Haven't driven either yet, or got down to any substantive discussions about price, but next weekend we hope to drive both in a quest to choose our second car.
Like the Citroen's price, looks, impressive reports on the diesel engine (16v one) and interior space. We even thought that the interior trim was OK despite some reports of it being flimsy. Any C3 owners care to comment ?
Like the Ibiza's looks too, the one we've seen is £9,995 and the engine's meant to be good too.
Anyone driven / owned either of them ?
Matthew Kelly
No, not that one.
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Matt - can't comment on the C3 other than to say that a quick peek in a showroom was not too impressive. Regarding the TDI, we were looking for a used one a couple of years ago, but gave up as they seemed like hen's teeth - added to the scarcity of Skoda dealers round here (Cheshire). And the dealers that exist seem to disappear quite quickly.
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sorry - meant Seat - slip of the keys.
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Just remembered.
The Exclusive would have been a lot more expensive as it doesn't benefit from the thousand quid extra support from the manufacturer that the SX does.
Hence the dealers can't discount it nearly as far.
One day to go. Report back Monday
Rob
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I've just taken delivery of an C3 HDI 16v Exclusive (£9886 with metalic paint) and my car got the £1000 discount as you can see from the price. Up to now I'm very pleased, although I've only done 300 miles!
Reggie
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I have a C3 1.4 SX, the trim fell off, rattles coming from everywhere, power steering gone stiff, knock in steering,whine in gearbox,squeaky brakes, poor build quality,only done 1,670 miles. I would have been better off buying secondhand car of a different make. don't buy a citroen.
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Just to bring things to a conclusion, we?re going with the Ibiza not the C3.
On the test drive my wife found it very difficult to use the clutch comfortably on the C3 because the pedal comes up a long way and it?s tricky to get your foot out of the way when driving along. In addition she didn?t like the cab forward position where you couldn?t see the front of the car. By contrast she preferred the driving position of the Ibiza and the way it handled.
I too found the left foot area of the C3 uncomfortable and also preferred the interior of the Ibiza. While the C3 interior has lots of neat touches e.g. drawers under seats etc. the less self consciously cutesy interior of the Ibiza appealed to me & her more. I wasn?t quite as bowled over by the 1.4 16v HDI engine as I?d hoped to be, it?s good but I don?t think it?s better that the tried & tested VAG 1.9 in my Octavia and in the Ibiza.
When it came down to discussing deals with the Citroen dealer they were less than impressive. We had a very specific question about Isofix car seats which the man was either unable or unwilling to grasp the details of. I had also armed myself with a quote from an online car broker for a C3 which was £400 less than the dealer?s stated price. The dealer was unwilling to countenance even dropping a little bit to get nearer to that price (which is his prerogative of course) but a flat refusal was surprising.
So I?ve ended up with a one year old TDi S Ibiza for £9,495 (plus 12 month?s tax) which was one of Seat?s early demonstrators according to the sales woman (she said that it has Seat UK as the owner on the V5 and I?ll check that before taking delivery of the car) and has only covered 800 miles, which wasn?t exactly a plus point for me but wasn?t a negative either.
Let?s just hope it lasts !
Matthew Kelly
No, not that one.
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Matt,
I see no reason why you shouldn't be very happy with the Ibiza. Certainly the one I drove was impressive, and actually more to my taste than the C3.
But then the C3 is her car, not mine, so I was happy to go along with it. It also helps that my own car is a Puma, and the contrast between the C3 and the Ford make it a refreshing change. The Ibiza is certainly more like the Puma, I may well look at the 9about to be launched) 150 bhp diesel Ibiza when the lamented Puma needs replacement
The dealer (who had matched an Internet quote) fumbled the hand-over. The car was't ready when we arrived, nobody seemed to know we were coming. But to be fair the contact salesman had been off ill all week.
We've put about 250 miles on the C3 this weekend. Two of the six fuel contents lights are now extinguished, what a guzzler! ;-)
So far it seems quiet, well mannered, but much swifter (pun intended) than the Suzuki it replaced. Certainly very glad now that we didn't go for the Fiesta which was also considered. We did about 150 miles in a 1.4 TDCi Fiesta hire car in Italy the previous week, in my opinion there is no comparison, partiularly since that Fiesta would have cost us about 1,500 quid more in the UK than the C3.
Very practical car, you either like the interior or hate it.
Cheers
Rob
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Both of my neighbours have got Seat Ibizas; both diesel Tdi's. Both are W-reg, both have around 20,000 miles, both are out of warranty, and both have developed a peculiar engine rattling and turbo whine.
I have a Seat Arosa 1.7 diesel; all three of us use the same Seat main dealer and we all agree that the service is simply pants and extremely expensive for what you get (including £260 for a cambelt change that takes 1.5 hours).
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