23rd Jul 2006, 10:16

We had an 03 C8 for a year and a half. It went back to the garage so many times that even the dealer agreed we had a problem. We had to of course pay more, but were given a higher mileage, but 04 registered C8.

Within 2 weeks the exhaust just randomly sheared. It took a week to get the part from France and then fit it. Then, apart from a brake recall and a £480 service, we thought we were doing OK until the power steering failed. The noise and juddering was terrifying. Apparently only a minor fault - we couldn't bear to carry on and will never touch a Citroen again.

We are now £5K down (over the 2ish years of our ordeal), but we feel that we have cut our losses and got out not a minute too soon.

24th Aug 2006, 09:19

We are in the middle of a very expensive problem with our 52 c8. just before the 3 year warranty expired, we had a problem with the diesel filter, the garages response-drive 10 miles up and down the motorway in third gear till it is OK. It went in because it had a noise in the engine and we were told the fly wheel and clutch needed replacing. Also the tension arm and alternator belt needed replacing. Less than 6 months later, the pulley of the alternator belt breaks whilst driving and goes into the timing belt, we now face a bill of £2000. The garage technicians say this should not happen as the car has done under 31,000 miles. Citroen doesn't want to know. If we afford to we would scrap the car, total waste of money. Don't be fooled by the gadgets, they need to get the car working reliably. Other problems mentioned above have occurred as well-the doors, leaking sunroof to name, but a few.

30th Dec 2006, 02:38

I thought I was alone with all problems on my C8. It has just been in garage again this time the "brain" of the car malfunctioned, this cost £130 to fix as they had to reboot system as they couldn't find any other way. I locked car as my wife opened boot and this seems to have caused fault. Would be interested to know if anyone has experienced headlights going up and down in brightness whilst driving tried to sort this out and fitted new alternator, but it made no difference. Also had some of the faults of other owners.

Drivers seat was replaced in first few months as foam was crumbling and leaving dust under seat. Anti pollution fault indicator came on several times before first 1000 mile check and still does occasionally. All these problems and more on a car not quite 4 years old and only done 21,000 miles. Two front tyres after 12,000 miles and now coming up for some more. I was considering changing car for the new Picasso, but I don't think I would buy another Citroen.

1st Jan 2007, 09:47

I accidentally stumbled upon these comments the other day and cannot believe how similar the faults that people are having are the same as that of my wife's car. Too date the car has now been in well over 100 times from new. My wife now knows all the engineers and service people very well and they usually expect the car in 2-3 times per month. It is ridiculous and I am now seeking redress in the courts.

By the way the fuel consumption is stated as 40mpg for the diesel 2.0 but in reality in town we are averaging 22.4mpg...not very good for a diesel engine.

I won't bore you will all the other faults as they are basically the same as others have listed before.

Well done citroen... we will spread the news of your dreadful C8 vehicle and customer care.

9th Jan 2007, 04:42

I might have to come back here later and comment in more detail when I have checked through the pile of 'repair orders' for my wife's '05 C8 2.2 HDi Exclusive, and the letters we have sent since purchase to Citroen UK, who I agree, are a complete waste of time. However, its no big surprise to read the comments from other owners. I'll see if I can list our problems.

Whilst our C8 could be said not to have had any major problems, in as much as it hasn't left my wife stranded...yet, it has been back to the garage more times than I care to remember for stupid things, which are none the less annoying and inconvenient. Its currently waiting to go in for a leaking sunroof. It has the triple sunroof option, which to be honest if we had realised they only opened half way, we would never have specified. This problem has occured and supposedly been rectified once already, but on Saturday my wife again had to drive with her umbrella up! Despite the weather forecast (rain, rain, more rain) the usual dealer was unable to book it for ten days, despite the fact that the water exits through the overhead console containing courtesy and map lights, but also controls for the electric doors, alarm componants etc, and there is obviously a danger of extensive electrical damage, and potentially fire when water and electricity mix! Fortunately, an alternative dealer was able to get it in tomorrow, I wonder if they will do any better?

Last time they said it was probably a blocked drain, but actually replaced the seal, which had looked okay. To be honest, I can't see any signs of a drain anyway. The whole design seems slightly strange, with the roof lining extending beyond the sunroof aperature, such that if it were left open in the rain, instead of just getting the seats/occupants wet, water would fall/roll into and accumulate in the roof lining, where it naturally runs down and exits via the console previously mentioned. Perhaps this is the 'drain' they mentioned?!!!

I have tried to repeat the leak using a hose pipe, but cannot, so it does seem rather random. We are even beginning to wonder if the deluges are not even caused by a leak at all, but simply by condensation, which naturally builds up on the inside of the glass at this time of the year, then drips down into the sunroof surrounds, and in the absence of any drains then into the overhanging roof lining. I'll be interested to see what conclusions Citroen come to. If condensation is the cause they will probably tell us not to get in with wet clothes, or breathe!!!

That advice would be no more bizarre than that they gave regards another minor problem/query concerning the sunroofs. We were under the impression that the C8 had 'global closing', ie if the lock button on the remote were held down, the car would lock, alarm set, and any windows and sunroofs left open would shut. Well, we were almost right, the windows do shut, the sunroofs do slide back, but remain on tilt. Well, even our previous ten year old Galaxy had global closing, and the sunroof on that would firmly shut, none of this tilt business!

I queried this with Citroen UK suggesting that there was surely a fault. 'Oh no' they replied, 'its been designed like that to leave ventilation for your dog, if you need to leave it in the car'. Interesting, but we don't have a dog, further if we did we wouldn't leave it in the car, but if we had to, it would set the alarm off within two minutes anyway, as to disarm the volumetric bit is nigh on impossible, but at best is a two person job! I pointed this out to Citroen, and also that leaving sunroofs on tilt in the UK is hardly practical given the high possibility of ingression by rain, or car thieves, and asked if they couldn't reprogram it to shut fully as would logically be expected, but they said no its supposed to be like that, so live with it!

Another minor fault, was the tyre valve that sheared off, leaving the tyre flat and unable to be reinflated. When I said it hadn't left the wife stranded I forgot that when it did that it left me stranded, until I found the spare wheel, jack etc. Bloke at the petrol station said he had never seen that happen before, as did the bloke at the tyre place (who couldn't fix it, because it was a Sunday, and Citroen were shut, and they would have to supply the replacement valve!) Citroen replaced the valve under warranty, just as well at the cost of it, but the C8's brain couldn't recognise the new one and kept telling us a wheel had fallen off. it took several visits to the Citroen garage before the C8 would finally accept that it had all four wheels and none of the tyres were flat.

However, one bizarre benefit of the tyre pressure sensor pantomine was the fuel consumption. Up until this point it has been abysmal, never getting above about 31mpg, no matter what we did, despite the brochure claiming a potential maximum of around 47mpg. Whilst sorting the tyre pressure sensor problem, we asked them to check the fuel consumption. They checked the settings, insisted that they were okay, and that they had not changed anything, yet when we got the car back, it was suddenly doing 10 mpg more than it had done previously. Good, but strange!

Most of the problems seem to be electrical or software related. One feature, which we never had the benefit of were the 'memory mirrors', which should have worked in conjunction with the memory position seats. The dealer replaced some £500 of electrical circuitry in their attempts to get this function to work, before admitting that it would not do so until Citroen provided a software upgrade. Asked when this would be, Citroen said that this function had been discontinued, even though the dealer said it hadn't, and it still appeared in the brochures for a further 12 months. I asked them to supply an engine/chassis number from when this was discontinued, no response. From comments by other owners, I believe this function actually disappeared when Citroen upgraded the software to eliminate the 'pollution' warning problem, and that in some cases the heating/folding functions of the mirror was also lost. Great though, can't fix a fault with it, so just say the feature is discontinued!

Citroen UK were equally as vague about the service intervals. Our C8 was sold as having 20,000/2 year intervals, yet the service department at the dealer insisted it should be 12 months/12500 miles. When I and the dealers spoke to Citroen UK to clarify we each received different answers from them, until they finally insisted that it was indeed 20,000/2 years, and that all service departments had been notified. Strange then that when I phoned service departments at ten different dealers around the country several months later, not one gave me the correct answer, most still insisting it was 12500/12 months, whatever the age of the vehicle. Given that if they believed that, and we stuck with what we were told, it might as far as the dealers were concerned have invalidated the warranty, or even cause damage to the vehicle, I did finally get Citroen UK to supply the engine number from when the service interval was extended, but only after writing to them numerous times.

Then there are the electric doors, which sometimes and mysteriously refuse to shut, whilst on others threaten to crush you alive. The Citroen technician checked it over and said there was nothing wrong with them, but was still not confident enough in their own diagnosis to stick his own arm in and see if it got broken or not. And the great thing about all the technology and safety features of the car is that it is still possible to drive away with the sliding doors wide open!!!

It hasn't been in yet for the cruise control, which randomly stops working. just like any good computer, this has so far been cured by shutting down, and restarting. However, as the fault usually only becomes apparent when you want to actually use this feature, i.e. on the motorway, it is hardly convenient, safe or sensible to pull over onto the hard shoulder, turn off the ignition, lock the doors and sit there for five minutes whilst its brain resets!

Catch on the fuse flap to right of steering wheel broke, and even that necessitated two trips to the dealer to get fixed.

There are several other faults it hasn't been in for yet either. As experienced by others, the pipe to the rear wash wipe blows off, potentially causing a great deal of water damage to the electrics in that area. Taped that up myself with waterproof sticky tape. The duct which carries hot/cold air to the rear passenger compartment fell off, stuck that back together myself with double sided tape. And even after repairs to the latter, the 'trizone' climate control is pretty useless really, providing a weak draught of air that is neither hot in the winter or cold in the summer by the time it reaches the rear vents.

I'm keeping an eye on the tyres, and they don't look as if they are doing as bad as some reports suggest, but not as good as I would have hoped.

My final gripe is I suppose our own fault for not test driving the car thoroughly before purchase. Whilst it is extremely nice to drive, and comfortable for the driver and front seat passenger, the middle and third row occupants seem very cramped compared to our previous Galaxy. Despite what the brochure suggests, there is also a severe lack of storage spaces compared to the Galaxy.

Well, I think that is about it, like I said, nothing major, just lots of niggles that are extremely annoying and very time consuming and inconvenient to get sorted. Each one usually involves several visits to the dealer, and loss of use of the car for 2-3 days each time. If we get through a month without it having to go in we celebrate!!! This is not what you expect from a 'top of the range' car costing well in excess of £20k. Our main concern now is that whilst many of these faults are on the face of it quite minor, they would be extremely expensive to rectify once out of warranty, and in any case, how long before something major goes?

It may have a lot less features, and isn't a lot cheaper really, but it appears to have much more room inside, and be built to last, so on Saturday we are going to go and test drive a Kia Sedona 2.9Crd TS, say no more!!!