C1 Ownership

[red bug]

My first post on my wifes C1 ownership since May 06 till present

Car was purchased new for the wife from main dealer in May 2006, it is the 5 door Vibe we paid an on the road cash price of £6200.

Why did we (wife) choose to buy the C1

We looked at the C1, Ford Ka, Kia Picanto and Chevrolet Matiz. Matiz was looked at as it would be a direct replacement for what the wife was already driving, turned down on price (too expensive) and she didn’t like sales person. Picanto was quite good to drive, cheap but controls in wrong places and plastics were very very cheap. Ka was good to drive, very cheap for new car (just over 5k OTR price from main dealer) but only 2 door and seat height very low (wife quite short). On to the C1 wife loved the look, it had the best running costs for a city car (at the time) and its was fun to drive. We got a good deal from the sales person but had to wait for a red 5 door model a total of 5 weeks. After almost 2 years and 25k miles what has it been like to live with. First I must say that it must be remembered that the C1 is a small budget city car which some people on this forum sometimes seem to forget so I shall not be comparing it to my own car (BMW530i).

First the wife still loves her little bug and I also have to say that when we go into town that I always take the bug as it is jut great around town and so easy to park.

Plus points.

Easy to drive all controls light and very easy to park.

Cheep to run £35 per year road tax and soon to be exempt from London congestion charge, insurance costs also very low.

Good on fuel see below.

Five doors, this is a must if you regularly use the back seats.

Performance, very nippy feels faster than it really is exhaust note makes it sound quite racy.

Keeps up with the traffic on motorways and will quite happily cruise at motorway speeds all day.

Enough power to overtake safely unlike the Matiz the wife had before.

Seems to be ok in cross winds and when passing HGV’s.

Reliable, see below for parts replaced.

Negative points.

Servicing costs at main dealer, £170 for oil change new filter and top up the fluids time taken for complete service less than 30 minutes my feeling on experience rip off. For the second service car taken to local garage that I use, cost £85 and included using all Citroen parts.

Road noise, a lot at motorway speeds.

Tyre wear, front tyres replaced at 20k.

Radio, poor sound made worse by road noise. After reading other posts may change speakers.

First gear quite tall needs to have a few more revs than similar cars to pull away smoothly especially on pulling away on a gradient.

As you can see some of the bad points are just niggles along with some of the plus points that may be seen to some as a bad points.

A few posts mention fuel consumption, since ownership wife’s C1 in mixed daily driving achieves between 390-420 miles between fuel stops, the car is filled up when the fuel gauge starts to flash, around 31 litres is required to top up the tank which equates to 56-60 MPG.

Reliability to date only one headlight bulb has blown which is a far better record than my BMW.

The one grumble the wife had compared to her Matiz was that the car did not have central locking, so I fitted a Hawke radio controlled central locking system to her car which cost £24 inc postage. From start to finish it took 6 hours to fit. Problems encountered in fitting the kit were few. A few tips from fitting the kit below.

1. Removal of window winder handle. Removal of the clip that holds it on is one of those !*!! moments and I found to be the worst part of the whole job.

2. Finding 12v power. I gave up trying to find a suitable place to take the 12volt supply from inside the car and ran a wire direct to battery with fuse at battery end. In the engine bay I used black plastic pipe that matched in with the other electrical wires.

3. Wiring in door. Make sure the wires that run in front doors to the solenoid go behind window channel as not to catch window when it is wound down.

4. Removal of plastic trim. The foot well plastic trim is very easy to damage be very careful. Removal of plastic trim below upper seat belt fixing point (for running wires to rear doors on 5 door model) undo screws and pull off door rubbers in the area of the trim as the trim is clipped behind the rubber.

5. Receiver position. I fitted the receiver behind the small flat area of grey plastic under the steering column.

6. Plastic door cards. After removing screws (and on the front doors the window winder) I found they needed quite a sharp jolt to the bottom of the door card to start the removal process. Once the door card started to come away I used screw driver to help the removal of the clips in the centre of the card.

7. Mounting of solenoids. I found it easer to drill small mounting holes in the inner door skin rather than try and use the mounting strips provided. These are not seen once the door cards are replaced. I found one extra hole was required for front doors as I could use an existing and two holes for the rear doors.

8. Door card modification. On the door cards fitted to the front doors I needed to cut away some of the internal plastic of the door card as it fouled the new solenoids. I also noticed that there seems to be a mounting point for door speakers.

9. Wiring. Wiring through doors and through door pillars very easy as car already has rubber grommets in place which can be popped out and holes cut through them, I protected the wires in a plastic sheath in this area.

We intend to run the car until it is three years old when we shall trade it in or sell it on to one of our family. Would we buy another C1 the answer at the moment would be yes unless a better option comes along. Would I pay extra on top of base vibe model for any extras if available, again the answer is yes and those being central locking and a better sound system but only if the price were right or it will be out with the drill again.

[ColinC1]

Hi red bug and welcome to the forum.

 

I have the 3 door vibe and I agree with everything you say regarding reliability, ease to drive, and yes it looks good.

 

I get on average 58 MPH which is just as good as my prevous Smart Fortwo, plus I no longer get so many of those tailhuggers, who used to hound me in the Fortwo, trying to get by.

 

I also agree trying to live without central locking is hopeless (kept leaving the car with the passenger door unlocked) so I similarly installed a remote keyfob operating system. I also fitted an aftermarket electric window kit as well, plus got a sunroof fitted.

 

The only downside I have suffered from is leaking seals from the top of the two doors, drip, drip, drip,(quite a common problem on both 3 & 5 door). I realise now it is a poor design relying on only one soft seal trying to get enough pressure to counteract torential downpoors (thats when it don't work).

 

After puting it in the garage twice where they fiddled around with it, saying all the doors are aligned ok, so it should work, they were wrong as the drips still came in :blink:

 

The seal is far to soft, and there should have been one seal on the door and one on the body like most cars. I just gave up and now put a smear of silicone grease on the seals every 3 months, and it works a treat. No more wet carpets !

[Guest C1millstone]

My first post on my wifes C1 ownership since May 06 till present

Car was purchased new for the wife from main dealer in May 2006, it is the 5 door Vibe we paid an on the road cash price of £6200.

Why did we (wife) choose to buy the C1

We looked at the C1, Ford Ka, Kia Picanto and Chevrolet Matiz. Matiz was looked at as it would be a direct replacement for what the wife was already driving, turned down on price (too expensive) and she didn’t like sales person. Picanto was quite good to drive, cheap but controls in wrong places and plastics were very very cheap. Ka was good to drive, very cheap for new car (just over 5k OTR price from main dealer) but only 2 door and seat height very low (wife quite short). On to the C1 wife loved the look, it had the best running costs for a city car (at the time) and its was fun to drive. We got a good deal from the sales person but had to wait for a red 5 door model a total of 5 weeks. After almost 2 years and 25k miles what has it been like to live with. First I must say that it must be remembered that the C1 is a small budget city car which some people on this forum sometimes seem to forget so I shall not be comparing it to my own car (BMW530i).

First the wife still loves her little bug and I also have to say that when we go into town that I always take the bug as it is jut great around town and so easy to park.

Plus points.

Easy to drive all controls light and very easy to park.

Cheep to run £35 per year road tax and soon to be exempt from London congestion charge, insurance costs also very low.

Good on fuel see below.

Five doors, this is a must if you regularly use the back seats.

Performance, very nippy feels faster than it really is exhaust note makes it sound quite racy.

Keeps up with the traffic on motorways and will quite happily cruise at motorway speeds all day.

Enough power to overtake safely unlike the Matiz the wife had before.

Seems to be ok in cross winds and when passing HGV’s.

Reliable, see below for parts replaced.

Negative points.

Servicing costs at main dealer, £170 for oil change new filter and top up the fluids time taken for complete service less than 30 minutes my feeling on experience rip off. For the second service car taken to local garage that I use, cost £85 and included using all Citroen parts.

Road noise, a lot at motorway speeds.

Tyre wear, front tyres replaced at 20k.

Radio, poor sound made worse by road noise. After reading other posts may change speakers.

First gear quite tall needs to have a few more revs than similar cars to pull away smoothly especially on pulling away on a gradient.

As you can see some of the bad points are just niggles along with some of the plus points that may be seen to some as a bad points.

A few posts mention fuel consumption, since ownership wife’s C1 in mixed daily driving achieves between 390-420 miles between fuel stops, the car is filled up when the fuel gauge starts to flash, around 31 litres is required to top up the tank which equates to 56-60 MPG.

Reliability to date only one headlight bulb has blown which is a far better record than my BMW.

The one grumble the wife had compared to her Matiz was that the car did not have central locking, so I fitted a Hawke radio controlled central locking system to her car which cost £24 inc postage. From start to finish it took 6 hours to fit. Problems encountered in fitting the kit were few. A few tips from fitting the kit below.

1. Removal of window winder handle. Removal of the clip that holds it on is one of those !*!! moments and I found to be the worst part of the whole job.

2. Finding 12v power. I gave up trying to find a suitable place to take the 12volt supply from inside the car and ran a wire direct to battery with fuse at battery end. In the engine bay I used black plastic pipe that matched in with the other electrical wires.

3. Wiring in door. Make sure the wires that run in front doors to the solenoid go behind window channel as not to catch window when it is wound down.

4. Removal of plastic trim. The foot well plastic trim is very easy to damage be very careful. Removal of plastic trim below upper seat belt fixing point (for running wires to rear doors on 5 door model) undo screws and pull off door rubbers in the area of the trim as the trim is clipped behind the rubber.

5. Receiver position. I fitted the receiver behind the small flat area of grey plastic under the steering column.

6. Plastic door cards. After removing screws (and on the front doors the window winder) I found they needed quite a sharp jolt to the bottom of the door card to start the removal process. Once the door card started to come away I used screw driver to help the removal of the clips in the centre of the card.

7. Mounting of solenoids. I found it easer to drill small mounting holes in the inner door skin rather than try and use the mounting strips provided. These are not seen once the door cards are replaced. I found one extra hole was required for front doors as I could use an existing and two holes for the rear doors.

8. Door card modification. On the door cards fitted to the front doors I needed to cut away some of the internal plastic of the door card as it fouled the new solenoids. I also noticed that there seems to be a mounting point for door speakers.

9. Wiring. Wiring through doors and through door pillars very easy as car already has rubber grommets in place which can be popped out and holes cut through them, I protected the wires in a plastic sheath in this area.

We intend to run the car until it is three years old when we shall trade it in or sell it on to one of our family. Would we buy another C1 the answer at the moment would be yes unless a better option comes along. Would I pay extra on top of base vibe model for any extras if available, again the answer is yes and those being central locking and a better sound system but only if the price were right or it will be out with the drill again.

I bought the C1 RHYTHM which came with the central locking.I also had fitted 15" alloys,all mats and flaps required.This was followed by a nightmare number of leaks.C1 hole in head,C1 hole in head please.My 56 reg C1 Rhythm diesel leaked water from day one.As a result my car had front door seals changed twice,rear door window rubbers three times.To cure the window problem both window glass was replaced/changed by the dealer!.Now the engine is acting up!C1MILLSTONE!