Another talk to me about thread, this time the Citroen C2

[HillmanImp]

A lass at work is after one of these as her first car. Will be a base model 1.1 engine I would think.

 

 

Has anyone had any experience of these? Being an early noughties French car I suppose it might suffer from odd electrical gremlins but is there any specific faults that she needs to look for that can be big bucks?

 

T'interweb just points out normal stuff like make sure the cambelt is done regularly and catalysts are okay (but a car with a full MOT should be fine on emissions) but even these don't seem massive bucks to sort out.

 

Looks like cheap and cheerful motoring as far as I can see but thought i would throw it out there to ask those with more experience of such things.

[Partridge]

The head gaskets like to blow on them from time to time...some of the sporty ones seem to have filtered down to the Tesco’s Car Park Brigade now so buy wisely.

Buy a Rover. The head gaskets NEVER go on them

[HillmanImp]

Ta for that. Will tell her to check for sludge. Do they suffer from fake OMG HGF! NOT RLY! condensation at all?

 

Anyone else have any pointers to look for or are they generally considered to be pretty okay-ish for what they are?

[Albert Ross]

Black death in the oil is a biggie, spark plugs are a touch awkward to get at cleanly, risk of snapping the porcelain as they are fitted. Dipsticks snap at the very bottom, it's a sump off job to get the bit out..... Cam covers rust a bit, and the gaskets leak. Sumps can rust out like the early Puntos. Coil pack failure. Sticky brake pads if low mileage. HGF isn't always HGF, but requires the head off to sort. Wet liners.... base seal failure (rare but possible). A bit placcified inside, reasonable storage. Watch for alloy wheel upgrades with steel wheel bolts. NOT compatible and they pull through. They need to have the flat washered bolt, not the plain taper type. There's probably more, but I forget.

[Morgan84]

Headgaskets failure on these engines is usually a messy oil leak rather than oil and water mixing. I have driven a C2 1.1 before,and it has the same Saxo type sloppy gear change,but decent feeling pedals.They are a nice handling little car,and seem fairly well screwed together for a car of its type and price. The 1.1 however is a miserable gutless pile of fertilizer to drive,and I personally would avoid this at all costs;A friend of mine drove the same C2 I did,and he made the 'mistake' of trying to pull out of a junction into a quick space,and found it was just not powerfull enough. We both agree'd they look a great car,but the smaller engine should be avoided

[ypsilandra]

We looked at buying a C2 a while back, when we were replacing the smart. I quite like the look of them and they have some interesting design touches. We were looking at the one with the semi-auto box, which I think is the VTS? with the big engine, but read too many reports of transmission software failures to take the plunge. Had a good look at the Code model - all black with a lovely tan leather interior, but was too expensive at the time.

 

I'd seriously consider a Panda as an alternative or a Suzuki Swift.

[Morgan84]

Yes,a Swift,or even the Alto are both very nice cars,although the Alto with its 1.0 3 cyl engine will be a better bet for financial and insurance reasons. Other cheap and cheerful cars are the C1/107/Aygo

[R9UKE]

I bought this for my aunt back in September as she was after a run around, the Vel Satis just wasn't happy with the town driving and short runs she has to do for work.

 

 

 

Cracker little car. That 1.1 engine is great around town, and the trip computer claimed 45 MPG. It was a novelty putting £20 in and it half filling the tank. Problems wise, they don't really suffer the usual French carry on. Everything electrical is pretty solid, there's no feature that stands out as a common failure point. The drivers seat suffers the same sagging and collapse that the C5 does, and there's the HGF already mentioned.

 

The split tailgate is great, and the separate two rear seats slide back and forth and can be folded and flipped forward MPV style if you need to fit more than a bottle of coke in the boot. It's joys around town were quickly dispelled by the 5 hour trip from Stranraer to the Midlands with no cruise control, no power and no refinement. Definitely a city car, and a good one at that.

[blackburied]

Learnt to drive in one, not my bag but it was alright, very light steering but felt funny under braking. We once got 70stone of people in a friends C2. Still went too

[HillmanImp]

 

Wickeda chaps. Very helpful. Quite a list there from you AR. Whats the black death in the oil?

 

I think she will have to go for the smaller engine as she is only 17 so insurance costs are sodding daft. Plus she in one of these 'apprentices' who are on that scheme the government dreamed up which is another word for 'someone who we can pay less than minimum wage' so she cant afford to up her insurance costs.

 

Think swifts might be out of her £2,000 price range. However Panda's are cheap aren't they? Being a girl she probably is going for style over sensibility but will mention it.

[pandarus]

Gorgeous looking cars, I really do like the modern Citroens.

 

My mate has one of these and he regularly runs it up to Liverpool and back to East Anglia with no probs. He's not exactly an oily rag guy either. The radio packed up but he got that replaced. Had a lift in it a few times, it's a reliable and good looking car.

[ypsilandra]

I reckon she'd get a low mileage, reasonably cheap to insure, 55/56 plate Panda for £2k.

[Morgan84]

Clio 1.2 maybe ? Ford Ka/ Fiesta or a Corsa 1.0 - all cheap (er ) insurance Little Kia Picanto, Hyundai Getz - she is spoiled for choice really

[Joey spud]

As an 'orange van man' i see most things broken down and these are not too bad,coil packs fail,throttle bodies gum up/fail and put the mil lamp on so reduced power results,and i've seen a few with broken drivers door latch/catch mechanisms so the door wont shut.

 

There ok for first cheap car for a girlie..

[dollywobbler]

I think they're hateful looking things, but friends have owned them and been very pleased with the reliability. One friend replaced it with a C3 Picasso which has been nothing but absolute arse-arche. They covered a fair few miles in their C2 with only servicing needed.

[Ben_L]

Insurance Group One models are all the way up to SX, at which they jump to IG8.

 

1.4HDi is super economical.

 

1.1SX is the lowest model to have AC as standard.

 

LX looks crap with black bumpers.

 

Usual TU engine issues and 1.4 HDI is a PSA/Ford Venture.

 

Ben.