Citroen C3 road tests and consumer car reviews

Citroen C3 2006

I bought this wee car when it was 1 year old and a whole 9200 miles on the clock. It was maintainence free for first 3 years after I purchased it, then I had to replace tyres and brakes this year. A very economical car with great all round vision. I can park this car in the tightest of spaces. The boot hold a full week’s shopping for a family of four (as long as it is empty). I’m so pleased with this little car. Unfortunately a front spring broke this week and it has damaged a cv boot, a pipe and something on the brakes all on the same that side. The cost of the repairs is in the region of £300. Do I blame my car? Nope...just the local council for not maintaining their roads and the many pot holes in them!!

Responses to this review

A little homework will tell you that spring failure is all too common. Just had one fail on a C4. I find it a bit concerning that regular catastrophic failures are not subject to a recall/re-engineering - Ed from Norfolk

Citroen C3 1.4 2009

I’ve had my C3 now for nearly 3 years and I really love it. It always starts first time and I’ve never had any problems with it. It’s very roomy with a big boot. A nice colour and I’ve had great servive from the Citroen dealer.  picked this car for its cute looks and it has turned out great! I will definitely change for a newer version next year. I love it!!

Citroen C3 1.4 hdi vtr + 2010

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.

Citroen C3 Rhythm 2008

This car is my wife’s and has done 18500 mile from new, So far it has proven to be reliable and excellent on the fuel (1.4 HDI). One negative do not use the washers if it is around zero degrees C as the washer pump fuse will blow. It seems to need a diesel additive when it is serviced and the main dealer charged for it. (£230) for the 200 mile service. Considering it is the first one and the next is at 38000 miles not too bad. Otherwise a good car overall.

Responses to this review

You are wrong to say don’t use your washers. The fuse only blows to save the pump burning out if you forget to fill the washer bottle or it freezes through not having enough screen wash in it. In this weather, with temperatures down to minus 16, you need a 50/50 mix at least - Dave Tea from Durham

Citroen C3 semi-automatic 2010

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

Citroen C3 SX

I bought this SX Diesel injection 1.4 model and have nothing but praise for it. With 80,000 on the clock I thought it was taking a bit of a chance, but 3 years later and only one re-charged aircon unit it has been absolutely trouble free. It is very comfortable and I can only assume those who say it is not have yet to try the new Panda? The mpg is fantastic as it the £25 annual road tax. It may be a bit small for 4 adults but 2+2 is fine. The radio controls on the steering wheel are very useful and it took me some while before I found the extra front fog light switch. The only drawback I can find is the user manual. This covers so many models that you have a job to identify your particular car. Apart from that well done Citroen!

Citroen C3 1.6 Exclusive 2010

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.

Responses to this review

UPDATE: 7th June 2010 - I took the loan car back on the 30th May, as we didn’t need it. Used my 21 year old VW golf GTi for the week (after replacing the power steering rack and pump at the weekend). Today I got a call from Colin the sales manager to say that the car was ready after having the fuse box replaced and was tested Thursday and Friday. Car has done 130 miles during its time with the dealer.. Picked it up this afternoon during my work lunch break. Car seems to be working. Colin said that Citroen UK will be contacting me by letter regarding the situation. 12th June 2010 - Letter came from Citroen UK offering compensation for the issues I’ve had with the car. It’s a Virgin Experience pack where you can choose from about 10 things to do. 19th June 2010 - After a week of driving around the car broke down again on Saturday. Same issues of clicking from under the dash and "Economy Mode" on the status panel. On Saturday drove the car from home at Blackfen to Charlton to get dog food, Bluewater to change mobile phone and then back to the big Tesco supermarket at Sidcup. Pulled up switched off, went shopping, came back - loaded up the car with shopping, got in and click, click, click... Phoned the AA and the dealership. Colin at the dealership guided me through pushing the fuses under the bonnet to see if they were loose. When the car wouldn’t start, he said get the AA to bring the car straight back to them. Both myself and my partner was not amused ...... Dealers were apologetic and offered me the same demo car I’d had before. With all of the shopping I had no choice but to accept the loan car. I’ve been loathed to accept it as there is a £1000 excess and I don’t want the responsibility (I’d rather use my trusty 21 year old VW golf gti that has never been on the back of an AA truck in 7 years) but this time I had to take the car with £150 of shopping in tow. 21st June 2010 - I was in the area of the dealership buying a kitchen appliance and stopped at the dealership to give them my new mobile phone number. Colin said that the engineer had swapped out the fusebox with another car and the electric windows started to work... but the car would not start. On both breakdowns when the car has stopped the windows still worked for 20 minutes and after than only electrics working were the information panel and the instrumentation. This seems to indicate a cabling fault somewhere in the car. 25th June 2010 - After leaving a voicemail with the dealership Colin called me back to let me know that they will be replacing parts of the engine wiring loom - that connects to the ECU - which they think is defective. They will be road testing the car for 48 hours after the repair. From what Colin said on the phone they have not been able to start the car since the breakdown. I’ve tried calling Gavin at Citroen UK to find out what is going on as well; left voice mail messages. Not sure when the car will be ready. Update 25 June 2010 - After a very terse conversation with Gavin at Citroen UK and a conversation with my partner I have finally officially rejected the car back to the dealers requesting a replacement vehicle. Gavin bounced me back to the dealers telling me that it’s their problem and Citroen UK would advise Crayford not reject the vehicle. After two major breakdowns and numerous electrical problems I lost my patience with both Citroen UK and Crayford Citroen as neither of them seem to want to take responsibility for the quality of the car I purchased. It was funny but Gavin protested that they were not given a chance to repair the vehicle (eh? its been with the dealers three times for a period of 20 days!) and he said the dealership is soley responsible for the rejection - In complete contrast to Crayford Citroen stance, which is Citroen UK are responsible for rejecting the vehicle and the quality of said vehicle. On a small note I was actually surprised and grateful to Colin at the dealership who let me continue to use the loan car. My Mk2 VW Golf GTI still needs some power steering work done to it and pressing it into service would probably result in the rack destroying itself. Maybe this whole sticky situation will be resolved when those concerned start to realise that all I want is a reliable working car that I have faith in that I can drive it around without worrying that the car will dump me somewhere. Is that too much to ask? Isn’t that what all new car buying customers really want? 2nd July 2010 - Dealer phoned up yesterday stating that Citroen UK have asked the dealer to get the loan car back from me as they were unhappy with me driving around in their products - their words not mine!. Went down there to discuss and essentially they backed me into a corner of only giving me back trade price on rejected car and Citroen *might* stump up the extra costs. This would have been a long and expensive rejection. Really fed up now and had to accept the repair. Dealer and Citroen UK unhelpful and not interested. Dropped the loan car back and collected my car. 12 July 2010 - Car would not start on my drive. Same issues as before. As it happened at home I got the multimeter out and checked all the fuses. Fuse 1 on the engine fuse box (20amp) was blown. I nicked a 10 amp fuse from my motorcycle (as they are the same mini fuses) and put it in the car. It started. In the evening I went to the dealership to let them know that the car refused to start and the fuse had blown. As the 10amp fuse gets the car moving Kevin in sales said that someone would be round to pick the car up. It has come the stage where I’ve actually purchased a second hand Peugeot 206 to travel to and from work as I have no confidence in the brand new car I purchased 3 months ago. My VW Golf is legally off the road and far too old to do the commute (it is up for sale at the moment) so the only option I had was to invest £2000 in another car to have reliable transport - Graham Pullman from England

One of the best and most accurate reviews of the Citroen C3 I have ever read. They are an absolute waste of money, completely unreliable, and dangerous to drive - Kevin Slattery from England

Citroen C3 SX 1.4 2002

Pile of c**p! I’d had it two days from the dealer and it broke. Had it one month after having the first repair fixed (radiator replaced) the exact same problem occurred. Now the passenger door has come loose and clicks/cracks when opening/closing it. I’m now the owner of a C3 that’s faulty after 1.5 months so trading it in for a Vauxhall Meriva Energy. Thank Christ. Also, don’t buy ANY cars from Evans Halshaw - They’re rip off merchants!!

Citroen C3 limousine 2004

I drive a C3 1.4 SX petrol, which I’ve had for 6 years, and I`m thrilled. Car is just excellent. Easy to drive with very precise and fast gear box, whatever anyone says. Very spacious. I was never left on the road. Very good on mpg. The engine power is OK. I’ve been thinking of buying a new model, but the old one is so good to me that I`m sorry to sell it. Does anyone know of a C3 Fun Club?

Citroen C3 2006

An excellent car for around town. Very good road handling, easy to drive and to maintain. No problems at all. I am very happy with it.

Citroen C3 2003

I’m very pleased with my car, value for money but I bought it for the driving position - very comfortable and high seat. Only complaint is the turning circle!

Responses to this review

Yes, for such a small car, the turning circle is very large. Other than that, I had my C3 for over three years and did thousands of miles in it. Sadly I had an accident at 145,000 miles and it was written off. Hardly ever cost me a penny to maintain. Go on, buy one - Dave from England

Citroen C3 2008

I own a Citroen c3 1.1 Vibe - I find the car is a perfect car for in town - easy to park - with good vision all round - also very good mpg - on the open roads I find the car is smooth with plenty of inside space - I am 6ft 1in tall - I do not find myself cramped up like many of the other cars of a similar size.

Citroen C3 1.6HDI Exclusive 90bhp (Iron Grey) 2007

Very good car - I drive these at work all the time. Best in class. I would recommend buying used or pre-registered though. Works best with any diesel, the petrol versions are rubbish.

Citroen C3 1.1 2006

The C3 is a decent performer but in hindsight I wish that I had gone for the Clio. The performance is OK, space is very good and it’s good value for money but it doesn’t really excel in any department. A good all round car with the amount of interior space being its major plus point.

Citroen C3 1.4 LX

You can get good discounts on a new Citroen C3 making this car a cheap run around. Not the best car in its class, but well worth looking at.