2005 Citroen C4 Exclusive from UK and Ireland - Comments

Various rattles and squeaks.

Speaker malfunctions.

Parking sensors on continuously.

Turbo sensor failure.

EGR failure.

Front electric window motor failure.

Glove box lid fell off.

Rear view mirror droops in warm weather.

Folding exterior mirror motor failure.

Carpet peeling away from side of front footwell.

Sticking door handles.

N/S rear door wouldn't open.

Sever juddering under 2,500rpm.

I cannot believe just how dreadful this car has been.

In all my years of driving, and that includes many Citroens, I've never owned a car that's been so unreliable. An absolute and total utter nightmare from day one.

It's currently in the main dealer... yet again... and has been for 12 days, whilst they try to find the severe engine juddering at under 2,500rpm. They seem at a total loss as to what's wrong with it, and leave me with no transport as all the courtesy cars are permanently booked. Absolute and total shambles, and wouldn't recommend one to my worst enemy. 0/10.

Trading Standards and a solicitor beckon if this isn't sorted very soon, and when it is, the car will be going the day I get it back.

I'll never buy a Citroen again.

Update. Finally dragged this spluttering monster out of the dealership in my sheer frustration, thinking I'd be able to take it to another dealer for them to have a go at fixing it instead.

WRONG! Apparently Citroen insist that if a garage has already started warranty work, they have to complete it, so I've very reluctantly taken it back to them in an even worse state than when I collected it yesterday.

I've sarcastically told them not to ring me until it's fixed, which they wouldn't have done anyway, as keeping the customer (sorry, pain in the backside) is not an option that they would even consider.

As for a replacement to use in the meantime, it seems I'm on my own. Both Citroen UK and the dealer are refusing to hire me a car.

I'm thoroughly disgusted with the shoddy treatment I've received.

All nicey nice to you when you're handing over your hard earned, but heaven help any of you others if a major fault develops on your much loved C4's.

I appreciate that the majority of you seem happy with your purchases. P'raps i've just been unlucky....very!

I've been lucky with my 05 reg Citroen C3 Exclusive Sensodrive, but my brothers Mark 2 55 reg C3 Exclusive Sensodrive has been nothing, but trouble since week 1.

3 keys has broken.

It cuts out when it wants.

You can be driving along then you can't select any gears it just revs and you have to stop and wait 5mins for the computer to select the Sensodrive Gears.

Fuel Consumption is really poor.

Just had to have a new Gearbox and Clutch under warranty as oil had leaked from the Gearbox and wrecked both the Clutch and Gearbox.

Overall it's not even in the same league as my C3.

CITROEN C4 2.0 Petrol Auto 4-speed - Do Not Buy.

The local south-coast area Citroen dealership and Citroen UK HQ have told me in writing that the Automatic Transmission on this model is of such poor quality that I must expect (and accept) downward gear-changes (4th to 3rd, 3rd to 2nd) to be jumpy and jerky when slowing down by using reduced accelerator pressure.

Before telling me that, they had TWICE replaced the whole Automatic Transmission, the second time bringing one over to UK from France in case UK stock was defective.

Citroen sent a specialist engineer to inspect my car for the first time, nearly 7 months into the dispute, and he made adjustments to the computer controlling the gear-changes but they made no difference.

Since failing to repair the jerkiness, and since failing to replace my car, when faced with the prospect of Court action the dealership started telling me it is due to my driving-style - using the throttle to control deceleration in traffic.

After 7 more than 7 months they have now refused to show me the engineer's report on my car which suggests it contains unfavorable information. Instead they have agreed a cashless swap taking my 2005 (55) C4 Exclusive for a 2006 (06) C5 2.0 Diesel 6-speed Auto.

I wonder what they don't want me to find out about that gearbox?

I bought an eighteen month old C4 1.4 petrol LX from a car supermarket, and now realise that it had a severe engine fault right from day two.

On the second day of owning it, I tried to pull away from traffic lights on an upward slope and the engine seemed to 'lag' slightly, causing me to dip the clutch to gain more revs. I just thought it was me being a bit rubbish at performing hill starts, but unfortunately it wasn't. Over the next two months the problem got worse. I took the car back to the dealer who 'upgraded the software' in the car and the problem went away. Two months later it re-occurred. The dealer (who seemed rather tired of hearing of this problem) took the car in for three days, leaving me with no transport so I had to hire a car, and said it was caused by a problem with the 'accelerator potentiometer'. The car was fine for about six weeks, then started to do the same thing. This went on and on for the remaining warranty period, after which they just didn't want to know about the faults even if I offered to pay for them to fix the problem. Appalling behaviour.

This got to a point where I was having to over-rev the engine when pulling away at roundabouts in order not to stall the engine. I was even having to park on hills always facing downwards because the engine had so little power it couldn't do a hill start at all.

Other problems started happening after the warranty period had expired; one of the rear windows would slowly wind itself down, so that every couple of days I had to open the door and wind it back up; the boot seals leaked; the bonnet catch jammed itself shut; the door handles would stick in the open position meaning you couldn't shut the doors; the cruise control/speed limiter stopped working; it reported an 'anti pollution fault' occasionally; the glovebox door would jam shut; the clutch juddered like crazy if you were stuck in traffic and moving slowly but often; the engine would just sometimes stop when sitting in a queue of traffic; parts of the interior began to fall off (but that's to be expected I'm told) ; the seat belt would not retract; the hydraulic boot struts wouldn't raise the boot; the key fell apart; the speakers rattled; the list just goes on.

I wouldn't wish this car on my worst enemy... well actually I would. I may have just had a 'Friday afternoon car' but it was the worst motor I've driven in all my twenty years of driving and I've driven some awful cars!

In short, don't touch a Citroen with a bargepole. You may be lucky, but from the conversations that I've had with others, if you have a problem the dealerships are dreadful and just want to take the up-front money from you, and if you have a subsequent problem they will ignore it and fob you off with excuses and sticking plasters until you just give up and sell the car to some other unsuspecting mug.

The interior light always worked. First time, every time.