Need another family car
 

Our trusty vectra gearbox has gone , as car is a r reg & done 158k not worth repairing

Wife likes the look of the Citreon Xara Picasso , need a roomy car for family

Any owned one ?

Looking at 2002 2.0 diesel

I don't drive very often ( a couple of times a year) so its the wife choice

Cheers Steveg

Re: Need another family car
 

As the son of a mechanic.....please please please don't get a french car. They are miserable to work on and motor vehicle technicians, except the ones into kinky painy hurty stuff, will dislike you when you ask them to service it

Have you considered Vauxhaull zafira's or something like that? What do the jap companies have to offer do you know?

Re: Need another family car
 

I thought of a Vauxhall zafira however the wife likes the picasso , she took one out for a test drive and loved it .
The kids also loved it

There's some impressive mileage picasso out there > 250k !

hopefully the gearbox fairys will fix my vectra's gearbox if not could well be a picasso

Cheers Steveg

Re: Need another family car
 

I wondered how long it would take before someone knocked French cars.
50 minutes.

Re: Need another family car
 

PM Kilted Ginger, his sister-in-law has one, and have had it for a few years. They live local to each other and have dinner together once a week, if they have had any problems with the car, KG will know about it.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...ge/8&logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...desc&logcode=p

Re: Need another family car
 

I had a spell of getting Piccasso's & Zafira's for hire cars at work a while ago.

Personally I hated driving either of them, but the Piccaso is nicer to drive than the Zafira, I also think you get more for your money with the Piccaso but IIRC they do depreciate quickly.

A friend of ours, wanted a people carrier, he looked at loads of different ones, he ended up with a Picasso as it fitted his budget and his missus liked driving it. He's very happy with it and so far hasnt had any niggles with it either.

Re: Need another family car
 

I did over 100k miles over two years in a Y reg 2.0 HDi Picasso company car and loved it. All it ever needed was service items and tyres etc. I abused it horribly, like thrashed it everywhere and the thing just kept coming back for more. I even used to get 45+ mpg out of the thing when it was being caned up to Glasgow and back over a weekend. Top speed seen on the clock was a tad under 135mph on a downhill section of the A66 westbound. It was quicker than you would believe yet still perfectly functional as a people mover and general do-it-all car. I found it extremely comfortable for a French car - I don't usually like their seats and prefer German or Japanese cars for comfort.

They are tremendous vehicles if you carry a lot of stuff around and have oodles of storage space inside, even down to having two hidden boxes in the rear footwells under the mats. I pulled all the rear seats out of mine and transported two part dismantled Yamaha RD400s in the back of mine from Bedford to Leamington Spa - they fitted in easily.

I'd go so far as to say I'd put my own money into one of I needed a car like that in the future, but I'd advise you steer clear of Y606 WBJ (my old one) as it had a hard life in my hands

Re: Need another family car
 

For what it's worth

2007 results - http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/jd-p...07/mpvs/225557

2008 results - http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/jd-p...08/mpvs/232612

2009 results - http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/jd-p...pvs-1-8/240819

Re: Need another family car
 

To summarise, save clicking the links and trying to figure out the key message

JD power results for the Picasso in the MPV category:

2007 - 5th
2008 - 7th
2009 - 2nd

Can't argue with that really.

And high depreciation is a good thing in this case because it means there should be plenty cheap 2002 models about below 2 grand.

Re: Need another family car
 

I never rated the Picasso for size, I went for the scenic 7 seat as like the zafia they fold flat so can take kids and friends or loads of rubbish (or two fridges as I have in the past).