Good riddance to my Citroen C5

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I paid £12,500 as the Citroen website carried a £3,000 voucher that needed to be presented to the dealer. The dealer then knocked off another £2,000 so I was buying a big car for the price of a mini. Great I thought, bargain of the century.

If only the car had been reliable I would have gone out and bought another one. For the £12,500 it came with a sequential auto gear box, auto lights, auto wipers, traffic master, electronic controlled hydraulic suspension, individual climate control.... the list went on forever. The Mondeo Zetec which I now own retails for a similar price but is a stripped down car by comparison.

The C5 never broke down but throughout its life with me there was a constant stream of problems that was evenly spread out. The garage told me that there had been 16 warranty claims on it when I asked them but there were other problems that were never fixed as they corrected themselves. I remember once that we could not get the central locking open at the supermarket. After 10 minutes of farting around it opened. That fault never came back.

So was this car a one off? Well no, as the brother-in-laws father also bought one after seeing mine and getting the same deal. He only owned his car for 2 years as his C5 did keep breaking down.

After the car the most unreliable product I have ever owned was a well known make of TV and yes it was made in France. I have now got a mindset that the only thing the French are good at is going on strike and rioting. I for one will never knowingly buy another French product.