Thanks again.

Fortunately, I'm not worried about rear legroom space.

And there are indeed lots of French cars around that are still holding together after many years and miles.

Still pondering!

French cars seem to do a pretty good job in France too, where people stay loyal to the native marques much more than UK buyers ever did when we had our own motor industry.

I wonder if this is because in France and in African countries buyers aren't as status-conscious as in the UK and are quite happy with the basic models which have fewer electronic fripperies to go wrong.

That's not how I like my motoring unthrottled "Chances are it'll be fine" sorry-not for me.

I don't buy into the myth of bulletproof engineering. Every carmaker has had problems-albeit some more than others. The best warranty is a car that you can afford to throw away or repair yourself.

after I stopped buying cars designed by keyboard monkeys and started buying cars designed by engineers.

You do realise that most of the high tech stuff is designed and built by specialist companies and bought in by carmakers? There's no such thing as a Citroen automatic transmission, a Citroen Common rail injection system, or a Citroen turbo.

Citroen source their parts from companies like Garratt, Delphi, Bosch, Aisan etc etc.-just like MB, BMW and Toyota do.It doesn't mean the overall cars are of equal quality, but when it comes to value for money, Citroen are tough to beat.

You still get people paying silly amounts for knackered old W123s because they think that they'll never break. Madness.

Edited by unthrottled on 08/05/2012 at 21:22

I wouldn't disagree. But if you take your third point:

3. The product was tested thoroughly, proved to be reliable, but became unreliable because of inadequate quality control during production.

This is the interesting point. If there is significant variation in the build quality of individual cars then, within the same model, some will prove to be reliable whilst others will have a catalogue of errors almost as soon as they roll off the dealers' forecourt.

If you get a good one, you're ok. What makes marques with chequered reputations worth considering is that they usually very cheap. In short you can get a lot of kit for not a lot of money.

In other cases, the problems are dependant on the user. The Mazda 2.0 DPF is a case in point. Mimsers suffered from DPF regen problems, but plenty of other users have clocked huge mileages on the same engine without a problem. If you're not inclined to mimse then you can pick up a bargain.

Well this started some interesting comments. Cool!

Anyway, I have to report that this time, it was indeed a passing phase. I actually went to look at the car today, and whilst externally, it looked good - one of the reasons I fancied a C5 in the first place - unfortunately the interior was showing signs of its comparitvely heavy use in a short time.

No surprise that the pedal rubbers were worn, but leather parts of the steering wheel were flaking noticeably and the dash was looking a bit tired. It could be that it could just need a good valet, but I am not going to pursue this one.

In fact, the interior is not wearing as well as my current 5 and a bit year old Vectra with 85,000 miles on.

Still, all very interesting and in fairness, the asking price is very reasonable.

I have an '08 C5 V6 2.6 Auto, and is good value IMHO. It does everything on a daily basis that cars twice its price do. I get about 38 - 40 mpg, it goes as quick as I can handle on the rare occasions I want it to; it's supremely comfortable and very quiet. Not happy with 245 / 45 tyres, but that's what they think we want if we have a good engine. Luckily I've avoided the WAGS-windows.

Citroen have found the answer to perpetual motion.

Unthrottled: late reply but just checked the m.p.g. on my V6 2.7 diesel 2008 Citroen C5 - 35.2 mpg at an average of 34 m.p.h. over 4,500 miles. M-way today at 70 (cruise interestingly requires 73 setting) for 34 miles averaged 47.8 m.p.g.