2001 Citroen Picasso SX from UK and Ireland - Comments

OK, re sunroof, yes the demonstrator I drove juddered, but realistically I am not really that bothered, after all how many times on a journey will you actually operate it, once or twice?

I am more concerned about the manual windows at the back, so I might remove the handles. In my Mondeo I can switch off the electric windows to stops the kids operating them.

I am buying one because my Mondeo V6 does 30MPG (but I will miss the cruise control and auto box) and if I get 50 mpg from the Potato (as my youngest thinks it is called) I will be into some serious savings.

Now there's one for those of you with a functioning brain (or a good knowledge of Excel).

If I am saving 20 mpg and assuming fuel prices rise in line with inflation (I.e 10-30%% a year!) how many miles do I need to do to recover the £10,000 extra I am spending on the car. Assuming I do 10,000 miles a year and excluding the considerable saving in insurance premium, road tax etc?

Keith

keith.alexander@aon.co.uk

Keith. Ah... Err sorry to upset you, but...

To save £10,000 you would need to save 2660 gallons (at approx. £3.75/gallon).

For 2660 gallons, a saving of 20mpg equates to 20X2660 miles = 53,200 miles.

At 10,000 miles/year, you would save £10,000 after 53200/10,000 years. This equals 5.32 years or approximately 5 years and 4 months!!!

Assuming inflation of (say) 30% over 5 years (could be more, could be less!), the time to make such a saving could be estimated to reduce in reality to about 3 Years and 9 months - although if you invested your £10,000 over the same period, you would receive interest which would offset the revised time saving in real terms.

Realistically therefore, I would estimate that it would take about 4 years at least to recover your 'saving!!!'

Paul.

I'm with Keith - to replace a thirsty car with something as economical as the Picasso has got to be a good idea. Don't forget he is getting a new car as well! In my experience that gives you a lot of savings especially with a 3 year warranty. I think you will find that the total cost of the Picasso is around 23.5p/mile - that makes it a very economical car to run.

There is so much space with the seats out I will save on a couple of van hires a year.

The big Volvo V70 has 1580 cubic litres with the seats down, the Picasso has 2128 with a 900mm high access through the tailgate - it's massive!

What do you do with the (rather ugly) middle rear seat belt when its not being used. Is it possible to disconnect it from the roof connection?

I'm only going by the photos that I've seen. Still not got my Picasso yet - waiting for delivery!

Paul.

Is this a car or a calculus site?! No, seriously, this site has been very helpful to me, since I was thinking of buying a Picasso - now I am certain to do so. Here in Greece we don't have diesel, so it'll be the 1.8 gasoline model.

A small downside I didn't see above is the rather limited range of colours available. I think that the Scenic has nicer colours - but then it is also a matter of taste.

A question: do CD's "jump" when played in the car?

Paul - Re. rear seat belt - It can be clipped in at roof level above the seat or removed from the center altogeter and hung on a special clip at the side just above the parcel shelf - quite clever!

Re. CD player - Ours has been perfect so far. Remote audio controls on the steering wheel are a good safety feature once you get use to them.

Angel.

Some great comments above, very tempted to buy one now.

Any comments on whether to go for 1.6 or 1.8?

Also what is it like if you go for the base model, without the air conditioning - does it turn into a greenhouse on wheels?

Mark.

Thanks Angela for your comments on the rear seat belt.

The CD player shouldn't jump. I am an electronics specialist in my 'other life' and CD players designed for cars have something called an 'anti shock' memory which means basically that about 30-40 seconds worth of music is stored in a memory such that if an error occurs due to a vibration, there is time for the electronics to correct the error before you hear anything.

Any jumping errors are more likely to be due to a damaged or marked CD.

Paul.

paul@jazzmusician.co.uk

Hi fellow Picasso owners.

I really started something here with my original review.

Yes our cd player occasionally jumps, but mostly when my daughter plays her Rap cd's. Does this car discriminate in the choice of music played? One thing though, the door speakers can't handle much bass. Why have a range of up to plus 7 on the bass selector, if the speakers start to distort at zero?

One previous correspondent was enquiring about the choice of engine. A friend of mine has the 1.6 90bhp. Air con saps the power and that extra is a must in the Picasso. Our HDi has only adequate performance, although it goes the same no matter what the load is!

It is a pity that the 1.6 110 bhp petrol engine is considered worthy for the 'bread van' Berlingo and not the Picasso. In France, the Berlingo even has the 110 bhp/184 llbs torque diesel engine option. WHAT's GOING ON CITROEN!!? Don't take the British market for granted, give us your best engines in the Picasso NOW!

Having got the fabric sunroof option, it really has been a boon in the recent sunny weather as it turns the car virtually into a cabriolet. When my wife drives and we have the roof open, I like to sit in the rear centre seat fully reclined. Great fun.

Would I buy another one, judging by our experience, absolutely. Ford will rue the day it cancelled its Focus based mini mpv, even Honda have brought one out. We briefly owned a Galaxy 2000 turbo diesel until Ford re-purchased it. The Picasso is dynamically a far better car and puts the Galaxy to shame with its extensive standard features.

I bought a Picasso Plus in April 01. You really have to go for digital air con otherwise you will be tuning in the dials forever. I have only found two small faults 1) The front air grilles above the dash reflect back onto the windscreen. 2) The front seat belt buckles are razor sharp. This is the best car I have ever owned, only problem now is getting it back from my wife.

Interested to read your comments about the rear seat. I've ordered a Picasso - but not yet received it.

Did you say that the rear centre seat fully reclines? I didn't realise that. Presumably you have to remove the rear parcel shelf to allow this? Do the other rear seats fully recline also?

Also, as I've ordered a glass sliding sun roof, can anyone tell me how large it is in comparison to saloon-type car sun roofs - and whether it has a 'forward-tilt' mode or is it just a straight rear slider?

Thanks to everyone who contributes to this site. It's a great discussion forum.

Oooh I am so excited, we have just ordered our 1.8 Sx Picasso. Hopefully it should arrive soon.

We were going through the usual deliberations of Estate vs compact MPV and if so would it be the Zafira, Scenic or Picasso.

I have to admit, I was pretty sold on the Scenic but when looking at the Picasso today I changed my mind. Both me and my husband agreed - must be a first!

I am so relieved to come home and read these reviews as it is obvious we have made the right choice.

We have specified the glass sunroof, but I am now really concerned that this may have been the wrong decision. Is it really that juddery?

Thanks for all your comments - very helpful!

As I said in my earlier comment the Glass sunroof on the 'Demonstrator' I drove juddered. The plastic guides vibrated on the rails as it opened causing a very noticeable noise.

The trim around the switch had fallen off on the demonstrator as well as the plastic covers that go over the rear of the seat rails (poor preparation by the dealer perhaps).

It could just have been because it was brand new or because it was a very hot day or even because the glass section was not truly square.

For those of you that have not seen one it is a 50/50 split affair the front is motorised and slides backwards and the rear section is fixed.

There are two perforated roller blinds that cover the two sections of glass.

The rear section of glass is somewhat obscured when the front is fully open (two layers of tinted glass to look through)

The blinds can be operated independently of the roof but the front blind is automatically picked up and closed when the sunroof is closed.

I have read reviews elsewhere that suggest the Vinyl roof suffers from wind noise and is drafty when closed any comments from those of you with one?

It looks to me as if Citroen designed the Glass roof as a direct replacement for the hole in the cars body, it looks the same size. I assume because of criticism of the vinyl roof I wonder if they are interchangeable glass for the winter and vinyl in the summer?

I am now in a bit of a quandry I have ordered a new 2.0Hdi SX with glass roof and digiaircon although I have no idea when it will arrive, and I now find a local dealer has a second hand car same spec with a vinyl roof which would save me £2600 I think I could put up with a bit of wind noise for that kind of saving plus the vinyl roof does retract a lot further.

Now for something completely different. Does anyone know what make the CD player in the SX is.

Are there any CD multichangers available I assume Citroen do one at a silly price and is the wiring already in place?

Yesterday on the M25 the kids counted two red ones countless glacier blue ones a bora bora green one and one dark green one.

The darker metalics in my opinion do not suit this vehicle at all.

I would like a yellow one :-)

FYI on the DVLA wub site there is/was P1ASO available (well its close)

Enjoy your Potato (now David (aged 3) it is Picasso there is no T in it anywhere!)

Keith

Keith.Alexander@aon.co.uk.

I have recently purchased a HDi Sx version and have been very surprised how good it is. I have had 3 BX's and 2 Xantia's and was a little dubious at going back to coil springs but now I find I had no need to worry. I am more than pleased with the mpg - my best to date being an actual 56.5mpg against an indicated 64.2. This was measured over 622miles of fairly gentle motoring. The rolling average over 2500 miles in 2wks - I normally do 35,000 miles / year - which includes a high speed motorway driving,is 51 mpg.

My biggest complaint is the design fault regarding the dash brilliance. If you wind down the brilliance level for night driving then when you switch on the headlights during the day, due to bad weather, then the dash is unreadable. You have to wind the light level back up again. This could be easily solved by software in the controller that could check the time of day and decide if high dash brilliance is required. I know that this would not be a perfect solution but it could be done without having to resort to photo cells. Maybe Citroen could perform a down load next time it goes in for service.

My other concern is that my wife likes to drive it!!

Vic.

Hi Everyone.

Yes it's me again with the Glacier Blue HDi who wrote the original review. My name is Kevin. Can't match the mpg of previous contributors with our turbo diesel. However it would be interesting to see what mpg the petrol owned Picasso's are averaging. Regarding the extra initial purchase price of the HDi, yes it will take a long time to recover at the pumps. You eventually forget the shock of lashing out all that extra money for the HDi when you write the cheque at the dealership, it is at every fill-up that you notice the difference and that experience goes on a long time. We do not get less than 500 miles from every tankful. We did own a 1998 FIAT Brava 1.4s. It was relatively cheap to buy, but only averaged an appalling 28 mpg. It seemed that I was forever putting petrol in it. One important factor for choosing the turbo-diesel is that it will hold its value better. As for the fabric sunroof... no wind noise below 105 mph, but it gets a little drafty for rear seat passengers when it is fully open on speeds over 60 mph. As for security, well not many Piccaso's have been used as getaway cars or for ram-raiding shops. We did not choose the alloy wheels option and just as well, my wife has managed to scrape all four of the plastic wheel trims! Cheers, Kevin KevinWatson.co.uk or ruth-less.co.uk.