Citroen Xsara Picasso Exclusive 2.0 HDi Review

Overall Rating

Reasonably cheap and very economical. I usually get over 50mpg and have achieved well over 70 yes 70 mpg on long runs which take in all kinds of roads. The car carries 5 large adults in comfort and has loads of luggage space in the boot. The 3 rear seats can either be folded or removed in a very short time and the big bulky loads which you thought might not go in usually go in and still leave room for more, its a bit like a "Tardis". The seats and driving position are quite comfortable and all the controls seem to be in easily reachable positions.

In the winter months it takes quite a long time for the heater to warm the car interior and if you are only doing short journeys of 5 miles or less its doubtful if you will get any benefit from the heater. On the positive side though the heater takes so long to operate because the engine is so frugal with the amount of fuel it burns that heat is not being generated at a sufficient rate to heat the system up, which is not very helpful when you are cold. When it is sunny it can be possible for the digital dashboard display to become virtually invisible and its a matter of guesswork or waiting for a bit of shade to see how fast you are going. The crankshaft pulley fitted to the 2.0 Hdi is not up to the job and the rubber bonding between the metal sections has been known to break up. This in the extreme circumstances will result in loss of drive for the alternator/power steering and air con. You will however get lots of audible warning that something is going wrong but it will not help that even at trade prices it will still cost a fair bit of money to replace the pulley. Another failure can be the electric fuel pump which supplies fuel from the tank to the Injection pump. If this fails it is necessary to drain and remove the fuel tank to replace it because unlike other Citroen models there is not a access panel in the boot floor which would make this a few minute job which could be done at the roadside. Even worse than this it is the case that a lot of high pressure injection pumps have failed leaving the fuel system contaminated by metal dwarf which means that the fuel tank has to be removed and flushed and so have all the fuel lines and the filter. Not a very cheap job say goodbye to a grand or more if you don't have friends in the trade. Front and rear visibility is not too good in confined spaces but the Picasso is not really a long vehicle and you tend to think that it is long so that crunching sound never comes unless you really are a long way out on your guesswork.

Overall I think that the piccaso is a very good car. Its economical, comfortable and very versatile. Like all modern vehicles the piccaso if it goes wrong can be expensive to repair but possibly not as much as many others. My own Piccaso has now done over 127,000 miles and has had very little replaced apart from what I would term as service items. It is still running like new and I expect many more years service from it.