its no coincidence Citroen is almost French for lemon

[DiscoPol]

Well the bloody C5 is starting to do my head in, its only little things now but after the somewhat pricey repair i had to pay for on my trip over (I have been refunded at least) every little thing is really starting to annoy me now.

So far this week i have had to replace:
2 x sidelight lamps
1 x tail light lamp

I also have some recurring electrical gremlins too, the satnav/bluetooth phone kit/stereo has rebooted itself 3 times this week whilst driving, the park assist threw a wobbler the other day, I wasnt using it it just decided to send a fault to to the dash to worry me and there is also a noise that sounds suspiciously like a brake pad binding somewhere, I hadnt noticed this until i was driving through a small alley with the windows open last night, normally i have the windows up and the aircon on so this may have been there since i got the car.

Add to these faults the fact that i reckon the paint and lacquer on this car is possible the softest and the thinnest i have ever seen on any car resulting in many small scratches from the simplest of contacts with anything then maybe you can see why im just basically p1ssed off with the thing at the moment.

The ride is exceptional, the power is lovely, the gearbox is very good and overall the actual drive experience is fantastic, its just these niggles that are getting me down, oh and to cap it all one of my DRLs has blown a lamp too/decided to stop working and that is supposed to be a dealer only job

Im off to look at something else this weekend for the wife so i might just let her drive the C5 and I will have what i was intending buying for her, its ironic really as i only bought a "new" car so i could get some tax relief for my company and now im contemplating giving her the new car and driving something almost 20 years old, either way i will still be paying for the bloody thing

[Doggy]

Sorry to hear it's getting you down, unfortunately how we feel about cars is very subjective and easily influenced by other factors.

I think the only way to be truly happy with your car is to own something that's mainifestly better than it has any right to be, considering what it cost you. It therefore follows that the best you can get from a new / expensive car is 'OK'

So get yerself a banger & delude yourself into thinking it's great.

(Works for me anyway).

[lozz]

The Joys of Citreon ownership!.

not Good are they,

But iagree there comfy,
paint wise ive noticed there crap too,
this picasso thing ive got is only part painted the bodyworks red but underneath the car its Yellow primer, also under the bonnet,
they must of saved the paint to spray another car with,

[waue1978]

Sorry to hear it's getting you down, unfortunately how we feel about cars is very subjective and easily influenced by other factors.

I think the only way to be truly happy with your car is to own something that's mainifestly better than it has any right to be, considering what it cost you. It therefore follows that the best you can get from a new / expensive car is 'OK'

So get yerself a banger & delude yourself into thinking it's great.

(Works for me anyway).

That's very sound logic there Doggy & I can back it up a little. One of my favourite cars that I've owned in recent years was the old Merc 190E that I picked up for £550, purely to give me something to use so that I could sell the 1.6 Zafira & go look for a decent replacement. It was 17 years old, had 136k, but it was auto, had all the electric windows & pretty clean bodywork. Kept it for about 3 or 4 months & loved it so much that even when the cat started rattling I wasn't overly fussed. Paid the garage £50 & they hammered out the internals & left me de-catted (was pre Oct 92 so didn't need it by law). When I sold it I still got £650 back.

By contrast, the Pug has really done my head in at times where I've spent so much on it to take care of it & I still get silly faults occurring.

[lozz]

Merc 190e s
are awesome mate,

just wished icouid get the parts ineed for mine and it wouid be back on the road in a shot,
theres a lack of parts for them now,

ithink pre 2000 cars where well built, especialy German stuff it dosent fall to bits, and theres less electrical stuff to contend with,

[waue1978]

Merc 190e s
are awesome mate,

just wished icouid get the parts ineed for mine and it wouid be back on the road in a shot,
theres a lack of parts for them now,

ithink pre 2000 cars where well built, especialy German stuff it dosent fall to bits, and theres less electrical stuff to contend with,

Mine was only a 2.0, but still pretty quick & not too bad on fuel considering it's age:

[lozz]

Nice looking car that waue,

[Welly]

Disco, buy a 1992 - 1995 Mercedes W124 with the big 24valve diesel engine, that'll be cheap and won't go wrong - massively over engineered.

New cars are like appliances these days, they're ok for the first few years then you change 'em

I can see why you're unhappy though, more disappointed I suppose, and maybe even the 'honeymoon period' has worn off a bit

[sirwiggum]

Disco, buy a 1992 - 1995 Mercedes W124 with the big 24valve diesel engine, that'll be cheap and won't go wrong - massively over engineered.

This one did a million miles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MB_W1 ... _miles.jpg

Back when Mercs were properly built.

New cars are like appliances these days, they're ok for the first few years then you change 'em

The likes of Kia have a 7 year warranty, but it does seem that cars now are built with built-in obsolescence.

[DiscoPol]

maybe even the 'honeymoon period' has worn off a bit

that wore off when the suspension decided to fail on the way to the uk

the lamps all deciding to pop this week is a pain nothing more, that happens to all cars, but the fact they say its a dealer only job, well thats just wrong

the thin paint is maybe more to do with the fact that it was near perfect when i got it and i can see the deterioration before my very eyes every time a butterfly lands on the thing it seems to leave a scratch.

I think the lamps might be related to the fact that we are having a spate of road resurfacing here at the moment pre winter in preparation for euro2012 next year, so on my way to work i have to drive over about 40 different road surfaces in various states of repair, they are working at night, every night so they dont take too many steps to soften the edges between the planed road surface and the new tarmac, when they go from old surface to planed its a drop off about 50mm and when you go from planed to new its a step of about 75-100mm, thats damn near curb height and as i say literally 30-40 of them on my 30km to work each day.

Im gonna have a look at the DRL on sunday and see if it really is a dealer only job, i reckon they say that as it will mean disturbing the headlight assembly with all its fancy smancy HID stuff and so on.

[sirwiggum]

Sounds a world away from my old bulletproof ZX (which although the paintwork was great, it did seem to attract dents) and the Xantia on which me and a friend flushed and renewed the entire suspension system.

[Welly]

I think new cars do mark easily now, I think it might be to do with the 'EU' water-based lacquer they have to use because the old nasty stuff might be harmful to Sparrows, on a Tuesday, in February, if the wind's in the right direction........

I was sat in the Dentist last week reading 'Mercedes Driver' magazine and was reading about a chap who'd bought a W124 Coupe with a blown petrol engine and swapped it all over for the Diesel 24valver from another Estate - is was easy and everything just fell into place on the swap over, all really well thought out and put together - is was even easy to get the glow plug circuit and warning light working kinda like the car was a platform of interchangeable models literally plug-and-play

[sirwiggum]

Big diesel automatic coupe would be champion.

Sadly mine is the wrong pump away from perfection. Honda did run an XUD though, pop-quiz fans, in the Honda Concerto TD (which itself was literally a wholly rebadged Rover 218 TD, not even the Concerto version!).

[FarmerPug]

My w124 estate was originally a petrol and it had the 190e 2.5 diesel planted into it, even though it was done by my cousin the whole thing worked very well.
What puts me off with one of the old diesel mercs is they are big thirsty engines.