| Product: |
Citroën Xsara Picasso HDI 2.0l Desire |
| Date: |
12/02/09 (158 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Cheap, reliable, comfortable, family sized mpv
Disadvantages: Poor dealerships
I have a large family but also have a job that requires me to drive over 40,000 miles per year. The problem I had was to find a family car that was comfortable, cheap to run, cheap to insure, and after 3 years hadn't depriciated so much I may as well just burn money.
What cars did I look at?
I looked at all the usual suspects, VW Touran, Vauxhall Zafira, Ford S-Max etc. They were all of a similar standard, but what drew me to the Picasso, bluntly, was price.
All of the others for a decent spec car you were looking at £16k-£20k. The Picasso came in just under £10k (the dealer was pricing really aggresively)
What do I like about it?
Price!! After 3 years and almost 100k miles on the clock I have only lost £2.5k per year in depreciation. This is nothing compared to the hit I would have taken on the other options!
Spec, I got a really good spec with this, Climate Control, ABS, ESP, Cruise Control, Front Fog Lamps etc etc.
Driving position. The 'Sit Up' driving position of this car is just fantastic. I can drive 200 miles and get out of this car fresh as a daisy. I didn't even feel as refreshed getting out of my old Audi A4.
Fuel Economy. Absolutely brilliant. On a full tank, driving steadily I can get 600-700 miles (costs about £55 to fill up the tank on Feb 2009 diesel prices)
Other consumables. It is really great on consumables, I replaced the factory fitted Michelin tyres on the fron after 50k miles and the rear ones after 60k miles. The brake pads only needed replacing after 70k miles!! Maybe this is down to my driving style but this is still pretty impressive!!
Servicing. Service Intervals are great, with a variable service interval which averages around 12k-14k miles between services. Average service cost has been about £300.
What I don't like?
With the car? Not much. It is built to a price so the trim and velour seats are starting to look a little tired but thats all.
The only thing that lets this car down is the Citroen dealerships. They are RUBBISH! I took my car to no less than 4 different Citroen dealerships for servicing and a couple of other minor items and they were all less than useless. Fortunately I have a good independant garage who specialise in Citroen and Peugeots.
Summary: Great car totally underestimated
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