Car Buying advice - Citroen C5/Vauxhall Insignia

[Jam_Man]

Driven one of my two 2003 Focus into the ground, its still going but has 120k on the clock now and needs upgrading. As you can see by having two older cars Im not really a car person !

I do however do a fair bit of driving, about 1300 miles a month and Id like soemthing half decent, without spending huge amounts as any car I have will just get miles pile on it.

When I was up in the lakes I saw a Citroen C5 in a car dealership which I really liked the look of, but since then I have never seen one one the road !? Ive been looking at 2009/2010 which seem to go for about £7-8000 for a 2.0 diesel. Ive found a nice 2010 model which has 2 owners, does that ring any alarm bells for a 3 year old car?

I also quite like the Vauxhall Insignia which for the same kind of car seems to sell a little cheaper. My brother had a company car and says its been to the dealership quite a bit.

Anyone got any experience or feedback on these?

 

[Ricey]

I've always liked the Insignia and heard excellent things about it. Vauxhall as a car company have come on leaps and bounds. The Insignia is 1000 times a better car than what the Vectra was. The build quality is a lot better. As for the reliability of it I can't answer that I'm afraid.

One of the guys at work has a C5, it's a very nice car and you do get a lot for your money, my only one concern would be is its French and as for reliability of French cars they aren't the best. I say that from experience of owning two French cars a Renault and a Citroen. The Renault I didn't have an issue with but the Citroen I had no end of problems. But it's down to personal experience, I owned an Alfa Romeo and had loads of problems, my dad had one and had no problems. I had mine 6 months he had his about 3 years.

Read what car reviews I find they are very impartial and helpful.

 

[mrsblue]

Driven one of my two 2003 Focus into the ground, its still going but has 120k on the clock now and needs upgrading. As you can see by having two older cars Im not really a car person !

I do however do a fair bit of driving, about 1300 miles a month and Id like soemthing half decent, without spending huge amounts as any car I have will just get miles pile on it.

When I was up in the lakes I saw a Citroen C5 in a car dealership which I really liked the look of, but since then I have never seen one one the road !? Ive been looking at 2009/2010 which seem to go for about £7-8000 for a 2.0 diesel. Ive found a nice 2010 model which has 2 owners, does that ring any alarm bells for a 3 year old car?

I also quite like the Vauxhall Insignia which for the same kind of car seems to sell a little cheaper. My brother had a company car and says its been to the dealership quite a bit.

Anyone got any experience or feedback on these?

My dad goes by the following criteria,Never buy from any dealer,Buy private,When contacting private seller ask is the car in their name and registered to that address if seller tries to fob you off with stories walk away or if seller has had car for very short period walk away,Check car has not been overpriced,HPI car before u pay for it,Check for crash damage and check dipstick for oil ,This should be clear and if dark walk away or if creamy colour walk away.

When I purchased my brand new car my father was annoyed because he could see I was wasting my cash,I recently purchased 2007 MX5 in super condition with one owner from new for 5 grand which was around £1500 under dealer price's.

Week off work and I am bored so sorry for drawn out reply.

 

[Jam_Man]

Yeah thats good advice and Ive never bought from a dealer before, and whilst I would prefer to buy private there doesnt seem to be many available.

Normally with a dealer you do have a bit of a comeback if needed, although their warranties generally count for nothing and the dealer Im looking at the moment is in Norfolk so I wouldnt be arsed to go up there anyway.

 

[mrsblue]

Yeah thats good advice and Ive never bought from a dealer before, and whilst I would prefer to buy private there doesnt seem to be many available.

Normally with a dealer you do have a bit of a comeback if needed, although their warranties generally count for nothing and the dealer Im looking at the moment is in Norfolk so I wouldnt be arsed to go up there anyway.

I was interested in a focus from a main agent priced at 11k the salesman told me it was from Ford direct and was very cheap and 100% warranted,My dad was reluctant to view this car but went along to have a look,He ripped the car apart by finding it had different tyres and knocking from the rear with the clutch slipping,His view was the car had been thrashed and def don't buy it which I adhered to his warning.Dealers have little knowledge of their motors and they simply do not care anyway.

 

[Ricey]

Yeah thats good advice and Ive never bought from a dealer before, and whilst I would prefer to buy private there doesnt seem to be many available.

Normally with a dealer you do have a bit of a comeback if needed, although their warranties generally count for nothing and the dealer Im looking at the moment is in Norfolk so I wouldnt be arsed to go up there anyway.

I'm sorry but mrsblue and her dad are talking complete crap. I have bought plenty of cars from main dealers and have had no troubles. As long as the car is within the manufacturers warranty they look after you. My engine management light came on on my Zafira. I took it back to Vauxhall in Oxford (bought in Essex) they did a diagnostics check for free and replaced my coil pack and spark plugs for free in 30 minutes of me dropping it off. All because it was under warranty and I only had a month left.

Every car I have bought from a dealer whenever I have had a problem with it within warranty they have sorted it with no charge. You can haggle well with a dealer on price as I always do. I have got better offers from a main dealer than a non mainstream dealer. You have no come back when you buy private hence why the cheaper price. It's a risk buying private and if your willing to spend decent money my advice is to ignore everything mrsblue has just said and go with a main dealer.

Once your warranty runs out don't bother taking it back to a main dealer because service and repair wise they will be more expensive.

 

[mrsblue]

I'm sorry but mrsblue and her dad are talking complete crap. I have bought plenty of cars from main dealers and have had no troubles. As long as the car is within the manufacturers warranty they look after you. My engine management light came on on my Zafira. I took it back to Vauxhall in Oxford (bought in Essex) they did a diagnostics check for free and replaced my coil pack and spark plugs for free in 30 minutes of me dropping it off. All because it was under warranty and I only had a month left.

Every car I have bought from a dealer whenever I have had a problem with it within warranty they have sorted it with no charge. You can haggle well with a dealer on price as I always do. I have got better offers from a main dealer than a non mainstream dealer. You have no come back when you buy private hence why the cheaper price. It's a risk buying private and if your willing to spend decent money my advice is to ignore everything mrsblue has just said and go with a main dealer.

Once your warranty runs out don't bother taking it back to a main dealer because service and repair wise they will be more expensive.

Why are you being so rude?

i offered my advice and you decided to call it crap,Or is it because you on your reputation comment said "I hate mrsblue"

Grow up!

 

[Jam_Man]

No Mrblues advice is decent.

My missus has bought from a dealer before and when the dashboard stopped working within weeks she took it back and they charged her £75 to fix it. I later found out the actual fix was to replaced a circuit board which cost £99. THe fix the dealer applied was to spray the faulty one with WD40, which took 5 minutes and cost nothing.

If your car is in manafacturers warranty then Im sure dealers are fine as they dont have to do anything, but cars older than 3 years old I am wary as the warranty they give doesnt count for a lot.

After all you are going to pay a bit more from a dealer than private, and what actually are you getting for that?

Saying that the car dealer who sells Nissan Figaros in leigh certainly looked after my Ex when her car went wrong, he even drove to Shoebury to jump start the car when she had a flat battery. The fact she was female and pretty probably had something to do with it mind....

 

[mrsblue]

No Mrblues advice is decent.

My missus has bought from a dealer before and when the dashboard stopped working within weeks she took it back and they charged her £75 to fix it. I later found out the actual fix was to replaced a circuit board which cost £99. THe fix the dealer applied was to spray the faulty one with WD40, which took 5 minutes and cost nothing.

If your car is in manafacturers warranty then Im sure dealers are fine as they dont have to do anything, but cars older than 3 years old I am wary as the warranty they give doesnt count for a lot.

After all you are going to pay a bit more from a dealer than private, and what actually are you getting for that?

Saying that the car dealer who sells Nissan Figaros in leigh certainly looked after my Ex when her car went wrong, he even drove to Shoebury to jump start the car when she had a flat battery. The fact she was female and pretty probably had something to do with it mind....

Thanks JM,

When I had my new fiesta after a couple of weeks the electric folding mirror packed up which Ford duly fixed,Would any dealer had fixed it free of charge if the car was outside manufacturer warranty..I doubt it.

 

[mrsblue]

I'm sorry but mrsblue and her dad are talking complete crap. I have bought plenty of cars from main dealers and have had no troubles. As long as the car is within the manufacturers warranty they look after you. My engine management light came on on my Zafira. I took it back to Vauxhall in Oxford (bought in Essex) they did a diagnostics check for free and replaced my coil pack and spark plugs for free in 30 minutes of me dropping it off. All because it was under warranty and I only had a month left.

Every car I have bought from a dealer whenever I have had a problem with it within warranty they have sorted it with no charge. You can haggle well with a dealer on price as I always do. I have got better offers from a main dealer than a non mainstream dealer. You have no come back when you buy private hence why the cheaper price. It's a risk buying private and if your willing to spend decent money my advice is to ignore everything mrsblue has just said and go with a main dealer.

Once your warranty runs out don't bother taking it back to a main dealer because service and repair wise they will be more expensive.

Main dealers always overvalue their secondhand cars by at least £1000 ,I should know because I worked for Ford main dealer,That is why you think you are getting a super deal,You are the main dealers lifeblood.

 

[tia]

I have bought and sold a few cars myself.Cheapest place to buy is normally straight from a company or from a auction.Auction buying is risky as you have no comeback once you have paid for it really.Last motor i got for myself was from a private seller and was around 20% cheaper than a dealer.With buying a car all methods have advantages and disadvantages its each to there own really.If you see a car you like from a private seller as Mrs B said get it HPI checked,around 1 in 3 cars have a hidden history,lot of log book loans around now,can lead to you having your car snatched back.Also you can pay AA, RAC etc to perform a full motor check over.Not that cheap but can save you a lot of cash in long run.

 

[Ricey]

No Mrblues advice is decent.

My missus has bought from a dealer before and when the dashboard stopped working within weeks she took it back and they charged her £75 to fix it. I later found out the actual fix was to replaced a circuit board which cost £99. THe fix the dealer applied was to spray the faulty one with WD40, which took 5 minutes and cost nothing.

If your car is in manafacturers warranty then Im sure dealers are fine as they dont have to do anything, but cars older than 3 years old I am wary as the warranty they give doesnt count for a lot.

After all you are going to pay a bit more from a dealer than private, and what actually are you getting for that?

Saying that the car dealer who sells Nissan Figaros in leigh certainly looked after my Ex when her car went wrong, he even drove to Shoebury to jump start the car when she had a flat battery. The fact she was female and pretty probably had something to do with it mind....

No offence Jam but that's your fault for letting them getting away with that. If they try to get away with things like that main dealers have head offices who you can complain to and get it resolved.

Myself and my family have probably between us bought about 50 cars from main dealers and never really had anything major to complain about. And this is from a variety of dealers such as Vauxhall, Ford, BMW, Jaguar, Mini, Renault, Alfa Romeo, Subaru, Audi.

 

[Jam_Man]

No offence Jam but that's your fault for letting them getting away with that. If they try to get away with things like that main dealers have head offices who you can complain to and get it resolved.

Myself and my family have probably between us bought about 50 cars from main dealers and never really had anything major to complain about. And this is from a variety of dealers such as Vauxhall, Ford, BMW, Jaguar, Mini, Renault, Alfa Romeo, Subaru, Audi.

They got away with it because my wife isnt a mechanic and took their word for it. Thats the fault of the mechanics for ripping her off. This was a small independant dealer, there was no one to complain to.

The only way I found out was because my other car experienced the same fault at which point I did some research and discovered its a known fault. I shouldnt be expected to have to do that just because the dealer was a rip off merchant.

When it happened to my car I went to Essex Ford and asked them if they would fix it for £99 per the watchdog statement I found and they didnt have a clue what I was talking about and had to go and find out themselves. They then said they would need to run diagnostics on the car first at a cost of £140. I told them that I wasnt paying for that and after a bit of arguing they agreed to just repair it without diagnostics telling me it wouldnt fix it. And it did. I win :smile:

Im sure some dealers are fine, Ive had bad experiences with Dealers and with private sellers personally.

 

[Ricey]

They got away with it because my wife isnt a mechanic and took their word for it. Thats the fault of the mechanics for ripping her off. This was a small independant dealer, there was no one to complain to.

The only way I found out was because my other car experienced the same fault at which point I did some research and discovered its a known fault. I shouldnt be expected to have to do that just because the dealer was a rip off merchant.

Im sure some dealers are fine, Ive had bad experiences with Dealers and with private sellers personally.

That's understandable then if you have had bad experiences but give a main dealer a thought as you will probably pay a little bit more but from my experiences I have been looked after whenever I have had an issue.

 

[Jam_Man]

Id certainly prefer to deal with a bigger dealer than one of these smaller London road types.

There is a C5 in [url]http://www.sandles.co.uk/ [/URL]up in Norfolk, but that looks like a massive dealer and cant imagine they care too much about what goes through there. Like the car they have, but 2 owners for a 2010 plate seems a bit odd to me.

 

[mrsblue]

That's understandable then if you have had bad experiences but give a main dealer a thought as you will probably pay a little bit more but from my experiences I have been looked after whenever I have had an issue.

Main dealers are in the main extremely dodgy,Their secondhand cars are vastly overpriced and they have zero knowledge of the cars history or if it has come from the rep's pool it was be highly troublesome as the rep/manager will abuse the motor.

You have IMO over the years have been grossly overcharged and if you were daft enough to part exchange you were ripped off again,Did the nice salesman offer you hire purchase deals?,If yes you have been ripped off again.

This poster and his/her advice I would def ignore.

 

[Ricey]

Main dealers are in the main extremely dodgy,Their secondhand cars are vastly overpriced and they have zero knowledge of the cars history or if it has come from the rep's pool it was be highly troublesome as the rep/manager will abuse the motor.

You have IMO over the years have been grossly overcharged and if you were daft enough to part exchange you were ripped off again,Did the nice salesman offer you hire purchase deals?,If yes you have been ripped off again.

This poster and his/her advice I would def ignore.

Your going to get ripped off whoever you buy a car from let's be honest. I have bought private before and from non main dealers and had nothing but grief from that. So I may have spent a bit extra over the years but it has been a more comfortable experience.

Cars depreciate that's a fact so lets be honest your never going to make money on buying a car.

 

[londonblue]

Thanks JM,

When I had my new fiesta after a couple of weeks the electric folding mirror packed up which Ford duly fixed,Would any dealer had fixed it free of charge if the car was outside manufacturer warranty..I doubt it.

Why did Ford fix it?

 

[mrsblue]

Your going to get ripped off whoever you buy a car from let's be honest. I have bought private before and from non main dealers and had nothing but grief from that. So I may have spent a bit extra over the years but it has been a more comfortable experience.

Cars depreciate that's a fact so lets be honest your never going to make money on buying a car.

My Mazda was 900 under what car valuation and a whopping 2500 under Mazda main dealer prices,I could sell my car now and easily make 500 if not more!

I worked for a main dealer and had access to all their costs including actual price they pay for the car and their mark up was incredible.Main dealers hate cash sales preferring part exchange and throwing in HP to enhance their profit even further.

The screen price is overpriced so many customer's will pay that price whilst the dealer will undervalue their part exchange so they win both ways.

 

[londonblue]

Id certainly prefer to deal with a bigger dealer than one of these smaller London road types.

There is a C5 in [url]http://www.sandles.co.uk/ [/URL]up in Norfolk, but that looks like a massive dealer and cant imagine they care too much about what goes through there. Like the car they have, but 2 owners for a 2010 plate seems a bit odd to me.

On the face of it i'd agree, but it might just be something simple like the car being an ex demo. My VW is exactly that. Even though I'm the only owner, because it was pre-registered it looks like the dealership was the first owner, and I'm the 2nd.