2004 Citroen C8 SX HDI from UK and Ireland - Comments

My 2003 C8 rolled across Asda car park last week, landing against another car.

I was called out and so was the other owner, no one showed up. I moved car as it was blocking the road, no damage to mine and a small scrape on bumper of the other vehicle, a 52 Picasso.

Went to continue shopping, witnesses outside said no one else came out. ASDA had my reg number.

Now today a letter off police wanting to charge me with driving without due care and attention.

I need to know has anyone elses C8 rolled when the handbrake was on.

MOT was a week ago and brakes were tested.

I've had all other problems tyres, anti pollution, juddering, doors opening, not opening etc.

This is now a serious issue.

If anyone has any evidence of this happening to them, please mail hi2ualloutthere@aol.com with your stories.

Judith.

I have a C8 on 03 plate, bought it with 40k miles 3 years ago, now done 88k.

Had anti-pollution fault 2 years ago. They said it was a heating cold and replaced it and the seal for £450. Seemed OK.

Handbrake problem - wearing indicator on all the time and beep warning, they charged £160 to rewire it to computer.

Overall not too bad until this summer. Had Diesel Additive Minimum level on for a bit. Saw a chat room that made you wonder what to do next. Took it to Citroen specialist who stated get it done if you wish (he was the boss), but not really necessary it only helps emissions, but rarely does a car fail MOT for it.

Went to France on holiday towing a caravan. Got there OK 1250 mile journey. Out and about and anti-pollution warning came on with significant loss of power in lower gears and became noisy. Call insurance breakdown who spoke to French garage for us and booked it in for 2 days later. Message disappeared but trouble starting when warm, OK if cold. Spoke to French Garage and my diesel specialist. With the latter spoke to elderly mechanic who said get additive done. French garage could not see anti-pollution fault, but did additive which included particle filter 927 euros. Rest of holiday anti-pollution on and off, still starting problem.

Got home, took car to Citroen specialist who was baffled. His advice was to ignore Citroen main dealer as they would not know and recommended a diesel specialist. They had car for 3 days - "insufficient pressure in the common rail" they stripped and tested two injectors and repaired one. Put it back together and problem fixed £340, estimate for main dealer about £900. Followup advice from diesel specialist - somehow get the software upgraded otherwise some error messages will not completely disappear. Lo and behold ESP/ASR not functioning. I'll wait to build the bank balance before the next garage visit!!!

I have had my 2.0 petrol C8 LX since new, and it is now over 6 years old and has done about 65000 miles.

In that time I have had many of the faults mentioned above; seat base replaced, flaking boot handle and the indicator, light stalk replaced all under warranty. As mine is a lowly LX spec, I have not had the power door problems and sun roof leaks, and as it is petrol, none of the associated problems.

The petrol engine gets in the high 20's to the gallon, which is not too far away from the claimed 31. Tyre wear is about 20K miles for a set, they all wear evenly for some reason.

The main problems are the rear exhaust boxes only seem to last 30K miles, the middle box about 40K, and the parts have to come from Citroen, and so are in well in excess of £300 (last one went the other week in France and cost 440 Euro) fitted. This seems very excessive.

All the other door handles are starting to flake now, and I have the doors unlocking themselves from time to time.

In summary, much as everyone else says, nice looking car, but let down by numerous faults.

We bought our C8 10/05/04 from our local dealer, nothing really went wrong for the first couple of years except the alarm going off repeatedly until we eventually stopped using the remote to lock the car, which meant the alarm was never really on. We did this after umpteen visits to the dealer.

We had the 30k service done at the same dealer, the cost was over £500 with a quote for nearly £600 for recommendations of parts to be renewed. We declined there offer of this.

Not long after the service the chrome started to peel away from the handles, the dealer said it was not covered as the warranty had ran out (Citroen uk are looking at this just now)

To top all this off the cam belt broke last week, the car has only done 41k, after reading some of the letters on this web site we cannot afford the cost of that kind of repair bill.

Broken hearted and disgusted with this vehicle, may have to scrap it as the market value is slightly higher that the expected garage bill, the name Citroen makes me sick, never ever will I buy anything with that name on it again.

Pretty much a repeat of the previous comment. I am now left with an 04 C8 needing a new engine after the cambelt snapped. Even if I spend the £5000+ that Citroen quote for repair, who is going to want a 5 year old car which has already needed a new engine?? If you have got one, do yourself a huge favour and get rid of it at the earliest possible opportunity.

My Citroen C8 with 56,000 miles rolled to a halt in the middle of a duel carriageway with myself, my wife and four children yesterday. We were towed to our Citroen dealer where were we told the cambelt had snapped and it would cost 5000 pounds. On another occasion the heater wiring for the passenger heated seat caught fire whilst my wife and children were on a day out. Anyone thinking of buying a C8 run a mile, the only thing good about them is their looks, and that will 'flake' away!