ritbitboy

If your service book is grey, then you will find a section in it that says that it does need a check up in the first 1500 miles. If this is the case then my advice would be to get it done. It is free and takes 20 mins. The fact that the salesman did not tell you about it on handover is not good and lazy. If your book is red then this is not the case. Citroen have recently dropped this 1000 mile check as it is not really needed. Some manufacturers would turn a blind eye to this being missed, but my experience with Citroen is that ANY excuse to invalidate a warranty and save a few quid they will do so. You still have time. Keep yourself covered and get it done. If the dealer says it's not needed and you have a grey book, get them to stamp it.

I'm so sorry to hear your news - what a horrible, distressing experience. I know it's easy for me to say but don't worry. At least you do not have to worry if the chassis has been bent, the suspension ok, and major structural damage etc. This is an easy repair. Repairs these days are excellent - I'm in the trade and have seen many repairs done and they really do look as good as new. My only advice would be to check the repair. It should be as good as new. If it's not, don't be afraid to say that you're not happy with it. Particularly check that the paint is smooth with no bits of grit or dust in the paintwork. It will be easy to spot. Run your hand over it, make sure it's smooth. Look at any joins/door close areas. You wait - all your anxiety will dissolve when you see your beloved machine looking lovely again.

We have just had a memo from Citroen saying that C1 availability is back to normal again. Let's hope it stays that way. This year has been survival of the fittest for dealers. It will be interesting to see how many dealers shut at the end of the year !! Citroen are actually a nightmare to have a franchise for and I am amazed that more dealer groups do not tell them to poke it. For example C1's as we know were in short supply. Citroen fined any dealers £250 per car if they tried to hoarde them so that they had units to sell - some dealers were trying to pretend that they had cars sold so that they could keep the cars they had. I had a customer who had bought a C1 from me last month. He was sadly made redundant and could not go on with the sale. Fair enough, poor chap. I gave him his deposit back and wished him the best of luck. Citroen fined us £250 for that !! No sympathy for the situation. They just bloody fined us. I know £250 might not sound a lot, but we typically make about £300 per C1 we sell. Then people expect a deal...so £200 profit is the norm. So now we have a car in stock that already only makes us only £50 and it's not even sold yet !! It makes me mad.

Damn and blast.....talking of long deliveries.... So today I was asked to hand over a C1 Rhythm that had been ordered in MAY !! Yes, MAY !!!...long before I started here. So, as I am a generally friendly kind of chap my boss asked me to hand it over as I could hopefully treat her right and let her enjoy the experience. So there is was, a pristeen C1 Rhythm 5 door in black...5 months in the making...sitting in the sunshine looking lovely. Then a chap who had borrowed a car from me for the night and was bringing it back promptly drove into the C1. Scraped the front wing and bumper. :huh: OH MY GOD. The customer was on her way here at this point. No stopping her now. No excuses. No hiding it. AAAAHHHGGGGGHHHHH...ground swallow me up !!! Can you imagine how I felt ? 5 months of waiting, to have to tell her that someone has just driven into it !!! Anyway, all did go well. I just came clean as you have to in these circumstances...and fortunately the guy who did the damage did buy a car !!! Nightmare.

True, true.... He likes Alfas and thinks they are fun to drive !! Having sold them for the past 3 years I totally disagree....I so many people come in and test drive "cos Clarkson said that you're not a petrol head unless you've owned an Alfa"...I could count on one hand the number of folks who agreed with him. But to give him credit he says they will go wrong. A lot. How right he is there.

As some of you may have seen, I am newbie on here and I sell Citroens. I am new to the brand but have owned an AX GT and have a Xsara Picasso 1.6 hdi now which I love. Looking on this forum I see that to most of, fuel economy is a massive factor in why you went for a Citroen - but I am still trying to find if there is a definitive answer to "What is a typical Citroen buyer ?" Was it monthly payments ? Was it economy ? Was it styling ? Was it having had one before and sticking with it as it served you well ? Did you swot up online before going to buy it ? Did you get it from a main dealer ? As I mentioned in other threads, I am not here to promote myself...I am genuinely interested in what your motivation was for buying one. Imagine we were down the pub and I said to you "I need a new car, but I don't have a clue what to go for" how would you sell me the idea of a Citroen ? And before anyone says "That's your job to tell people why they want one", that's why I am asking on here...effectively anonymous...with people who care and love their hard earned vehicles.

Good grief Turbo....you really know your stuff !! I had someone come and ask me about compression ratios on their Citroen. Was that you ? :lol:

So last week a fella walked into my showroom. "Hi, can I help" I asked. "Yes, I need a car that's cheap to run" "Ok. Have a seat and lets see what will be best for you". He sits down. "What car do you have now ?" "No idea" he says..... "You've no idea what car you have ?" "Not a clue" "OK...er....who makes it ?" I asked "No idea" "Well...what colour is it ?" "Red I think" "How many doors ?" "No idea" "Ok...are you in the car today ? is it outside ?" "No, I walked" You get the idea....anyway, I gave him brochures on the C1 which would suit his needs and off he went. Yesterday he came back in a red Golf, N reg, that he had booked in for an MOT. WHilst it was in he wanted a test drive. "No problem" I said. "I see you have a Golf" "Have I ? Is that good ?" he asked. "Well, er, yes, I guess...let's wait for the MOT" It fails. It has bald tyres, no suspension, no exhaust and the drivers seat belt is faulty. "Is that bad ?" he asks. "Yes. Very unsafe" he's told. "OK. Thanks very much" and off he marches. We tried to stop him from driving it as it is now illegal to drive his car. Off he went. ....and to top it all, he left me his business car. He's an accountant...an intelligent human being. So please do avoid a red N-reg Golf in Surrey that makes a hell of a noise and sits wonky. It will not stop if it's coming at you !!

Well now - I have never started the first thread in a topic before...!!! We have a C-Crosser in our showroom and I have to admit....It's lovely. Black with black leather. Stunning. I'd have one, but they won't give it to me as my next company car. :) Boo. :huh: That's it. Just wanted to say my bit for the poor C-Crosser. There's an echo in here...... "HELLO !" "....lo...lo...lo" (*repeat to fade*)

Thanks very much !! To answer the reliability question Martin - I'm really not sure. It is early days for me here. General feedback is very good. The guys on here are the best judges of that. It's wierd in this car industry. Ask a technician or service advisor if the cars they work with are good, they will say no. This is because they deal, inevitably, with fixing ones that have problems - cars whose owners say "I'll never own another xxx". As a salesman, I get the people who say "I love my xxxx and I want another one." - a totally different set of circumstances. Mind you, personally I have to like what I sell. I am a (*take a deep breath*) honest car salesman and pride myself in that. I have worked for Pug, SEAT, Jaguar, VW & Alfa Romeo. I loved them all except for Alfa. I would never, ever buy an Alfa, and after a few months I refused to sell them (we had SEAT at the same site so I could still sell) because I did not believe in them. As for Mr Clarkson: From The Sunday Times June 19, 2005 Anyway, the thing is, you voted for Blair so plainly you like the idea of a world where all the animals are equal and all 4x4s come with a free hippie chained to the radiator grille. So I’m sure you’ll be delighted to find that the subject of this week’s column is a small Citroën called the C1. In many ways, it’s the spiritual successor to the old 2CV, that poisonous upturned bathtub favoured by the sort of hippie who’s currently handcuffed to the tow hook of your Land Cruiser. If Citroën were really on the ball, they’d sell it in CND livery with Save the Whale bumper stickers ready fitted. And maybe get superhippie Steve Hillage to design the upholstery. Man. Instead they’ve been even cleverer, making a car that is pared to the bone and then shaved. To save development costs it shares a body, a floor, suspension and even an engine with both the new small Peugeot and the Toyota Aygo, the little car in which my colleagues on Top Gear recently played football. And that was just the start. The rear tailgate is made entirely of glass rather than made from metal with a window glued in place. And there’s only one electric window switch on the driver’s side. To get the passenger window down you have to lean over . . . which is no great hardship since this is not a big car. I’m reminded in fact of an advertisement Citroën ran many years ago for the 2CV which claimed it had central locking. “You can easily reach all the doors from the driver’s seat.” And that it was faster than a Ferrari. “At 70mph the 2CV will easily overtake a 308 GTS travelling at 68mph.” There’s that same sense of jokey cheapness in the C1. And yet. And yet. Deep breath. I liked it enormously, because it has something which is sadly missing from most modern cars. Charm. Oh sure, 0 to 60 takes a week, the ride’s bouncier than a government adviser’s breasts and the boot’s barely big enough for Darling’s IQ, but the interior is a jolly place to be. It even has a docking port for an iPod, and you don’t get that on an S-class Mercedes. As a station car this would be absolutely ideal, especially when you look at the result of all the cost cutting. It’s only £6,500. The only problem is quality. Citroëns have an unenviable reputation for breaking down a lot, which might lead you to the door of the identical Toyota Aygo. This is £500 more, which you might think is a small price to pay for that famed Japanese reliability. But since the two cars are made in the same factory, by the same people, I would therefore save the money and go for the C1. Then, when the road pricing scheme comes to fruition, with the anti 4x4 big-car bells and whistles in place, it’d be just the right size . . . for driving right up Darling’s backside. " :) Anyway, that's a long enough post I think !! Hang on...is that a customer I see walking in...? Er..... No. A mirage. Damn.

Go for Elect 3 IF you think you might change it in 3 years time and you just need the lowest monthly payment. Don't worry too much about your car being less than the settlement...there is a clause in car finance called the halves and thirds rights. In a nutshell, once you have paid MORE THAN HALF THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAYABLE on your existing finance agreement, you can hand the car back with nothing further to pay. So if your settlement is £5000 and your car worth £3000 you can hand the car back. Look on the paperwork for your current car - "Total amount payable" will be there somewhere. Halve it. Then, separately, add up the deposit paid, how much you have paid monthly and see where you stand.

Car values this year have had a bad time. Your C4 will have taken a hit in value - it will have de-valued heavier than in previous years. If it's diesel then it won't be so bad. BUT On the plus side for consumers the price of new cars and the offers that are on will also be in their favour. Concentrate on the COST TO CHANGE, not necessarily what you are getting for your car. Forgive me if this is obvious, but lots of people do not look at the whole picture and miss out on stonking deals because they are so set on what they want for their car. Try to get one this Sept so you get the £250 service package. If you can - be flexible about colour. The dealer will possibly have "overage stock". Ask them what they have to shift this month. You could be surprised. The dealer has an Elect 3 target...they will welcome you with very open arms - but don't bother about haggling on the finance rate - this is set by Citroen and is very low. For a valuation check this out: http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vx/finance/valueyourcar.do It is a link to Glasses Guide and is a free version !!! Parkers guide is total rubbish and way off the mark. NEVER use Parkers. Look at the "average" condition value and you won't be far off. Good luck.

Daihatsu - Yep ! You're right. I stand corrected. I have just shot my boss for giving me the wrong information. :( As I mentioned I am new to the world of Citroen (having said that I have a Xsara Picasso which is a great car, and I did have an AX GT which was amazing fun), so I bow to your greater knowledge !! I just think that's it's touching that an owners forum has so many drivers of the "opposition" (107 of course) - even though, of course, we all know the similarities. Good on you all for being so welcoming.

Decide how long you are going to keep the car. If it's going to be up to 3 years then go with Elect 3. Monthly payments will be lower. If the NEXT car you are likely to buy will also be on finance then you may as well opt for lower monthly payments on this car and have the car for 3 years, rather than buy the whole thing outright. Then just change in 3 years and go again with another new car. If you're going to keep it longer than 3 years then look at taking finance over a longer period. BUT 5 year finance on a car is really not a good idea - it's a long time and circumstances can change. I have been selling cars for 9 years - people who use PCP's correctly (Personal Contract Purchase - it's the "proper name" for Elect 3, Peugeot have Passport, Ford have Options etc etc) change quite successfully every 3 years providing they do not put too much in at the beginning. If you decide to keep the car at the end it can be more costly. Mind you...there is 0% at the moment. A PCP cannot touch that for value !!

Yep - to be honest the 107 Kiss is the one to go for at the moment while stocks last. I keep getting people in seeing if I can compete with it. :( No. Goddam. Sometimes you put your hands up and conceed defeat. "You'll get much nicer rear light clusters with the Citroen" is not really going to win any deals !! Oh well. Citroen wrote to us last week saying "due to the constrained supply of C1, we must capitalise on availability of C2 and it's low running costs." There are shedloads of them around...so we are being urged to sell C2 1.1 Cachets as only a £260 upsell from a C1 Rhythm. If it was my money I'd rather wait for a C1 - much more fun.

Hi all I'm a newbie from what some of you might well describe as "the dark side"...yes I sell Citroens at a main dealer - but I am NOT here for self glorification or to promote myself, but I am new to Citroen (about 3 weeks now) and in a quiet moment I thought I would try to find out peoples thoughts about this great little car. I then stumbled across this thread and felt compelled to tell the story from my angle. I moved to Citroen as I had heard that they were a manufacturer who was actually busy !! "The C1 is a massive seller" I was told. In my first week I sold a couple. Hooray !! Great start !!! Then it happened. Citroen wrote to us telling us that all C1's we had on order for stock were to taken away from us as they cannot build them fast enough. We had 9 which we had ordered to just sell to people who walked in. All gone in one swift stroke. As we are a fairly new dealer they did give us a list of 7 C1's that we could sell for September/October. 7 cars that they could give us for THE busiest month of the year. We had no choice of colour/spec/number of doors. Usually, dealers can ring eachother and sort out swaps of eachothers stock. No way in this case. No one will let their precious stock go...particularly 1.0 Vibe 3 doors !! Nightmare. Citroens factory ordering process is incredibly dated. It was introduced in the late 80's and is still using green sceens and I consider myself fairly computer literate and I cannot get my head around it. When we click "go" on the order screen, it can be 5 or 6 weeks before anything changes at all...no predicted dates, no updates....nothing. Then it gives a projected date for build. Even this can be changed at the last minute. I think I have digressed slightly...but as far as C1 production goes, I think that as the Aygo, 107 and C1 are all produced next to eachother in the same factory (using Dacia, not Toyota engines as every single report ever printed says) I reckon that Toyota get preference, then Pug followed by "lowly" Citroen. I have no idea if this is fact, I just reckon that Toyota would have more clout as they are an infinately more wealthy company. Still, we all know that the Citroen has the nicest arse out of the 3 manufacturers !! Those rear lights set it apart. I am so glad that there are so many good reports about my fave little car. I'm trying to sell one to my wife !!! (at a great discount of course !) Even Mr Clarkson loves them ! Be patient waiting for your C1's. Remember they hold value better than the Pug or the Toyota as they have less distance to fall.