Citroen Xsara 1600

People more often than not leave reviews when they are dis-satisfied. I think karma should be restored. I got my xsara at 30k and now it is 120k. 1600 estate. I have had 2 services done, way below the recommended. I have broken down twice in my 90k, one was with the fuel pump dying, the other was the alternator dying. One other self induced problem was that I was towing very heavy trailers that caused the axle to buckle. Now, this car is like a loyal old horse to me, requires little maintanance, and I dread her passing, I actually love this piece of metal. My xsara is over ten years old, been negected and has its isms like boot not opening manually but it is a decent drive still and I trust the hunk to get me to A to B safelly. Good old workhorse..

The most unreliable car I have ever owned. In six months of ownership we had the following 'issues': Month 1: Engines starts to misfire - advised by garage it is the injectors. Turns out to be the coil pack - replaced at the cost of £120. Later that month it starts to misfire again.. this time it's the MAP sensor. Another £80. Month 3: Starts to idle oddly, dying at junctions. It's the idle control motor. New one costs £70. Month 4: Engine speed varying wildly. This time it's a new throttle potentiometer. £55. Month 5: both rear wheel brake cylinders have failed. Another £200. Month 6: Head gasket blows. Cost too enormous, so scrap it for £80.

NEVER, EVER, buy one of these cars. There is just no reason. However cheap it is, just walk on by. Even if you do, by some miracle, get a good one you'll find the back window too small, the idiotic placement of all the airbag sensors under the drivers seat means they disconnect whenever the seat is pushed back as far as it can go. (I nearly paid a rather large garage fee to fix this 'fault' before reading the solution online. But it's not really a solution, as every time the seat goes back you have to reconnect the wiring. Then there's the horrible clutch. Non adjustable, and far too low with a tiny biting area. The fuel consumption is worse than average - around 35 mpg. The parts are expensive, the dealerships worse.

I hope I've said enough to put potential buyers off. If you're unfortunate enough to have just bought one, then good luck. You'll need it!

I've owned a Xsara 1.6 for about three years. It was secondhand when I bought it with about 50,000 miles on the clock and no previous history. Since then I've added another 18,000 miles including a 2,000 mile holiday in Europe. Quite honestly the car has been superb. No probs whatsoever. It's fairly comfortable, not brilliant compared to the BMW I also drive, but quite OK. also it's a little noisy but quite acceptable. On a decent run at motorway speeds it will return over 50 mpg. These cars seem to get a lot of flack in reviews, I think it's fair to praise where it's due.

Don't buy one it cost me from the dealer £8000 I spent £5699 on it in a average month this is its stats.

Broke down 8 times.

Won't start 12 times.

Overheats 33 times note overheats when not moving too.

Judders every day.

Stalls when it works all the time.

Please don't buy this unless you want to go through what I went through and its embarrassing but it is not a pleasure to drive when it works.

Overall, I'm happy with my choice of car for the next 4 years, although I did want a Ford Focus, but they were just out of my price range.

The Citroen Xsara 1.6 LX has a lot of power. It is good for motorway driving, and fuel per gallon is okay on the motorway, but city driving is terrible. The car grips on to the road very well and feels reliable.

I've got one problem with the car, which is a crank shaft oil leak, and it may cost about £200 to fix.

The best thing about this car is it looks and feels a lot more expensive than it actually is. If you see this car for around 3000 - 4000, it's worth it.

I bought a brand new Citroen Xsara 1.6 16V (110 HP) on Sept 2003 and I had that car for 1 year. The reason I only had it for 1 year is that by the time the car had 6.000 km on the Odometer it had to spend 3 months on the shop to rebuilt the injection system because of a factory failure. Is important to say that it broke in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night and that didn't make me very happy. Citroen gave me for those 3 months another car for me to use. By the time I got my car back it never functioned properly any more and I had several problems from that day to the day I sold it (that's a date I remember with happy tears in my eyes)

The Citroen Xsara 1600 its self is well built with well structered design, it handles well on the open road as well as towns. This I can confirm after driving from the Uk to Malaga Spain 3 times (4000 miles there and back) it is comfortable with easy access to all areas of the engine etc. As I said the only things we have had go wrong are the exhaust and tyres.

The Citroen Xsara 1600 is an absolute appalling car! Poor performance, bad clutch, very unreliable, poor assembly and build quality.

The Citroen Xsara 1600 isnt the best of cars for fuel economy, about 40 mpg on a run and the layout of controls leaves a lot to be desired, try looking for the rear screen demist or electric window switches while your driving! Rear visibility is poor due to the high tail and large pillars block the view at the sides of the windscreen. Very plastic interior and the seats are average. Watch out for someone steeling the spare wheel and jack which are underneath the car. Worst part of the car is the clutch which has slipped since around 10000 miles, not bad enough to warrant replacement and in any case i've heard this is a fault on them.