Collection thread - now the "quite cheap but already quite broken" C6 thread

[GeordieInExile]

You know what it is, but have a thread anyway. 

Poo count so far: zero.

[grogee]

Did the bork d'electronique get resolved? 

More importantly what did you have for breakfast? 

[GeordieInExile]

6 minutes ago, grogee said:

Did the bork d'electronique get resolved? 

More importantly what did you have for breakfast? 

Not yet... I'm gonna ring the guy en route.

No breakfast yet, I'm waiting until leg 1 of my journey (of 3) is complete.

[Twiggy]

Goodluck ! I hope it all goes well.

[GeordieInExile]

Leg Un (de Trois).

[GeordieInExile]

Breakfast is served! Still 35 minutes until Leg Deux begins.

[TheOtherStu]

11 minutes ago, GeordieInExile said:

Breakfast is served! Still 35 minutes until Leg Deux begins.

Breakfast of kings

[GeordieInExile]

This could be worse.

Departure 10am, arrival in Leeds 1pm. 

[cort16]

Good luck, hope it all goes well!

[grogee]

49 minutes ago, GeordieInExile said:

This could be worse.

Departure 10am, arrival in Leeds 1pm. 

Is that... a bus? 

Brave k'lecshunn. I wish you the speediest of bus lanes. Thanks for the breakfast update. 

[GeordieInExile]

3 minutes ago, grogee said:

Is that... a bus? 

Brave k'lecshunn. I wish you the speediest of bus lanes. Thanks for the breakfast update. 

I don't trust the trains today given the strikes. And the bus was like a third of the price. 

Gonna have to bus it to the suburban location of the car despite there being a train station opposite the guy's house. That'll turn a 5 minute journey into a 35 minute one. At least the bus is only £2 a ticket...

[grogee]

10 minutes ago, GeordieInExile said:

the strikes

Bloody hell is that still happening? It's almost as if our cloth-eared, racist government hasn't noticed 20% food inflation and a widespread cost of living crisis. 

I don't really hate buses. I just don't really understand their ways. 

[Jim Bell]

2 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

Leg Un (de Trois).

I heart Cullerfornia. 

[GeordieInExile]

36 minutes ago, grogee said:

Bloody hell is that still happening? It's almost as if our cloth-eared, racist government hasn't noticed 20% food inflation and a widespread cost of living crisis. 

I don't really hate buses. I just don't really understand their ways. 

Presumably the relevant minister* has already blamed the unions, as if their members should be content with seeing their pay stagnate and conditions squeezed while ticket prices never stop rising and billions of pounds are creamed off and handed to the shareholders of foreign companies. 

*I have no idea who the transport secretary is right now and it's not as if it matters either way, rail policy has been the drizzling shits for as long as I've taken an interest in politics.

[GeordieInExile]

23 minutes ago, Jim Bell said:

I heart Cullerfornia. 

It's a great place to live. We've just got a new fancy bakery 😁

[GeordieInExile]

So close...

[GeordieInExile]

Bonus 4th leg coming up - a lift to the car. In a Bentley convertible. Hope he lets me put the roof down.

[GeordieInExile]

Great start. About a mile from where I picked it up. Christ...

[GeordieInExile]

Ignore the EML. That was entirely driver error. I, er, had it in manual mode and it was stuck in 2nd. Foot down and it must have taken exception to my attempt to get it to go to 50 in 2nd. 

Into drive instead and it's driven perfectly since. The light is still on but hey, we can ignore that. What we can't ignore is how fucking HOT it is - the aircon very much does not condition the air, it blows hot. The radio is producing no sound. 

I'm going to get it into someone that knows what they're doing with these, pronto. He can clear the EML as well, hopefully....

[cort16]

If the car is running okay and then I wouldn't worry about the EML too much.

[jamescarruthers]

The heater flaps fuck up on these. You’ll find the solutions on the C6owners.org forum. I’ve never had to do it on my two C6 but it sounds like you can cut the box open, replace the flaps and glue it back up. Doubt it’s easy mind. 
 

P.S. fellow Geordie C6 owner here m too, (happily) exiled too in Cambridgeshire. 

[GeordieInExile]

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=220&t=1847513

 

This gives me hope the EML will be gone within a few days. Hopefully. I won't make such a dumb mistake again, like...!

[GeordieInExile]

Now that's what I call a comprehensive history!

Every invoice for every bit of work and every service ever carried out, and all of the MOTs complete with receipts for work carried out if needed.

The car cost £25,500 when it was 9 months old and had 4,500 miles on. Presumably it was a demo and Citroen were the first owners. 

[Schaefft]

25.5k for a pretty much brand new C6 sounds like an utter bargain, totally would in 2007.

[RichardK]

Just now, Schaefft said:

25.5k for a pretty much brand new C6 sounds like an utter bargain, totally would in 2007.

I did, it was a stupid idea. Mine had 15 miles on.

£39K list.

£28K in the window.

£4K deposit contribution:

£2000 trade in for my 2004 Ignis Sport.

£800 paid, £345/month, £11K balance:

It was so bad I gave it back with months to go and lost the negative equity in a deal for a cheap C3 Airdream and it was the best decision ever.

[Schaefft]

6 minutes ago, RichardK said:

I did, it was a stupid idea. Mine had 15 miles on.

£39K list.

£28K in the window.

£4K deposit contribution:

£2000 trade in for my 2004 Ignis Sport.

£800 paid, £345/month, £11K balance:

It was so bad I gave it back with months to go and lost the negative equity in a deal for a cheap C3 Airdream and it was the best decision ever.

What made it so bad?

[RichardK]

5 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

What made it so bad?

Bloated 407 coupe in a fatsuit, shitty tech compared to the C5, hesitant gearbox, diagonal pitching, AWFUL brakes (nothing like a big Citroen should be - C5 on coils was better), weirdly central driving position with distant flanks, suspension failures, balljoints failing twice in 20K miles, did I mention the terrifying way it would approach a roundabout, block all visible threats with A-pillars like an elephant's thigh then when you put your foot down have all the response of a mobility scooter being ridden by said elephant (torque limiting on V6 diesel).

Despite the low miles it had clearly had paint done on the NSR door - fine sanding marks under the lacquer from filler, and a thin line of primer on the door edge. Dealer broke a wheel and left me with it vibrating at 70mph for several months... suspension strut failed and I was given a C2 for 800 mile round trips (the reason for running a C6).

And it was that that really made it horrid. Mostly just really terrible dealers that could have made everything better but just made me resent how much I spend on the car and how much less "Citroeny" it was than the dream of a brand-new, not-bodged big Cit was after years of much loved but flawed CXs and XMs.

Final straw was a £500 Xantia estate I bought to move house in that handled and rode 10x better. After agreeing a deal with some asshat taking his leggy, towed-with Signum as PX only for him to get spooked that I wouldn't clear the finance, I wanted it to explode.

I left my private plate - C6 RTK - on it I was that angry and determined I would never touch one again. Then Keith loaned me his cheap banger black C6 and as a cheap car, it felt much easier to like but still far from an XM or HP C5 II in terms of cohesiveness.

But at least it didn't catch fire.

[cort16]

29 minutes ago, RichardK said:

Bloated 407 coupe in a fatsuit, shitty tech compared to the C5, hesitant gearbox, diagonal pitching, AWFUL brakes (nothing like a big Citroen should be - C5 on coils was better), weirdly central driving position with distant flanks, suspension failures, balljoints failing twice in 20K miles, did I mention the terrifying way it would approach a roundabout, block all visible threats with A-pillars like an elephant's thigh then when you put your foot down have all the response of a mobility scooter being ridden by said elephant (torque limiting on V6 diesel).

Despite the low miles it had clearly had paint done on the NSR door - fine sanding marks under the lacquer from filler, and a thin line of primer on the door edge. Dealer broke a wheel and left me with it vibrating at 70mph for several months... suspension strut failed and I was given a C2 for 800 mile round trips (the reason for running a C6).

And it was that that really made it horrid. Mostly just really terrible dealers that could have made everything better but just made me resent how much I spend on the car and how much less "Citroeny" it was than the dream of a brand-new, not-bodged big Cit was after years of much loved but flawed CXs and XMs.

Final straw was a £500 Xantia estate I bought to move house in that handled and rode 10x better. After agreeing a deal with some asshat taking his leggy, towed-with Signum as PX only for him to get spooked that I wouldn't clear the finance, I wanted it to explode.

I left my private plate - C6 RTK - on it I was that angry and determined I would never touch one again. Then Keith loaned me his cheap banger black C6 and as a cheap car, it felt much easier to like but still far from an XM or HP C5 II in terms of cohesiveness.

But at least it didn't catch fire.

I’ve not noticed the roundabout thing infact visibility seem  good to me  compared to most very modern stuff . Have you driven a ds5? Now that has shit visibility .

The handling  is floaty but that’s kind of what I expect  .  I can understand why it could be very frustrating with shit dealers and issues in what was probably an under developers car if I was spending 400 quid a month on one . 

[RichardK]

Visibility gets worse every generation but I don't have binocular vision - driving position makes a huge difference too.

As a used car it makes way more sense but I could have had a Jag XF. Or a Xantia every two months

[RichardK]

When new the floaty handling wasn't. It was capable of matching the pace I'd maintain in an RX-8 down the A7 Hawick to Carlisle, albeit with an eye on crests and respect for the weight. At speed - and I did, once, on a private track* take it to 143 on the clock - it was serene, effortless and wonderful. I think it could get around 40mpg on motorway runs too. Mine was grey with cream leather and on a sunny day and a clear M6 it was beautiful, I felt on top of the world having that new car when I was still mid-30s...

But at 70mph it had a diagonal pitching movement and I never felt the individual sphere-strut with computers was less effective than the analogue interconnected setup. Firmware updates may have improved it - several were issued when I had mine, but getting the dealer to update anything was an absolute ballache, they just didn't want to support it, even wanted £250 for a satnav disc in the first 12 months (so of course I torrented it).

Had my first experience been a 130,000 black £3K example (i.e. my second C6 time) I'd be a lot kinder about them! But I still wish I'd spent that money on fancier XMs and CXs.