citeoen why? why not?

waz

looking at used cars around 1.4 lt max €10k range
Interested in the focus, megane, cordoba and corola. for my money can get an 01 or 00. Then came across a 01 Citroen Xsara for 8750 at about 15k miles less than the oter cars I had viewed. To me it looks like an OK car but people keep saying dont buy a citroen you will be stuck with it. My question is what is wrong with citroen? I am more interested in reliability above anything else, planning on driving it for as long as possible and just scrapping or taking the minimum for a trade in............... anyone with any experience?

ds20prefecture

waz wrote:

Then came across a 01 Citroen Xsara for 8750 at about 15k miles less than the oter cars I had viewed. To me it looks like an OK car but people keep saying dont buy a citroen you will be stuck with it.

Firstly that's way too much for a 01 Xsara. You shouldn't be paying more than 6k. There's also a hell of a lot of them for sale (158 on cbg.ie) To put it in perspective, I know of a 2000 Alfa 156 2.0 with all the trimmings with 57k miles for sale for less than 7k. This is twice the car that the Xsara is, yet shares the Citroën's dreadful reputation.

In Citroën's case this reputation seems to be deserved, at least recently. Both my brothers run '02 C5s, and both have had major faults with the cars, including rust! In fact my brother's '02 C5 has more rust than my 1972 Citroën DS. 3 year old cars that are supposed to be galvanised should not rust.

The Xsara seems to be dependable enough mechanically, but the build quality generally is pretty poor. The 1.4 engine is a bit gutless, the 1.6 better and the HDi diesels the pick of the bunch.

Overall, the car is dull and a long way from best in the class. The Škoda Fabia or Octavia, Seat Ibiza and Ford Focus are better buys, even if they cost you a little more.
Škodas for sale on CBG

aidan_dunne

My sister has a 01 (I think it's 2001, anyway! ) 1.4 Xsara and she swears she'll never buy a Citroen again. It's given her no end of grief with it culminating in her having to get a whole new gearbox fitted a few weeks ago (though, I believe the gearboxes are supposed to be notoriously weak in them anyway). Every time I talk to her there's something else wrong with it and, as she says, only for the fact she needs a car she would have put a match to it ages ago! :eek: She's looking to get some money together to get a new car now but it won't be another Citroen, that's for sure!

I'd go with ds20's suggestion and perhaps look towards a Skoda Fabia or Octavia, if you can afford it. An uncle of mine has a Fabia estate and swears by it and recommends Skoda now to anybody he talks to, and rightly so in my opinion. And the Octavia has a great rep, know a few people who have them and they seem to be great cars. You're getting good, solid, pretty-much-VW build quality for a lot less money than you'd pay for a VW itself. Personally, if I had the money, I'd buy one myself in the morning.

Nuttzz

aidan_dunne wrote:

My sister has a 01 (I think it's 2001, anyway! ) 1.4 Xsara and she swears she'll never buy a Citroen again.

my Gf had an 02, she couldnt wait to get rid of it. Avoid, please

Blackaddermax

Citreon Xsara is the best car i've ever bought

crosstownk

People complain about Citroens (and indeed other brands) but in truth they are not much worse mechanically than the competition. The problem is that competent repairers are a lot more scarce than for a Ford or a VW etc. The other point worth noting is that Citroens depreciate a lot quicker than the more popular brands so it will cost you more in the end.