simscar

Thanks John Bach and Wozza I suppose I was extolling the virues of even the petrol C4. The economy we got on the fast trip was pretty impressive for the speeds we were doing and some of the roads we were on. I reckon it's a pretty good package all around in terms of performance and economy. Equally, the diesels in their niches are about as good as you get too. We had to get a new car and the 1.6 HDi over here was just a bit too "dirty' for us at the time with no particulate filter (surprising, because the Pug 307 with the same 1.6 engine has one). But that's probably Peugeot flexing it's corporate muscles as it tried to do with the WRC cars a few years ago! Euro cars are getting pretty good markets over here now with their value for money, but still struggle against the Japanes and Koreans. On top of that, we have a huge history of Big (uneconomical but lazy) 6s and V8s to overcome. Can you believe GM has launched a 6 litre V8 in the current (world) environment (15l/100km) and people (even Top gear) rave about it!! Fast but irresponsible. It's hard to market a C4 at @ $Au29,990 against a Camry 6 at the same price (but lacking half the gear I must add) with it's size and specs and performance. Big Mitsubishi V6s are even cheaper, basically because they can't sell them at the price they want because everyone expects them to close down any time. It's a hard road for Citroen to make up ground on but they are doing remarkably well now with substantially increased sales thanks to C2, C3 and C4 models; the Grand Picasso should help too - it's got very good press here. Dredging my memory banks John Bach is it OK to say iachi dda now (my Welsh goes too far back for me to remember meaning and spelling)?

:rolleyes: Exactly! Didn't you read the bit I included about wanting a 2.0 litre HDi? We were keen on a 1.6 HDi but over here they don't come with a particulate filter and their green rating suffers enormously. The 2.0 petrol is better overall (not on CO2, but overall, taking account of CO2 and particulates). The 2.0 C4 petrol comes out as best 2.0 hatch for overall "green(n)ess". No question about fuel economy of the diesel - 4 of us leased a C5 2.0 HDi 6sp man last year in France and over 10,000km, with a full boot, 130+kph on French and Italian motorways, city and town slogging (Paris, Florence, etc) and on UK's abysmal "A" roads with speedcams at the end of the only safe places to overtake (keep on their hammer Jeremy Clarkson), we averaged 6.8 L/100km. Love to have one of those engines in a C4 manual. Circumstances dictated a new car at the end of 2006 (the Xantia ultimately cost too much to maintain after 340,000km) and at the end of the end-of-model run-outs we had to settle for a 2.0 C4 Plus petrol or wait for ages for a (dirty) 1.6 HDi. We love the C4 - a few little issues like the squeaky back brakes, our cruise control occasionally malfunctioned but has now had a downloaded update, and the temperature guage which despite a new sensor, keeps wanting to show nil temp: it's off to the doctor again shortly for this problem. Perhaps a bit light on in the boot department, but no rattles, good economy for a petrol 2.0 and bloody nice to drive with excellent cornering, just turn the wheel and around she goes, add some careful on/off/on throttle and no-one keeps up in the roundabouts! Nothing beats the style of this car!! A friend of ours got her first drive the other day and absolutely loved the spaceship dash. We've had Citroen's for donkeys years a CX2400 from new for ages (wonderful to look at and drive but irksome to work on); a dabble with an old ID as a back-up; the Xantia (a very nice drive); and now the C4 (probably our favourite - so much kit and style). As my wife says it's not Which Car, it's Which Citroen!

It's nice having long distances to travel with relatively light traffic roads. Did a trip from Canberra to Brisbane last April (C4 2.0 petrol 5 door VTR 5 sp man - what you call a VTR Plus I think). Filled up in Canberra at 7.20am and again in Coonabarabran (523km/326Miles), after 2 stops - 1 pee, 1 lunch stop, at 1.40pm. C4 took 39.06 litres - a bit under 7.5 litres/100km, or 38mpg in the old language). Average speed up to the lunch stop at Coona according to the dash readout was 98kph (60mph) and my companion said 158kph stared at him from the top of the dash at one point. Lots of that was on 100 - 110kph (60 - 70mph) highways with the fast bits on back roads (some fast dirt at times). The next leg before refilling was from Coonabarabran to North of Brisbane (742km/463 miles) where wse refuelled at 9.54pm after a stop for tea and a trip through Brisbane (average speed 89kph/56mph). C4 used 53.75 litres for 7.24litres/100km/39.2mpg. That was a pretty good trip I must say. Average fuel economy for 16,000km (10,000 miles) in (our) city and country driving has been 8.4 litres/100km/33mpg). In city traffic - stop start, lots of lights etc, economy suffers a bit, but highway cruising in cruise control and using cruise control on city roads where possible, as well as observing what's happeniong ahead and backing off as necessary gives pretty good economy for a car that is capable of some pretty good performance and handling. But a trap for young players is fiddling with the fog (driving) lights at night - especially turning them off. It's fine with some familairity but a couple of times I've been "blacked out" by turning the wrong bit of the light controls - very scary! Love to have a 2.0 litre diesel under the bonnet but they're not here yet.