Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi 5 door - Long high speed cruises, comfort and not too wide

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Thu 30 Apr 2015 19:50
Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi 5 door - Long high speed cruises, comfort and not too wide - srlpersonal

We have a 2007 Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi hatchback, and cover about 15,000 miles a year, but half of that is done in 13 hour high cruise speed motorway blasts to and from the south of France on autoroutes - 750 miles a day on 10 days each year. We need to replace it with a comfortable car with reasonable carrying volume and max width of 2000mm to go into a narrow village street. Automatic, cruise and speed control essential, and diesel preferred as it's much cheaper in France and likely to remain so. Prefer used car, max 2 years old and budget up to £20k. Any suggestions??

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Thu 30 Apr 2015 21:47
Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi 5 door - Long high speed cruises, comfort and not too wide - 72 dudes

My first thought would be a new model C4, but I think the diesel autos are now the dreaded, jerky EGC automated manual.

A C5 would be even more comfortable but may be too wide for your needs.

I'd be looking towards a Volvo V40 or a VW Golf Mk 7 with a good spec.

The D2 in the Volvo and the 1.6 TDi in the Golf are a bit weak for the weight of the car.

The D3/D4 or the 2.0 TDi VW engines are more powerful and relaxed and use hardly any more fuel than their 1.6 counterparts.

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Fri 1 May 2015 00:21
Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi 5 door - Long high speed cruises, comfort and not too wide - daveyK_UK

I was suprisingly impressed with a MG6 today.

A skoda Rapid / Seat Toledo is narrower than the average C4 size hatchback but huge inside and a huge boot. Very under rated car and the 1.2 tsi petrol engine is a delight.

Edited by daveyK_UK on 01/05/2015 at 00:24

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Sat 2 May 2015 22:29
Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi 5 door - Long high speed cruises, comfort and not too wide - focussed

I wouldn't count on diesel fuel continuing to be cheap, or cheaper than petrol in France in the long term-the French government are jumping on the bandwagon of demonising diesel (where have I heard this before?) and are planning to increase the tax on diesel to bring the price up to or close to the price of petrol - all in the interests of environmentalism of course!

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Mon 4 May 2015 11:36
Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi 5 door - Long high speed cruises, comfort and not too wide - srlpersonal

Thank you for the useful comments, I am also following the diesel/petrol discussions here. I created a spreadsheet to compare relative costs, varying mpg for the 2 fuels, price for each in the 2 countries (at present!) and percentage of fuel bought in each. Diesel always seems to come out cheaper but obviously by very varying amounts ....

e.g. at 45 mpg petrol / 55 mpg Diesel and today's prices, 65% bought in France, it comes out at £350 a year

So still scratching head!

Edited by srlpersonal on 04/05/2015 at 11:41

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Mon 4 May 2015 17:07
Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi 5 door - Long high speed cruises, comfort and not too wide - Chris79
I will second the Toledo suggestion. I have the 1.6tdi version and it is perfectly adequate and returns 58-72mph. Mine is an se spec and is fine but they now do an I-tech which looks better. You would have plenty of change from 20k with one of these!
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Mon 4 May 2015 17:08
Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi 5 door - Long high speed cruises, comfort and not too wide - Chris79
58-62mpg. I would like 72 though !!
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Tue 5 May 2015 00:25
Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi 5 door - Long high speed cruises, comfort and not too wide - daveyK_UK

1.2tsi 105 in the Rapid (both with less than 5,000 miles on the clock) averaging 49.7 (computer say 53.0) and 48.6 (computer says 51.0), we have 2 of them.

The driving is a mix of short journeys to the local train station (2 miles) and regular blasts from anglia to birmingham (100 miles).

The engine sits comfortably as 75mph - its a well geared car.

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Tue 5 May 2015 09:53
Citroen C4 VTR+ HDi 5 door - Long high speed cruises, comfort and not too wide - dadbif
Have you tried a C3 Picasso, I drive to and from Spain in ours, massive load capacity with the back seats down, and the 1.6Hdi diesel is excellent (with regular oil changes)
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