Sad To Say Bye To Everybody

[arak81]

Hi Guys,

 

I have just sold my Citroen C4 1.6HDI today. I have driven it 1year 5months . throughout this whole time people helped me in many ways especially paul.h, coastline taxis, rookie2 and so on. Thanks to everyone.

 

Now I will be looking for a car which is registered in 2012/13. My Preferences for the new car would be

 

17/18 inch wheels

Electric control for all four windows

SatNav, Parking aid, Cruse Control, ESP, AUX in,

Daytime running light, Xenon light

Road tax max £30

Uber London acceptable

hatchback/saloon

 

 

Wish me luck guys and wish everyone good luck here.

 

 

[paul.h]

Thankyou for letting us know, I suppose selling the car was one way of fixing all the problems for you and I was starting to think it was getting old and the problems were building up - at this point most people would be thinking of changing a car. Good luck in getting a new car and please let us know what you get to replace the C4.

[arak81]

Primarily I have decided to go for Ford Mondeo 1.6 TDCi ECO Zetec. I have also found one Peugeot 508 2.0 HDi Hybrid4 Allure EGC 4X4 (Diesel Hybrid) within my locality. But my concern is about the battery of the hybrid...how long it will last or how much would be repair or replacement cost, in case battery doesn't work can diesel run the car..something like that. I couldn't find too much information about the car.

 

Ford Mondeo I have chosen is £5300 for 112k

Peugeot 508 hybrid is 6790 for 120k

[paul.h]

I think the 1.6 hdi engine is the same as the one in the Citroen cars so it can suffer from similar problems, especially the early turbo failure. You may find that since the Mondeo is a big car the 1.6 may be a bit under powered so you would need to give it a good test to see if you are happy with it. 112k miles is a lot so you would need to check the service history such as dpf changes, clutch/dmf replacement, oil changes using the correct oils, anything else. Also check for rust since Fords can rust as they get older.

 

I do not have any experience of hybrid cars, so I can not help on this.

 

There will probably be forums like this one but for the Mondeo and the Peugeot.

 

If possible you may be better trying for cars on far lower mileages than these unless you are paying next to nothing. For £6000 to £7000 I would be trying to get a car on about 20k miles and maybe about 3 years old. You have just sold a car that gave you a lot of problems and the last thing you need is another one with a lot of problems.

[arak81]

That was a very good piece of advice. But i have been searching for a car the whole day..couldn't find any within that price range and mileage. would you mind to give me any link of any car that you might have come across. My preferences are Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Insignia, Skoda Octavia or Vaulkwagen Passat. Now i think i better look for the mileage rather than looking for the feature.  

[paul.h]

Autotrader is a good place to start searching http://www.autotrader.co.uk/  and then you could look at the car manufacturers websites since if like the Citroen one, will let you search for a used car. The better quality cars tend to be sold by main dealers such as a Ford dealer if wanting a Ford, rather than smaller dealers. They also tend to provide better warranties but the cars may cost more.

 

Some large national dealers may not display the true cost to buy a car - 3 years ago we were looking to buy a C3 from Evans Halshaw. They had a suitable car but then we found they would not move on the windscreen price, a few problems with the car would not be fixed, the warranty was only 3 months (compared to at least 1 year at a full Citroen dealer, even though EH were a Citroen dealer) but longer could be bought - so we walked away and found a car at a proper Citroen dealer with the Citroen used/approved warranty.

[arak81]

That's where I checked..but cant find anything within that mileage and price range..anyway, I am going to cargiant to test drive vauxhall insignia ecoFlex 12/12/12 which is £6100 and miileage 74k and other one Seat Toledo 1.6Tdi ecomotive 13plate £5990 mileage 80k..what do you think paul? Edited February 20, 2017 by arak81

[paul.h]

I am not familiar with either of these cars but in general you should check that everything works on a car and check the service history. Even things like the tyres should be checked so they do not need replacing too soon - new tread depth is usually about 7mm, giving about 5 mm wear before needing replacing which could typically be about 20k miles.

[arak81]

Finally I have ended up buying SKODA OCTAVIA 1.6TDi Elegance. Registration plate 63, Date of first used 2 December 2013. Mileage 63k, PRICE: £8400. This is the high spec of its range. Most of the features i wanted is there. I haven't got the car yet. tomorrow they will do all the pre sell, post sell checking and diagnostic to make sure car is in optimal condition before delivering it to me.I could have collected it  at 10'oclock in the morning but i prefer to pick it up at around 5pm. Oh, by the way, car has got no service history, but it was a company car based on Birmingham and i can trust the car dealer like Cargiant about the authenticity of the condition of the car. When i opened the bonnet,  i was amazed seeing that engine is shinning new, battery has even got its cover..i mean everything there feel like new..just like you were to buy from the show room. So far so happy.

 

BYE BYE GUYS. THANKS FOR BEING SO HELPFUL. I'LL RECOMMEND THIS FORUM TO ANYBODY I KNOW USING CITROEN. 

[paul.h]

This sounds as if it should be a good car. Since it is only 3 years old it will have been serviced at a dealer, so you should be able to go to a Skoda dealer and get the service history from them. It will also have a  new MOT and you can check the MOT history on line using the car number plate and make https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

[arak81]

Oh, I had it done already paul.h. Car had its service in a skoda service centre in Birmingham. They said if i can pop in there show room and buy a service book for just £10 they can stamp on the book but it will be written is copy though. So may be someday i 'll make a trip to them.

 

Update of the New car:I had a bad luck with the Octavia today. I collected the car and went to the fuel pump to load the empty tank but guess what the nozzle doesn't go in..I was in texaco..and definitely it was diesel nozzle (they had supreme and normal diesel). initially it went in and were able to load under a pound worth fuel and then cut off. guy came to help me but still didn't work at all.  anyway, i drove back to them and they will fix it  and let me know tomorrow. what a pity!

[paul.h]

When we got our latest C4 I had trouble filling it up. Inside the filler is a spring loaded cap that the diesel nozzle has to push back as it is inserted and if not done with the right technique the fuel pump keeps cutting out. It took me a long time to do the first fill before I got the hang of it.

[arak81]

I still didn't get the car on my hand as they need to change the whole tank and waiting for the tank to be delivered from Skoda. They offered me full refund or transfer the fund to another car. I have found VW 2L bluemotion 30pounds road tax 80k for 8600pounds..would it be worth to go there or wait for the brand new fuel tank to be fitted.

[paul.h]

You would need to decide which car you liked the most. The extra 17k miles on the VW though is equivalent to another 1½ to 2 years older in your mileage, effectively making it an older car in terms of wear. It seems odd the tank needs replacing, how did the previous owner fill it up, unless maybe it was damaged syphoning the old fuel out so there was hardly any left for the new owner.

[arak81]

Actually I damaged the fuel neck myelf when popped into a fuel station to load the fuel. My be I entered the nozzle in wrong angle or so. They couldn't get only the neck. therefore they are changing the whole tank wich will be coming from Skoda. End of the day I'll get a brand new original fuel tank if I wanna stick with the same car.ETA of part delivery is today.so I am just checking if I can have any other better car within this price range. Edited February 23, 2017 by arak81

[seefive]

Can't believe people are still considering buying diesel cars - they will be useless and worthless in a few years.

 

Headline on front page today - BEWARE BUYING A DIESEL from Chris Grayling, minister of transport

[paul.h]

The problem is if you look at the alternatives the choice is not brilliant. If you do not live in a big town, do lots of miles, tow a caravan, etc. the alternatives to diesel are not good. So it looks as if many of us will need to keep our older cars going for some time.

 

We recently had a look at what C4 petrols are available and it is only a 1.2 litre 3 cylinder turbo charged - no 1.6 or 2.0 litre ones, so probably on the motorway the small engine would be revving a lot. Now Citroen no longer make the C5 (X7) the choice of a new Citroen car heavy enough to pull a caravan for us has gone and they only seem to have made a 1.6 petrol one which would not have been suitable for towing.