5 I drove last summer; passengers actually commented on how surprisingly smooth this tall bus was during a B-road run. :-)
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Although typically new car will be locked in the garage for next 2 weeks as flying off to Spain on Monday.
Will be pootling round in a 1.4 Focus instead.
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Hello,
I'm thinking of getting one of these. I was wondering what the performance of the 2.0HDi is like and the MPG you are getting? Don't suppose you drove the 1.6HDi 110BHP model per chance did you?
Brief review of pluses and minuses would be most appreciated.
Thanks
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I'm on my second Picasso, the first (2.0HDi) did 120K in 4 years and never let me down. I've now got a 1.6HDi thats done 23K in 9 months, again no problems.
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i bought an ex motability car at auction mines a 1.6 petrol though , its very slow but can hit 50 mpg on the motorway and 40 around town. id recommend them to anyone its needed a new indicator stalk annd the pedal rubber fell off. thats been the some total of my outlay in a year of motoring .
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Hi Jase- sorry for delay in replying, but been on holiday. Is too early to say for sure what MPG will be like but so far would say has done 250 miles on 1/2 a tank. Computer says average is around 43 which included lots of short trips round town over the weekend.
Didn't try the 1.6 before I bought it so can't comment on that engine. Only real downside so far is that the 90bhp 2.0 is a little bit slow compare to the Mondeo. This doesnt really bother me though as find it quite a relaxed car to drive anyway.
Plusses are lots of room and cubby holes- eldest daughter loves the seat back tables and an adult can sit comfortably in the back even with baby seat and child seat in place.
Have seen your comments on the seats elsewhere on here. Which model did you try? Have heard seats are better as you move up the range. We've got the SX and so far seats seem ok.
Hope this helps- and sorry for the delayed response.
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Hello PW,
Hope the holiday was good and thanks for the reply.
We tried a '55 1.6HDi Desire model. I thought the seats were OK we'll probably try another Picasso just to see if it was a wierd day. Certainly we'll try for an hour or so this time. I really liked it and agree that they are very relaxing to drive, the diesel is very smooth and undiesel like and all the cubby holes are clever.
That said, we're testing a 1.6TDCi Zetec CMax (same engine) on Friday. Sitting in the seats of an LX model without moving, the wife was immediately happier with the seats. I assume the Zetec ones are the same (??) and the one we are trying has the sat-nav with digital climate control fitted, which appeals a lot. I'll feed back!
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