Faults:
Shortly after delivery the fault log was indicating "Rear suspension fault". The car has air suspension at the rear. Dealer diagnosed a faulty battery, which had insufficient power to pump the suspension on unlocking the car. Battery was replaced under warranty and the problem has not reappeared.
After about 30k miles, the fuel filler flap would not open when the release button in the dashboard was pressed. Dealer said this is a common fault and that Citroen had advised a free of charge repair for it. Problem has not reappeared since dealer did the repair.
Car is fitted with the Blue-tooth hands-free phone kit. If you try to synchronise too many contacts from the phone to the car on initially establishing the bluetooth pair, some of the contacts stored by the car become corrupted. I got around this by syncing about 20, adding another 20 and syncing, adding another 20 and syncing etc.
Fuel consumption was originally in the 40~45mpg range, but dropped to consistently below 40mpg after about 30k miles. Following the 40k service it has returned to run in the 40~45mpg range.
General Comments:
ESG gearbox compared to VW's DSG? The DSG is a better "full automatic", but the ESG, which is not claimed to be a "full automatic" is a better semi-automatic than the DSG. I normally drive the car in M-Mode, except when using cruise control on the motorway when I use the A-Mode.
It's no sports car but pretty comfortable - a motorised sofa, which is what it's supposed to be.
My car is the 5 door version. It tends to wander in (not very strong) crosswinds, rather like the early Ford Sierras. I've read similar comments in forums so I don't think its tyre pressures or anything specific to my car.
In normal UK driving it can return 40~45mpg. But cruising French Autoroutes at 130kph with 3 people and a full boot this drops to <35mpg.
It's well built, a big improvement for Citroen compared to the Mk1 Picasso. But also very expensive compared to the Mk1 Picasso. £23k for a Citroen MPV! Somehow it feels a bit characterless, as did the Touran, but not something I could say of the Fiat Multipla I had before the Touran.
23rd Jun 2009, 15:02
I wrote the original review. The car has now done 61500 miles and just had its 60000 mile service. The service included a software upgrade to the gear change "gird" and software adjustment of the clutch biting point. The gear shifts are smoother in "A" mode now. Generally the car had no serious problems until it was serviced. But a couple of days after servicing the air conditioning would not blow chilled air, only ambient air from outside and the car was draining its battery overnight, eventually failing to start completely. Today it's been fixed by my local Citroen dealer. No parts where changed, just more software upgrades, including one for the Body Systems Interface (BSI) unit; and re-pressurising the air-con. The dealer says it it's only drawing 20mA from the battery now when parked up, which is "in spec". But they've no idea why it suddenly started draining the battery when parked. I'm now waiting to see if the battery is flat again tomorrow morning - watch this space!