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2010 Citroen C3 reviews

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Graham Carroll, Yorkshire

Citroen C3 1.4 hdi vtr + 2010

3 star review

This is used as a driving instructor car. Quite good all round but spoiled by niggles. Good points: Reasonable quiet on motorways, very good economy 60mpg is easy to achieve, good mirrors, decent space interior and boot (for size of car), well equiped. Bad points: The Zenith roof has more drawbacks than postives, ie interior lighting is woeful and no sun visors once roof is back, indicators cancel far too sensitivley, brakes sharp at low speed, gearbox action is far too notchy and annoying, the glovebox might just hold one glove folded up. Overall: Potentially good but let down by lack of attention to detail. I must say though after 26k miles of hard use it has only blown a fuse.

Submitted: 14/08/2011 12:54:09

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Malcolm, Banffshire

Citroen C3 semi-automatic 2010

5 star review

Excellent car. Very reliable, cheap to run and economical. Also, offbeat design and very comfortable.

Submitted: 27/10/2010 20:54:03

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Graham Pullman, England

Citroen C3 1.6 Exclusive 2010

2 star review

It took 13 weeks, from ordering the car on 29th Dec 2009, to arrive at the dealership. The dealer kept on extending the delivery date when they originally promised for early Feb. Original sales person resigned while the car was on order the new guy (Kevin) did a good job of keeping me on the road and I was impressed with the level of help and service he gave. First loan car (Citroen Xsara) the clutch went with lots of nasty clutch smells. The second loan car was a Picasso and the third loan car was the demo I originally test drove. The car has been on the road for 4 weeks now and has 1100 miles (600 on a run to Swindon, Cardiff, Tenby, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Brighton then back to north Kent - the rest town use).... and so far there has been a shed load of problems. 1) Passenger side door kick plate comes off every time someone gets in. 2) Drivers side door kick plate has come off twice. 3) Bluetooth refused to work until battery disconnect and re-connected - has happened twice. 4) Engine refuses to stop for up to 20 seconds after key removed from ignition. 5) Engine dies when clutch depressed fully and in gear and you blip the throttle; the clutch is fully depressed and not released when this happens! 6) Trim under steering wheel comes off and won’t go back on and stay on. 7) Auto Central locking usually locks the doors when car goes over 6mph but on a number of occasions the auto locking didn’t kick in until 50mph, it has also unlocked doors over 30mph. 8) Heavy clunking from passenger side suspension over speed humps. All of these electrical faults are intermittent and not reproducible on demand so no doubt I’ll be going back and forth to the dealer. I gather from the dealer there are some recalls pending on new C3’s, something to do with the driveshafts. My car is already being checked. The service department at the Citroen dealer (Craford Motors, Crayford, Kent) refused to give me a loan car when I turned up for the warranty work because I had not brought the paper part of my drivers licence, however, there was a copy on file with the sales department in the next building. I managed to persuade the sales team to give the service department a copy (3 week old copy) and got the loan car. It seems the service department don’t talk to the rest of the dealership. If that continues (an no doubt I’ll be back in contact with the service department over my car) I’ll go to another Citroen dealer. As you can gather from this review I’ve not been impressed with this car. It’s the first new car I’ve bought and I’ve been disappointed with the whole package. The 1.6 VTi petrol engine is snail like compared to the old Citroen Saxo vtr 1.6 engine and the power delivery of the engine only happens at the extreme end of the rev counter, nothing happens below 4500 rpm. The 1.4 vti demonstration car and loan car are noticeably torquier at lower rpm than the 1.6 vti. Whatever you do go for the top spec 1.4 petrol or a diesel. Avoid the 1.6 petrol! The gadgets and features are good and the zenith windscreen is a really nice on a sunny day but the handling, performance and build quality are just simply not up to the standards of other manufacturers I’ve looked at while choosing a new car. Really disappointed with the car so far. Let’s see what happens after the warranty work. Update 13 May 2010: Car still at dealers for the warranty work, 4 days so far. The service department called up on 11th to say that my car was part of the recall on the driveshaft and they were awaiting delivery of the parts. Told the dealer about the real difference between the drivability between the 1.4 (better) and the 1.6(worse). He said that he would check for any software updated. If the car comes back and it’s still as sluggish as it was before I handed it in on Monday then I will cut my losses and trade it back in on another car. Update 14 May 2010: I had not heard from the service department as my loan car was supposed to be back on Thursday and I had not had a call from them. I went over to the dealership by motorbike on my way home on Friday night. They had just finished with my car and they had replaced the O/s driveshaft, fixed the trim problems but could not find any other faults. This probably means that I’ll be going back and forth to the service department each time the car decides to die at the lights (or about to pull away from my drive or trying to park it in a supermarket etc., etc.) or the central locking unlocks or lock at any speed it likes. Picking the car up today (15th), let’s see how long it takes for the car to do something the manual doesn’t describe! Update 15 May 2010: Went back to the dealers today. On examination of the car there was a "scratch" on a door. I saw it, the service manager saw it, the scratch looked and felt like a scratch. I was not best please and escalated it up the dealership. Turned out it was a bug that had hit the door and made a mark. The service manager and sales guy gave the car a clean and got rid of the "scratch". Apologised to all concerned as I had got very angry. Driveshaft replaced under recall, trim sorted, I had fitted mudflaps, which were going to be £75 but the sales/service department didn’t charge. Hopefully won’t be going back to the service department and all will be well. Update 26 May 2010: Oh dear... tonight going round a roundabout and had just pointed the car to an exit and the engine died. Coasted to the side of the road on the exit. Tried starting the car but just occasional click from under the dashboard. The LCD information display showed "Economy mode active" and all the electrics except the instrumentation lights dead. Called the recovery company who plugged the diagnostic in and could not get a signal from the on-board computer. They have recovered the car back to outside of the dealership and dropped me home. Going round there early tomorrow to drop keys off..... very fed up! 1700 miles on the clock and its just been one problem after another. Update 27th May 2010: Took legal advice this morning about rejecting the car back to the dealer. Advice I was given was to reject the car today. The consequences of this would be long and expensive legal battle but the solicitor was confident in the end due to the amount of issues I would win. Got a phone call from the service centre at the dealers early afternoon and it seems that the car stopped due to a fault with the fuse box in the engine compartment. This ‘may’ have been the cause of all the electrical problems. I arranged to go into the dealership to discuss the matter. Arrived at the dealership in the afternoon and spoke with the sales manager at the dealership and he said that he had spoken to a customer support person at Citroen UK. Their recommendations were to replace the fuse box and test the car. Problem is it would take between 7 and 14 days for the part to arrive. Trouble is I am suspicious about this diagnosis. One of the service guys who greeted me this morning when I came into hand the keys over had a wry smile on him when I past him in the dealership later on in the afternoon. Is this the fuse box or is it just a couple of fuses that have blown and they want the car for a while to find out if they blow again - covering their backsides with the "official" replacement of the fuse box? I was told that they swapped out the fuse box from the loan car they have given me into my car and all was fine, they put my fuse box in the loan car and that car was dead. The recovery guy tested the fuses last night and tried the diagnostic port but if there was a short circuit it may give a reading that all the fuses are ok. I’ve re-wired enough car and motorbike wiring looms to know that it’s possible but also that it could just be a simple thing and the dealers are gathering "evidence" of a major problem so if I reject the car then they can say its had some major work done to repair it. Just not sure - maybe I’m being too cynical, will wait until I get the car back some time in June. After a lengthy conversation with the sales manager which included a conversation about rejecting the car (I had all the paperwork and spare keys ready with me) I spoke with my partner and we have decided to accept the car on a warranty repair and try the car for a week afterwards. If there are any other faults within that week I would automatically reject the car as not fit for purpose. Also suggested to the sales manager that I trade the car back in, but it seems the repair work needs to be carried out and I would lose a shed load of money. It also seems (from the sales manager) that the dealers are not responsible for the car and act like middlemen between Citroen UK and myself. My solicitor explicitly warned me that they may try this but ultimately it’s the dealers who are responsible, who do I believe? I think that I’m being misled here. The dealer also told me that Citroen would offer compensation if I accept the repair, if I reject the car then that offer is retracted. Is this Citroen UK or the dealer offering here to keep me quiet? So the car will be at the dealer’s for another 7 to 14 days (that makes 21 days out of 55 days I’ve owned the vehicle) while I have another loan car (the 5th one this year). I am just so tempted to reject the car and go buy myself a rusted out c*** box, at least I wouldn’t be surprised when it breaks down or develops faults at least once a month. Or is that why I thought a new car would not have those issues? This whole situation is just a damn pain in the backside. Why didn’t I go with VW - i.e. one of the new Polo’s or Golf! I only went with Citroen because I had a cracking Citroen Saxo VTR before.

Submitted: 30/05/2010 21:59:35

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