2003 Citroen C2 VTR from UK and Ireland - Comments

Alarm going off after arming.

Rear brakes grinding when reversing-sticking on while driving.

Clutch actuator faulty, been replaced, but still sometimes faulty.

Unable to engage drive when setting off from traffic lights until around 3000-4500 revs.

Faulty light display- air bag warning (lighting), auto gearbox fault (lighting), fuel display (going off.)

The alarm needed to be re-wired due to faults with locking.

Paint work on boot lid rubbed away on hard rubber (Glass window)

Hand brake released on a slight hill climb after brakes cooled down after driving-lucky escape due too missing an house by around 4 inch's and blocked a main road for 40 minutes until I was found to move it.

I mainly use the car for motorway driving and have found that the drivers seat has started to wear badly. I've not found the dealership to be very helpful with my problems as they don't seem to be getting to the bottom of the problems with my car as the keep reacuring.

Nice looking, nippy around town car which can be bags of fun at times, while its running without any faults.

I bought a C2 VTR in July 04 - my first Citroen.

After 3 weeks and 250 miles on the clock it broke down in rush hour traffic. I was in slow moving traffic and the sensodrive gearbox decided it couldn't find a gear so slipped into 'snowmode' which rendered the car unmovable. Had to call the RAC (first time in over 20 years of car ownership that I've ever had a car break down, but then I've only ever owned German/Japanese cars before). RAC got me moving again, but it's now left me feeling very uncomfortable when driving in similar 'stop/start' conditions.

When driving in slow traffic or slowing down to approach junctions/roundabouts the gearbox in auto mode seems to really struggle between 2nd and 1st gear and I quite often accelerate to pull away to find theres 'nothing there' and the car judders as if its going to stall before eventually springing into life. Nearly had a couple of accidents due to this so I'm having to come to a complete stop at all junctions/roundabouts regardless of traffic flow in order to be able to pull away safely.

Had a software upgrade, but hasn't made any difference at all.

I really like the look of the car and general comfort and road handling and its very economical and is great to drive at constant speeds - but its very let down by the sensodrive gearbox technology and snatchy braking and I can already say disappointingly that I'll never buy another Citroen.

I bought a c2 vtr last February. I was doing a lot of motorway driving at the time and found that the temptation of an auto-gearbox AND (should I want it) the 'flappy paddle' changers behind the wheel too much to resist, so I went with the citroen c2 as apposed to the other similar priced competitors. I loved the looks, the speed and the general handling of it, apart from the fact that the "auto" gearbox was so jerky - you could feel every change so much that the car almost lunges every time it disengages one gear, and engages another. The brakes also seemed very sensitive. I didn't like the fact that built into the braking system was an "auto-break" feature which judges itself when you need assistance to stop your car quickly in an emergency. unfortunately, I found that this was faulty at the worst time, in the worst place on the motorway where the car's computer decided that, as I applied the brakes to slow down, it was an emergency and I needed to stop QUICKLY! The brakes locked up and brought me to a complete standstill from 80mph in the outside lane, resulting in a van smashing into me from behind and causing quite a lot of damage.

Luckly, citroen actually dealt with the situation very well. I thought, "they're never going to beleive me when I try to say 'the car stopped me itself'!". They took the car to their headquarters in Slough, where they found a fault, replaced all relevant parts (of which I do not know the names!) and did it all very quickly and professionally. I liked the fact that they admitted that the car was faulty, fixed it, and even filled my tank up to get me home! I later sold the car after losing a lot of confidence in the braking system - especially when driving on the motorway.

So, for the c2, a cool car with some very nice looks and features, but a poor gearbox and breaks. Was this just the case for my c2!? Probably yes, but would I buy another after this? Maybe, but I'll definately look at the likes of ford, renault and peugeot before being dazzled by the fancy features of the c2 first!

As for Citroen themselves, very quick in responding and very professional.