2004 Citroen Picasso Standard review from Botswana

Previous Citroen:

Power steering pressure hose burst

Hooter stopped working

CD player stopped working

Rear window washer stopped working

Exhaust manifold cracked.

Current Citroen:

Passenger side airbag fault

Brake discs worn out (-30 000km)

Hooter stopped working

Rear window washer stopped working

Front window washer stopped working

Dip stick broke

CD player ejects erratically (sometimes the CD is stuck for days)

Headlight bulbs blew same night at the same time

light in glove box not working

Light in right side of dash board not working

Engine fault since 60 000km; still not sorted.

I bought my first new car in August 2003. After much pondering, many visits to different dealerships, and a lot of new cars examined, I happened upon the Citroen dealership. Granted it wasn't the most flashy of dealerships, but the cars had an interesting look, which we weren't familiar with in Botswana, since at the time French cars were making their come-back to southern Africa. I liked the design, the space, the safety features and other features the car came with, and after all the cars and prices I'd seen, the Picasso seemed like the most practical choice.

Over the first few months I was pretty pleased with the car and enjoyed driving it. On December 31st 2003, I noticed an odd smell in the car, and after driving for a bit, tried to park in a tight space and noticed smoke from under the bonnet. On inspection, I found that one of the power steering hoses had a crack in it, and was leaking onto the exhaust manifold, hence the smoke. I called up the dealership on the 5th of January, when they were supposed to have re-opened after the Christmas break, only to find that they had had their dealership revoked, and that I had to deal with Citroen South Africa.

I made an appointment, and drove the 400km to the Roodepoort dealership, where they examined the car, and since it was still under warranty, ordered the part, which came about a month later. In the meantime I had to do a 20 000km service, and found out that at the Botswana dealership I had paid for the service plan, which was not forwarded to South Africa, therefore I had to pay for a service that I had thought was meant to be covered.

Over the course of my having to service in South Africa, various little things stopped working on the car, i.e. The rear window washer stopped working and was repaired a few times. I kept complaining about the CD player, which would make a strange rattling noise, and then refuse to play or eject CD's, then would suddenly after a few days eject the CD.

The horn worked erratically for a while, and eventually stopped working. It was at this point I decided that perhaps I had bought a dud car (you know, the ones made late on a Friday afternoon when the factory workers have their minds on the weekend), and decided that it may be an idea to get rid of it before anything else went wrong that wouldn't be covered by a warranty.

The Citroen dealership reopened in Botswana, this time under Hyundai, and I believed I had been saved the drive to SA for routine maintenance. The rear window washer and CD player continued to give us grief, and then the exhaust manifold cracked. I waited for the part for couple of weeks, then when the part finally arrived and the repair was carried out, the sensor on the manifold was broken by the dealership, which meant another wait for that part to arrive. (almost 3 weeks)

I looked around at other dealerships, wanting to trade my car in for something else, anything else, but the only people who'd give me anything worthwhile for the car were the Citroen dealership. I had thought of perhaps a different model, and at the time, the C4 had just arrived, but my wife who also believed that our car had just been a dud, reminded me that the Picasso was our best choice also for the need of space, us having 3 children.

I then traded my car in and got our second Picasso in April 2005, which again was a pleasure to drive for the first couple of months. After a couple of months trouble free driving, when we had now convinced ourselves that indeed, our first Picasso was a dud, we had our first fault while driving a 400km journey to visit friends. The car gave us an air-bag fault warning and told us it was disengaging the passenger side airbag. When we got back to Botswana, I reported the fault to the dealership, who reset the airbag. The fault and reset happened twice more.

The brakes also started to get very noisy after about 30000km; grinding and squeaking rather embarrassingly. The dealership had to change the disks and pads just beyond 30000km.

The car then started giving me an engine fault warning between 50-60 000km, which I kept going back to the dealership to report. When the car was hooked up to the computer, it said there was a communication error between the engine and transmission, but when asked to diagnose the problem, the car and computer would reset and say no faults found. This became a regular thing, where the car would give me the fault, I'd take it in, it was reset, and the fault would re-appear on the way home.

I wrote to Citroen France who were all apologetic that I wasn't having the best time with their product, and forwarded my information to Citroen South Africa, who e-mailed me a complaint number.

I then e-mailed South Africa that my engine fault was continuing, and that what I was hoping for was them to help my local dealership with some technical expertise to help solve my problem. These communications took place in early to mid December, and there is still no response from South Africa.

I had indicated that I didn't want to find myself in a situation where I have reported a seemingly minor engine fault light, which turns out to be some major problem which I would have to pay large amounts of money for later. I had also indicated that I intended on traveling 1300km with the car over the December holiday.

I got no response, and went and had the fault reset yet again before my journey. The fault light was on again almost immediately. During my journey, the CD player developed a problem and wouldn't eject a CD for the first 5 days of our vacation. Then it just ejected the CD one morning.

Since then my rear window washer has stopped working twice, and been repaired, the front window washer has stopped working once and been repaired, the horn had stopped working for a long time and has been repaired.

It was during this time the owner of the dealership took me aside and informed me that they were in the process of losing the Citroen dealership, and that they were getting no support from South Africa. (I could have told them, "you weren't getting support from South Africa a long time ago buddy.")

The car then also developed a strange rattle noise from under the bonnet on acceleration and braking, which I suggested to the dealership mechanic must be a loose or broken engine mounting which, I was guessing, must have been the cause of the engine fault. I sent the car in before the service date to check the noise and yet another engine fault warning, and was told they didn't find anything wrong, and the engine fault had been reset.

At the rather expensive 120000km service, I noticed that there was a charge to tighten a loose engine mounting. I drove the car for about 3 days before the engine fault re-appeared, then almost a week after the service, on my way into the city with my family, the clutch started feeling hard and uncomfortable. The car would eventually not accelerate, and we crawled to our destination and tried to call the dealership.

At first there was no response, then I eventually got through to the parts department who gave me the number for the Citroen mechanic who came to see what he could do. He then informed me that the clutch had collapsed, release bearing, pressure plate and all, and that it being a Saturday, the car would only be seen to on Monday. We limped to the dealership, followed by the mechanic in his own car, and parked the car round the back to be dealt with on Monday.

I then spoke to the manager explaining that I was now stranded 60km away from home with three children aged 9, 7 and 3 and was told, and I quote, "…right, see you Monday." There wasn't even an offer to drop us off somewhere in town, nor an apology for the inconvenience of a 2 year old car breaking down. Aside from the disappointment of the lousy vehicle, which was, I believe, a bad investment, there was the further disappointment of an un-compassionate dealer. I would have thought at the very least, I would have been offered a ride to some point convenient for myself and three children, if not the use of a courtesy car.

I then asked the mechanic who, in his own car, was kind enough to drop me at my mother-in-laws, where I revived and used my 1967 VW beetle for the day.

3 weeks later my car is finally ready with a bill of P4800 (EUR 600) for the replacement of the clutch kit; this, a month after paying P2900 (EUR 362.50) for the 120000km service and the monthly payments for the car, adds yet another sting in the tail of my disappointment.

When I remarked to the owner of the dealership that the amount seemed rather exorbitant, he exclaimed with hands raised palm up in a gesture suggestive of the fact that I should have known "You wanted complexity!"

To which I replied, "No, I wanted safety."

To which he retorted, "And that's what you've got."

To which I shrugged.

It actually got me thinking, is this car actually safe; would the airbags deploy and save my life if I needed them to? With all the little faults the car has developed in the short time I've owned it, I'm actually not sure. I was discussing my problems with my car with a good friend of mine who bought a Picasso shortly after I got my second one, who is having his own problems with his car. I explained that I have no confidence in my car, and for the amount I am paying for it, I shouldn't be in this situation.

I believed that my first Citroen Picasso was made on a Friday afternoon; now I believe that it must be Friday every day in France. I would not recommend the car to anyone, and am currently trying to figure out a way to get rid of the car without losing too much money, in order to get a brand with more reliability.

The stereo cannot be changed for a better after market one, because the right side of the dashboard switches off if you try to do that. There are no RCA connections on the back of the factory unit, nor could my electrician find a remote cable, so fitting an amplifier was not possible either. The only way to improve the rather pathetic sound in the car was to fit a pair of good 6x9's on the rear shelf, and disconnect the rear door speakers.