1999 Citroen Saxo Westcoast review from UK and Ireland

My power steering failed at 25,000 miles and went again at 40,000 miles.

Clutch failed at 18,000.

Air blower failed.

Extremely squeaky brakes for the past year which no-one seems to be able to fix, even after new pads, cleaning, brake fluid.

I'm sure more has gone wrong, but just escapes me right now.

Where do I start?

Clutch failed at 18,000 miles. Car was just outside the warranty by about 3 weeks and the dealers just didn't want to know. I ended up getting it fixed at an independant mechanic because Citroen didn't have the parts and I would have had to wait a week. TRUE.

Power steering has also failed. Not only failed, but failed intermittently. I was told to drive it to the dealer (I now live in Dublin which is 160 miles from my Citroen Dealer) the day after it failed. I drove it 160 miles with no power steering. It doesn't just feel like you don't have power steering, but it was incredibly difficult to turn because you have to do all the work that the power steering does. To add to the problem it sometimes would kick in on a bend. So for example, I be putting all my strength into turning left and then all of a sudden the power steering would kick back in nearly making me over steer off the road. Nightmare. Just before I got to the dealer the power steering kicked in and stayed in. What did Citroen say? "Well I turned that steering wheel around 900 times and she's fine". That's it? that's all you can do? Yip.

That was a year ago and since then all was fine. Until last week. Yip, the power steering has gone again and the blower for the hot and cold air has gone too. I didn't take it to Citroen this time. I took it to the guys that fixed my clutch. They found the problem. It was a fuse board.

Anyway, enough of my complaining. I actually do like the car. It looks good, it's real quick for a 1.4i and not far off the 1.6 VTR. Next time I'll go for the VTS and buy it from a dealer in Dublin which will now be closer to where I live.

All in all I like it, but due to all the problems I will probably change it soon.

Dave.

P.S. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I was driving along one time and the front right indicator light fell out! Yip. Just popped it back in and it's grand.