2005 Citroen C3 Pluriel review from Australia and New Zealand

"Sensodrive" gearbox - 5 times. This is the most frustrating and potentially dangerous aspect of the car. The first time occurred just after the initial service. After crawling along in a traffic jam for over two hours, the gearbox decided it was not in first or in any known state after a short period being stationary. After about 20 minutes or turning on and off the engine, it dropped into first gear and proceeded as if nothing was at all wrong.

No further problems for 2 months, then three instances of being unable to start the car due to gearbox issues (Auto and the flashing snow sign). Each event requiring a tow to the dealership who reset the software.

The last incident with the gearbox happened this week (18000km). Symptoms included (1) could not start car without first re-initialising the gearbox by depressing the brake pedal for 30secs. (2) sluggish gear change from third to fourth (3) intermittent failure to drop down to 1st gear when slowing to a stop resulting in either having to proceed in 2nd or the dreaded disabled gearbox (Auto & flashing snow sign)

New software downloaded from France and seems OK for the moment (touch wood)

Surprisingly quite with the roof off.

Kids love being in the car with the roof off - even at night.

Am looking forward to summer so we can run it as an open top all the time. I've bought the torneau cover for those rare occasions that it rains in summer.