Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Prince23
I'm looking to get rid of my 2005 c220 coupe mainly due to its poor economy. Whilst looking around a car supermarket my eye was taken by a Citroen DS3. I have always been very anti French cars but this car was stunning so I decided to have a test drive. The 1.6 diesel 110bhp drove like a dream. Now I'm very tempted to buy it once my merc is sold, has anyone got any experience of these?

Do they have any common faults?
Anything I should look out for?
Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Bromptonaut

It's a modern diesel with a particle filter. So first question is whether you do enough miles/longer runs to keep it healthy.

On French reliability I've got 150k miles on a Berlingo. It's failed to either start or complete a journey just twice. First was failed clutch second a damaged alternator connection.

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - daveyK_UK

Don't think it's fair to compare the berlingo multispace to other Citroen models as the berlingo is made to be durable and reliable, where the focus on the DS3 is style

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Prince23
Thanks for the reply

I do 30k miles a year of motorway driving so it needs to be comfortable doing high mileage
Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - drd63
I've had a DS3 as a hire car in Scotland a few times and done some longish journeys, always been very comfy, as for suggestions of more style than reliability I own a DS5 which is 2 years and 50k miles old. Faultless.
Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Avant

There are plenty of good French cars around: they seem to be more vulnerable to neglect and abuse than Japanese cars, but (if you're buying used) find one that looks as if it's been cherished, as far as one can tell. And of course walk away from anything without a full service history unless you're in banger territory, which the DS3 isn't.

I think there are more happy Citroen owners than sad on this forum at least.

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Happy Blue!

I had a DS3 Cabriolet last summer. Just the 3cyl petrol engine but I m thought it was great. Could easily be tempted if my needs changed.

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - mjm

If it's the 1,6 litre HDI diesel then look carefully at the service history, especially oil and filter changes. This engine has not got a good reputation for ruggedness.

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - skidpan

The 1.6 diesel is fitted in numerous models by several manufacturers. Correctly serviced its as good as any modern engine. With the number on the road that have been sold its hardly surprising there have been some failures especially when they do not use the correct oil, filters or even bother to service them.

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - oldtoffee

We almost bought a 1.6 HDi, nice looking car, comfy but after checking out the DS3 owner forum decided not to. A lot of unhappy owners and quite a few with the same issue of the car losing power and service or engine management light on indicating faulty dpf. My son has a C4, same engine and he's got this same problem but the dealer says it could be "any number of things" and they are all expensive.

It's ok if your French car has a dodgy radio connection or the wipers don't return to rest just put it down to French electrics but when it drops suddenly into limp mode at 70 mph in the outside lane with all the family onboard it's a tad more serious.

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - madf

My view with French cars is "caveat emptor".

Obviously a lot of buyers don't understand Latin.

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Gibbo_Wirral

Or don't listen to armchair "experts".

Yes, they have their problems. But can you name any other manufacturer that doesn't?

I once had a Ford. It was crap, but I don't bleat on to all and sundry that Ford stands for "Fix Or Repair Daily" or any other anecdotal crap.

I've been driving and working on Peugeots for decades and the problem cars always seem to be the ones which have been neglected.

I see this week that Suzuki is having to a recall because of brake failures. Honda, Toyota and Fiat are recalling 2.1 million because of faulty airbags.

Edited by Gibbo_Wirral on 05/02/2015 at 13:25

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - madf

You only need lok at the Reliability Ratings to justify my scepticism of French car.

www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer

The avearge repair costs of a Citroen are more twice those of a Honda.

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - artill

If you remove the Japanese and Korean makes from the list, the PSA cars llook good compared to almost everyone else.

Edited by artill on 05/02/2015 at 17:02

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Gibbo_Wirral

You only need lok at the Reliability Ratings to justify my scepticism of French car.

www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer

The avearge repair costs of a Citroen are more twice those of a Honda.

Results based on the opinion of Warranty Direct though. I'd trust them about as much as I'd trust them to not wriggle out of a warranty payment.

A quick Google pointed me to a WHICH report which showed the most unreliable cars were BMW and Land Rovers.

Auto Express reported that Audi, BMW and VW ranked in the bottom 10 of a study into engine reliability.



Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - lucasledge

What did you go with instead?

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Bianconeri
My wife has a 155THP DSport Plus. Utterly brilliant car, never does less than 40mpg even on short journeys and 45+ on decent runs.

Totally reliable and not a single squeak or rattle, .best paint job I've seen on a mass market car in years.

Of course, being French it's clearly a pile of badly built junk that will self destruct in 6 months and this engine explodes 5 minutes after the warranty expires.
Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - confusedbuyer

Hi

I had problems with this engine in a Focus II. I did a lot of research before we bought my partner's Volvo V40 D2 last year, as it has an evolution of the engine that is in the Focus III, and was fitted later to the DS3 (has 115 bhp rather than 110). I read they made some substantial changes according to some Ford mechanics on several forums, including reducing it to an 8v again, but its also seemingly proving more reliable from what I've read - I'd go for that if you can stretch to it?

Hope that helps :)

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Bianconeri

My wife drives about 8000 miles a year so we went for the petrol. In fact the petrol engines (especially) the 1.6 THP are economical enough that they are probably a good choice even if you cover high mileages. The 110bhp diesel we tried seemed very flat compared with the 155THP - but as the petrol does have 50% more power, pretty similar torque and a wider power band that is to be expected.

One point that I'd like to make is that manufacturers sell thousands of cars. A few vociferous individuals may choose to post (some endlessly) about a particular problem but that rarely means there is a catastrophic or systemic problem with a marque, model, engine or gearbox (etc..). It's like the sweeping generalisations about French or Italian cars - at one time French cars were idiosyncratic. Personally I think things like the GS and CX were fantastic, but to others they were plain wierd. Were they REALLY any less relaible than the peer group? Same with Italian cars, if there was such a thing as a latter day Alfasud then I'd have one like a shot, even though my original rusted before my very eyes back in the day.

Come to think of it, a DS with the turbo petrol engine ain't so far from that concept.

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Razzy

I Passed my driving test in a DS3 when they were new to market. had the 1.6 diesel.

Was a nice car IMO - regularly did 50mpg around town too

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - madf

Were they REALLY any less reliable than the peer group?

If you drove any Renault turbo diesel from the mid 2000s era you were likely to have problems.

Just read what HJ says about the Renault Espace: I am not making it up.

www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/renault/espace-2002/...d

or the Laguna

www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/renault/laguna-ii-20...d

They have since improved.. after they lost half (yes really) their market share in the UK...

My dislike of French cars in general is not a dislike for the sake of it... it's founded on factual evidence.

Edited by madf on 06/02/2015 at 13:24

Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Bianconeri
Not what I said is it? Back in the day French cars were wilfully odd - GS and CX were 70s cars.

Renault built some total junk 10 years ago? No idea, never owned one but I expect I can find some happy owners as well as the vociferous minority. Worstt car I owned in the early 2000s was a Volvo V70, virtually fell apart around me but the popular view is that they were unbreakable.

The DS3 is a brilliant little car. Nothing to do with what Citroen or any other French company have done before or since.

I've just disposed of a Renault C( r )aptur for a family member, it was a horrible little car, built in Spain from a mix of Nissan and Renault parts. Does that make all French cars junk? I drive an Italian car, I love it, does that make all Italian cars brilliant?
Citroen DS3 - Buying Advice - Gibbo_Wirral

DS3, car of the year:

www.topgear.com/uk/photos/citroen-ds3-2010-12-14

And hasn't the recent Citroen Cactus won a similar award?

www.citroen.co.uk/about-citroen/news/citroen-c4-ca...4

Peugeot 308 also won European Car of the Year 2014.