2005 CITROEN C8 reviews

Citroen C8 2.0LX 2005

Slow, underpowered - but, and it’s one big but - I love it! The driving position is great and 8 fullsize seats means that 8 adults fit in relative comfort! The 2 litre petrol with 8 seats is a very comfortable big car, with room for the P3 Hockey team, it’s a perfect workhorse and extended family minibus. Think top of the C8 as a top of the range car and you might be a little disappointed, think of it as a minibus and its going to more than please! The seats are very comfortable; I recently had two weeks in a brand new Ford Galaxy Hire Car, we hated it and couldn’t wait to get back into our much more comfortable C8 back! It is a little sluggish of the mark; not much good for squaring up to boy racers at the traffic lights, but then at nearly 40 I should be getting beyond the desire to prove myself with my accelerator! It is returning a respectable 27.9mpg around the city, but has given me as much as 34.9mpg on a run from Stranraer to Brighton, where I was pushing on at well over the limit on the motorways. The ride is great on motorways and around town, but a little floaty on small Co.Down country lanes. Again, compared to the Galaxy it is dream on country lanes! Once you get it to 45mph it takes off and accelerates well, although getting to 45 can seem a little slow. Overtaking in the C8 needs preparation and wisdom; this isn’t a car for the hasbeen boy-racer! The C8 LX 2.0 Petrol is very good value secondhand and makes for serious competition for comparable compeditors which are often £2-£3k more expensive for similar miles and age. I have worked out that to buy a diesel over the petrol it would have to be no more than £700 more over three years, given that the diesels don’t return very much more in terms of mpg’s. It also makes a great towing car for my caravan, I have a twin-axle ABI running at 1350kgs, it tows it easily, with more than enough poke beyond the hood to work happily around the max 60mpg allowed; due to the weight of the C8, it makes a great choice for the caravan brigade! The car was bought with it in mind that my wife would be the main driver for the kids school runs etc, but she has ended up driving our second car more often than not. I choose it, even when it’s the first car into the drive! Do I have a criticism? One, the seat side on the drivers side is wearing very quickly, watch out for this in higher mileage variants. Would I buy another one? Absolutely. Citreon have it when it come to comfort and value for money. The odd rattle in the dashboard has been silenced with tissue paper, but then again you can’t expect everything to be 5 star! Go on drive a C8, you’ll not be disappointed!