French cars?

[VillyCazalet]

We're looking at a Citroen berlingo but dh is worried about the longevity of French cars. We'd need to keep it for at least 5 years and are in the price range for approx 4-6 year old models.

Does anyone have experience of these, or French cars in general?

We have a berlingo, it was 3 years old when we got it. Had it for 1.5 years, no problems whatsoever. Ours is a feeble petrol one. I think they are good value cars. Bit of an arse to park but apart from that I love ours

I have a Renault scenic and everytime I have a problem I get told about the dodgyness of French electrics from AA patrols and garages etcs. Hopefully the Citroen will work out better for you but I don't be having another for French car after this one eventually dies. And I say that as a former fiat owner - I'm used to my cars being a bit temperamental!

I have a C8 which I love, but sadly my garage doesn't - everything which needs doing to it is in a really difficult place to get to and parts can be strangely difficult to source - they struggled for two weeks to get a new clutch for example, and when the cam belt snapped 6pm on a Friday night on the M25 it was off the road for the best part of four months - admittedly that was partly because we wanted a reconditioned engine rather than £5k+ for a new one.

I'm not buying a Citroen again, although it's a great drive

Thank you for your replies. They look perfect for our needs but it's a lot of money for us and we need to not mess up!

Hmm, lots to think about.

DH has a Citreon. We might as well have dug a big pit and thrown £50 notes into it. It was a year old when he bought it and in the past 3/4 years has had to replace the clutch and get two problems with the electrics (windows and windscreen wipers) sorted. We don't call it the Shitreon for nothing.

I have a Peugeot 306 it's 17 years old and had never let me down. However I used to have a Renault espace and it cost 10k in four years to keep it on the road.

We have an 8yo Clio (from new) which has never caused us any problems at all (fingers crossed) Our last two cars, a Ford and a VW, both had terrible recurring problems with the electrics.

I thought the Top Gear team experts quite like French cars now. After decades of them being very unreliable indeed, I thought they were generally considered to have got their act together now.

Anyway, doesn't Renault have some sort of alliance deal with Nissan now? Nissan, the most reliable cars ever made.

at shitroen!!

cereal would you mind telling me about your berlingo please? How old is it, what's it like on fuel perhaps? Nothing else looks as ideal for us, and I find the whole thing so tedious I'm loathe to start over again looking at the billions of choices of people carrier efforts.

Ours is 5 years old

Sorry just checked it is only 3.5 years old. It had a really low mileage and was a great deal, probably because it has quite a small engine and is petrol. The boxy shape means they are not fuel efficient. I would not use a berlingo for big commutes. We both can cycle or walk to work so mostly use it for camping and it is fantastic for that.

It is the basic model so less fiddly stuff to go wrong and nothing has gone wrong.

I had a citroen picasso for over 7 and a half years. I got the car when it was a year old. I drove 600km a week and the car never let me down. We drove across the Uk into Europe as far as Switzerland twice in it in addition to those km with no problems. I serviced it, brakes, tyres and clutch and timing belt once in all the years I owned it. It was an excellent buy.

Great! We put a deposit down today on a 2009 one, collect it Thursday! Thank you, send me good luck vibes for it

I'm not buying a Citroen again, although it's a great drive

I'm genuinely curious what makes it a great drive for you?