hertsnminds

Sounds like the driver was treating it as an normal manual and not a SensoDrive. You can flick in into neutral at any speed but it is not recommended by the owners handbook. Thing with a SensoDrive is you cannot even select reverse unless your foot is on the brake pedal. Ian Orange 03 Senso

jazzster is correct, SensoDrive is an automatic CLUTCH system not an automatic gearbox. The clutch is engaged when you press the accelerator pedal (or when the computer thinks it should be) and is disengaged when the SensoDrive computers think it needs to be (for things like changing gear or if the car is about to stall). You can hold a SensoDrive car on a hill with very light pressure to the accelerator pedal BUT the owners handbook does not recommend this, it says you should use the handbrake. When the engine is off you can leave the car in Reverse, Neutral or 1st gear and this has the same effect as it would in a standard manual car. As soon as you start the engine neutral is selected by the SensoDrive system. The SensoDrive system also does things you would not expect. If you are going down a steep hill you can use the gears to slow you down, but if you start to use the brake heavily enough the clutch will disengage and you will be slowed be the brakes alone. If it is a cold (about 0 deg C) and wet morning the Sensodrive system may switch into snow mode, this takes about 3 seconds during which time the car does nothing while it selects auto mode and 2nd gear. Both of the above can be scary things the 1st time they occur, you have to adjust your driving style to match the SensoDrive system, it is not like any other technique for driving. Ian Orange 03 Senso

The BBC have posted the Watchdog report now (and corrected the spelling), it is at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/reports/tran..._20050315.shtml I sent them an email telling them Citroen owners have had this issue for over 20 years and gave them a link to this forum. Let's see if they are interested or if they feel it waters down their story. Ian Orange 03 Senso

You could always try the local Halfords or Library and see if they have a Haynes book for the Saxo. Ian Orange 03 Senso

Who saw tonights Watchdog on BBC1, they seem to think this is a new problem and only happens to Vauxhall Zafira owners. Maybe members of this forum should send them links to all of the emails here and the fact that Citroen have been including this design feature in their cars for over 20 years. http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/index.shtml Watchdog This week Watchdog investigates: The Student Loans Company, Internet Scams and Vauxhall Zaphira (report to follow tomorrow). Oops shame the BBC can't spell Zafira!!! Ian Orange 03 Senso

My Pluriel had it's 20,000 mile service today checklist says the following was done: Drain/Refill Engine oil (10W40) Replace oil filter Check levels of; Brake fluid, Engine coolant, Power steering fluid and screenwash fluid Check: Sealing and condition of pipes and casings, Condition of; exhaust system, gaiters, driveshafts, ball joints, accessory drive belts, wiper blades and steering rack Front/rear brake pad wear (mine were about 50% worn) Condition and pressure of tyres (I had them swap mine round front to back) Clutch pedal travel, including adjust or condition of automatic adjuster (I assume this means the sensodrive unit in my case) Parking brake Lighting and signalling Force required for front and rear locking of the roof arch mechanisms Play in hubs, link rods, ball joints and pivots Sealing of dampers Calipers, discs and brake pipes Tension of accessory drive belts Replace pollen filter Grease the folding roof arch rails and cassette Read fault codes Reset maintenance indicator Road test the vehicle Total cost £155 The only other things I asked for were some new wiper blades, but these are not in stock (price on the board in the showroom £8.22), swap the tyres (front and back), the rears had about 1mm more tread than the front and try to fix a creaky plastic panel. Not bad if that's all it costs every 2 years. However, next time I am sure it will need 4 new tyres and new brake discs and pads. Might even need a new exhaust. That's almost enough for a deposit on a new car!Seems cars are designed to be kept for a maximum of 3 years these days. But then again the next service isn't due until March 2007. Ian Orange 03 Senso

My Pluriel is booked in for it's 20k service on the 15th March, I have been quoted £155 which I thought was reasonable seeing as all filters and plugs are changed. I am expecting there may be some other costs on top of this for things like brake pads/discs but won't know until they are looked at. Ian Orange 03 Senso

Once you go 7 seats, Citroen, Peugeot and Fiat will try to sell you the same car but with a different name...C8, 807 and Ulysse. Mind you the Multispace, Partner combi and Doblo are the same box as well. Most of the smaller 7 seat cars I have seen are actually 5 seaters with 2 child seats in the back. That is things like the Toyota Verso, Volvo estates and Zafira. The rear 2 seat are also not easy to get in and out of. You have to go to C8/Espace size for 7 adult size seats, then you start to use more petrol and get worse performance. I suppose the real question is how often do yuo have more than 5 people in the car? Ian Orange 03 Senso

You could try these people http://www.247spares.co.uk/citroen-parts/ or one of the other online parts search websites Ian Orange 03 Senso

Citroen say a 1.6 SensoDrive Pluriel is worth £3,641 after 3 years and 27,000 miles (well their Elect 3 plan quotes that). This is depreciation of £10,000 or about 72% if you pay the full retail price of close to £13,500. The best way to see how much the car will be worth is to use the Citroen UK website Elect 3 calculator it gives a pretty good idea as to how much a dealer will offer you as trade in for your car. At the moment I am not sure how long I will keep the Pluriel, it is due for it's first service in about 1,000 miles time and has another year of warranty to run, so at least another 12 months. Ian Orange 03 Senso

If you go to the Citroen UK website and run an elect 3 calculation on a 1.6 Forte it gives a future value of £3,933 which I suppose is what you would be offered by a dealer for it against a new car. They also have eight 1.6 Forte in the used car section, the cheapest being a 52 plate with 7,723 miles on it for £6,495, so you can expect they have paid anything up to 2k less than the asking price. Then there is the Auto Trader website, cheapest there was... 2003 CITROEN BERLINGO 1.6i 16V Forte 5dr Estate Silver, Anti theft system, Remote c/locking, Driver airbag, Elec windows & mirrors, Power steer, Child locks, Rear Headrests, Folding Rear Seats, Luxury Pack, 1 owner, Full Citroen Service History & balance of new car warranty. Just serviced, immaculate. 12500 miles. £5900. So it looks like trade in value is about 4k and sellng yourself closer to 6k. Ian Orange 03 Senso

I don't know what the production plans are for the future but I did read an article that said they could make 320 cars a day (75,000 a year) at the Madrid factory (not sure if that was just Pluriel) and that Citroen was expecting sales figures in France of 10,000 Pluriel in 2003 and 25,000 Pluriel in 2004. So even if they are planning to stop making them soon there could be close to 100,000 vehicles out there somewhere. This from the Citroen website... http://www.psa-peugeot-citroen.com Half year 2004 Firm resilience by key models: Peugeot 206 (up 5.1%), Peugeot 307 (up 7.0%), Citroën C3 and C3 Pluriel (stable), Citroën C2 (82,000 units), Citroën Xsara Picasso (down 1.0%), and Citroën Berlingo and Peugeot Partner (up 2.6%). Year end 2004 Sales of Citroën compact models continued to increase in 2004, rising 4.7% over the previous year. Sales of the C3 and C3 Pluriel were down slightly at 363,000 units. This decline was offset by sales of the C2, which stood at 155,000 units. The Madrid plant produces the Citroën C3s, C3s Pluriel and Xsaras. Output totaled 159,325 vehicles in 2003, of which 65% were sold outside Spain. The plant also manufactures components. Workforce 3,370 Ian Orange 03 Senso

I usually choose a car for drivability or functionality. I found the Tigra very nice to drive, light clutch good gearbox (only tried the 1.8). Like you soooo easy to put another button somewhere for the boot but it is probably a nanny state safety feature so no one can get any parts of their anatomy trapped in the closing boot lid :rolleyes: My first cars were Vauxhalls, a Chevette and a 2nd generation Astra. I have also had a Citroen BX GTI which was a great car didn't matter what load you had in it always drove the same way and the trick suspension for puddles and high kerbs was great. The only thing letting the current Citroens down for me is the residual values and the niggling faults. But as long as you have a reasonable dealer and a car under warranty the faults are not an issue. Ian Orange 03 Senso

I think the Pluriel does what it does very well. But if you try and make it do something it was not meant to you know about it. The car is not sporty and if you try and drive it like it was it will be jerky when changing gear and the mpg drops from around 40 to around 35. It is meant to be driven in a sedate manner and will not take rear seat passengers with long legs. It really likes the sunshine and I feel is best driven with the rear screen folded in the boot. I have had some niggles, roof seals replaced (does not leak anymore), creaking windows and some cracked trim but all sorted under warranty. My last car before the Pluriel was a 2 seater soft top so I am always amazed by the amount of stuff you can get in the Pluriel. I have had bikes, a garden shed and 6 metre long ladder (ok it was folded to 2 metres) in the car. Not all at the same time but even so. So pretty much what it says on the tin, a unique versatile vehicle. Overheard someone in a car park the other day point at it and say "that car looks like a pumpkin" :rolleyes: Not sure that pink is my colour, so might give that very special edition a miss! Ian Orange 03 Senso

There is no speed limit I am aware of. However seeing as my first experience of getting to 70mph in mine was the roof bursting open (a catch failed) I tend to only fully close mine at speeds under 60mph. I also find that when you get to about 90mph (where the law permits) the wind noise on a closed roof gets excessive (sounds like it will burts open, but that's just me). If you play with the combination of rear windows up/down and wind deflector flap up/down you can reduce/increase the draft and wind noise with the roof open. Ian Orange 03 Senso

The Tigra was always based on the Corsa so uses many of the same parts (dash, steering column, etc etc). Compared with most 2 seater soft tops I thought the storage space was quite good (nice cubby hole behind the seats) and with the roof up the boot space is very good. The 1 thing I didn't like about it was the stupid way you have to hold your finger on a button to close the boot and it is a button outside the car. So if it is raining you have to stand there for about 20 seconds while you and the contents of the boot get wet! Ian Orange 03 Senso

You can park a SensoDrive in 1st, Neutral or Reverse. If you leave it in gear it is the same as leaving a manual in gear (as you would when parking on a hill). SensoDrive is a manual gearbox it is the CLUTCH that is automated in the system. Every time you start the engine Neutral is selected. Ian Orange 03 Senso

Not sure what performance you are getting from yuor C3 Hdi but the Pluriel is heavier, going on Citroens figures they quote... C3 Hdi - 1072kg Pluriel Hdi - 1186kg The Pluriel also comes with the 70 BHP engine whereas the C3 can have a 92 BHP varient which means Pluriel 0-62MPH of 16.1 C3 70bhp 0-62 of 13.4 C3 92bhp 0-62 of 11.7 and in terms of fuel economy you get (combined figure) Pluriel 62.8 mpg C3 70bhp 67.3 mpg C3 92bhp 65.7 mpg If you are aware of all of those differences and they are not an issue then there is nothing like a Pluriel. Yes there have been a few that have had problems but they are being used by hire car companies in some countries (hot ones). They are also very very versatile, I have had a garden shed in the back of mine :rolleyes: . In terms of mechanical and electrical parts they use exactly the same bits as the rest of the C3 range and also share components with the C2 (just look at the dash). They are not all a bucket of trouble, but sometimes you do have to be as flexible in your thinking as the car is in it's versatility. As with most soft tops as soon as the sun comes out you tend to forgive them most of their foibles and end up with a big grin on your face. There is also no other soft top on the market that can change configurations at speeds over 20mph like the Pluriel. Ian Orange 03 Senso

Remember SensoDrive is NOT an automatic gearbox it is an automatic clutch activation system. Yes you can have a juddering clutch with the system and you can also have it seem to snatch a gear. You can also make the front wheels spin <_< . All things which you would think you could not have happen. There are things you can try to stop some of these things, like software updates, but things like temperature changes and driving style (the system is adaptive) can still make them happen. One thing it will never do (well should never do) is stall the engine. It will also never over rev the engine as it changes up a gear before it red lines on the rev counter, that's why there is NO red line on the rev counter :rolleyes: If you have Macromedia Flash player installed on your computer you can see an exlpaination of the Sensodrive system here http://www.citroen.ch/french/passions/sens...drive/start.htm And I believe the C3 is still made in Madrid Ian Orange 03 Senso

It's becasue of the weight 5dr C3 = 1063kg Pluriel = 1177kg The Pluriel has a much stiffer (heavier) floor pan to stop it flexing as there is no roof to take any strain. Ian Orange 03 Senso

You may have to adjust your driving style to get the best MPG from the SensoDrive. When I first got mine I was only getting about 36MPG then after it had clocked up 10,000 miles this got closer to 40MPG now I drive it in more of an ambling style and keep around 68MPH instead of 72MPH on motorways I am getting closer to 43MPG. Now I can get just under 400 miles from about 41 litres of fuel. That is from a 1.6 Pluriel which is heavier than a standard 5 door C3. I get the best MPG when travelling at speeds between 40 and 60 MPH (2,500 to 3,000 revs in 5th). Ian Orange 03 Senso

You could just use those fold flat plastic crates and some bungee cords to stop them moving around. Prices from about £5 per crate... http://www.medways.co.uk/mcc/tontarelli/to...tontarelli.html http://www.spareboxes.co.uk/plastic-boxes.php OK they are not a perfect fit but you can use them anywhere and they will cost you a lot less than the real thing. Ian Orange 03 Senso

I would be wary of fitting 3rd party accessories to a new car. There have been people on this forum who have change the radio/cd and been told this invalidates the 3 year warranty. This is partly becasue when it comes to a service the cars diagnostic computers report faults and some 3rd party electrics interfere with this. If you must have all of the items you list look for a used varient with them. Remember Citroens do not hold their value so you will pay much less for a higher spec used car. As an example a 1.6 Pluriel is worth about £10,000 less than the new price after 3 years. Other C3's have a similar depreciation. Ian Orange 03 Senso

Didn't you get an owners handbook with the car? Most things are explained in there. The button on the end of the left hand stalk is to activate/deactivate the auto wiper/lights function. There are 2 buttons on the end of the right hand stalk each with 3 switches. The button nearest the dash labelled +, - and a speaker with a line through are for voulme up/down and mute of the radio/cd The button nearest the driver labelled up arrow, down arrow and O changes the tuning or CD track and the O select the trip functions cycling through Total miles, trip miles, current MPG, average MPG and average MPH. If you would like to know how to reset the averages function on the trip computer or change from MPH to KPH (for trips to Europe) see the TIPS section on this website http://www.c3pluriel.org.uk/ Ian Orange 03 Senso

Both the Trip milage and the Averages (MPH/MPG) must be manually and independently reset. You will also find that after you have done more than 150 miles the averages start to become inacurate. If you do not reset things for a couple of thousand miles your averavge MPH will fall to less than 10 :D Ian Orange 03 Senso