Been driving a C4 Picasso the past few days around Andalucia. Thought I should post some comments on it.
It's a modern and spacious car with some nice touches on it -especially like the super high windscreen that goes into the roof - when the sun is at its highest there is a blind/visor combo to keep some shade, but the windscreen and all the glass make for a very airy place to sit. Aircon is powerful and dual zone with good controls in back to, impressive.
The A pillar is spit into two thin slices - much better than our C4 coupe. visibility isn't impeded at roundabouts - however, the armchair seats with their giant headrests do make a dent into the view when turning around to look over your shoulder.
We got the exclusive diesel auto which I think is 138BHP -certainly it's nippy enough and a blast down the motorway last night saw it crusing happily at, er, let's say 120 kph. Although I'm pretty sure it would be as comfortable at 145, I should imagine. Plenty of pull in all the gears and even at high speed in 5 or 6th it still pulls well.
Parking sensors all round and to the edges of the car -very useful and I like the car diagram on the dash showing what you're close to. And you can change the colour of the confusing display from white through shades of blue.
Now then, the stuff I don't like.
Flappy, paddle, gears. In auto mode under any kind of acceleration, car turns into Kangaroo. Makes some weird decisions when trying to overtake, hunting through gears while you helplessly shout "come on car" hoping the speed picks up so you can get past the diesel berlingo ahead before the gap's gone. In the end, had to use manual mode for overtaking so that it didn't decide to drop a cog/up a cog at exactly the wrong moment.
When you reverse it dips the passenger mirror so you can see the kerb - nice except that it doesn't then return to its normal position until you're moving forward, not much use when you're relying on it to see traffic...good idea, badly executed.
The handbrake is electric. The gears are fully electric, just an indicator type switch on the steering column. The mirrors are electric, the windows and everything else is really. Including the tyre pressure sensors.
This is where I start to worry - the car has been complaining that a tyre is low on pressure since I got it, and is whingeing for SERVICE. The tyres are all at the correct pressure - a fault with the system and not with the basic functioning of the car. Parked literally at the top of a mountain today and pulled the (P) button to engage the handbrake. It whirred and the light came on, then as I took my foot of the brake pedal, the car started to roll backwards and I noticed it had disengaged the handbrake. Goodness only knows why. Luckily I was able to stamp on the pedal.
SWMBO pressed the button to open the rear tailgate but it wouldn't open. Weird. I pressed it, nothing. Thought I should lock and unlock the car to try a reset. Car won't lock. Checked doors, tailgate and tried again. Still nothing. Ten minutes of cursing later I realised there is a second button you can't see near the rear number plate that opens the tailgate window. Only you can't see that it's open - but it's enough to stop you locking the car. No indication anywhere of why the car won't lock. Opened and slammed the window shut and bingo car now locks.
I've complained on here about the economy mode on our C4-well, they've fixed that on the Picasso, it does what you want it to - you can listen to the radio, the interior lights stay on and the courtesy headlamps work when you need them, well done. Hopefully I can get the same functionality BACK on our car with a firware upgrade.
So, in short. I like the car, but the reliance on wires rather than levers worries me, especially when it's already having brain fade. These cars (and most cars now) are great for the first three years when you can take then to a dealer and get them reset for free, but they are so unnecessarily complicated that software glitches will cost you real £££s down the line.
In terms of making use of the technology, they need to hire someone who understands what gives useful and clear and rational help rather than leaving it to the nerds who can program to make some random decisions that spoil the experience. Good technology supports you and you don't realise it's happening. Bad interfaces and implementation ruin good ideas.
Oh, and the radio is rubbish for a car that should cost nearly £24k new.
Edited by Webmaster on 16/03/2009 at 00:24
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So many electronic answers for problems that don't exist....
I would dread being somewhere remote - no mobile reception - in a French car and getting some idiotic electronic message to the effect that the car was immobilised. I'm sure that one of the reasons why the French swear by their cars, and many of us swear at them, is that the French buy the basic models and load up the extras for the status-conscious Brits: and it's the extras that go wrong.
Basic French engines and manual gearboxes are soundly made and last for ages, as with the seven Renaults I had in the 80s and 90s, three of which ran up to over 100,000 miles without trouble.
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"So many electronic answers for problems that don't exist...."
Couldn't agree more. The cynic in me takes the view that this is all to generate more profits for the manufacturer as there's more to go wrong. Imagine all those electrics to go wrong in the future. Most of these gadgets are about as much use as Santa at Easter.
It would be interesting to meet and analyse the character of the designer who suddenly wakes up one morning and decides the great answer to the car driver's problems is to have an electric handbrake. It makes me wonder how they manage with somewhat more challenging problems in life.
I'm looking forward in the future to getting one of those business efficiency type awards for suggesting a "manually operated brake release mechanism" operated by a lever and a couple of cables. Handbrakes we used to call them.
" is that the French buy the basic models and load up the extras for the status-conscious Brits: and it's the extras that go wrong."
I am not sure this is actually true. I know the general consensus seems to support your view but the french cars I have seen/hired in France seem to have the same level of gadgets as in the UK. I am pleased to see that Renault have ditched the electric handbrake from the new Megane - at least the model we looked at. My missus has perfectly good arms and the day when she can't decide when or how to apply a handbrake is the day she retires from driving.
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I would disagree re the handbrake. My last Scenic had the electric handbrake, no problems with it over 3 years and I really liked it and appreciated the extra space available with not having a conventional handbrake.
I test drove a new Megane recently and was disappointed that it had a conventional handbrake though I believe the higher trims have electric ones.
It's all about opinion!
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Haven't driven a car with an electric handbrake. But I did once hire a five-ton box body truck that had an air handbrake, a little knob like a switch conveniently placed low down somewhere. It worked beautifully with an agreeable hiss when applied.
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It is just marketing gimicks. Like Austin Rover tried with that talking dashboard they soon dropped it when they realised it solved a none existant problem.
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C4 Picasso, handbrake can be set to auto or manual thats fine so long as a subsequent driver remembers to watch out for the tiny handbrake warning light before abandoning ship, with the wonderful box the OP tested its almost if not impossible to leave the car in gear, that'll be fun.
So as not to hijack this thread i shall start another on the actual operating of various maker's leccy handbrakes...is that thunder or a national groan i hear..;)
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Our Scenic II was similarly gadget laden, but what caused us the biggest financial pain was a good old fashioned mechanical failure (and unbelievably poor mechanical design requiring many hours of expensive labour to correct it)
The parking brake, auto lights and wipers, keyless start, and all the other things the doom mongers said would cripple us behaved absolutely faultlessly.
We grew to love the parking brake, and keyless entry/start really does make going back to using a key seem like a significant retrograde step. To us anyway.
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C4 Picasso handbrake can be set to auto or manual thats fine so long as a subsequent driver remembers to watch out for the tiny handbrake warning light before abandoning ship with the wonderful box the OP tested its almost if not impossible to leave the car in gear that'll be fun.
It's an automated manual gearbox, leave it in A or M when the display is showing A1 or 1 and switch off. The car is then in gear.
To restart it, move the lever to N, foot on the brake and turn the key. If you can't remember this bit, the display tells you what you need to do.
We have just bought a 1.6HDi EGS Grand C4 Picasso for my wife and she is over the moon with it. Only jerky gearchanges came from me testing driving it full throttle up changes with my motorbike boots on otherwise just like driving a manual with someone else changing gear for you.
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We have just bought a 1.6HDi EGS Grand C4 Picasso for my wife and she is over the moon with it. Only jerky gearchanges came from me testing driving it full throttle up changes with my motorbike boots on otherwise just like driving a manual with someone else changing gear for you.
I explain it by saying the C4 Picasso EGS is like a normal manual car but with an electronic arm under the car that changes the gears and an electronic leg that pushes the clutch for you.
Mum couldn't understand it until I put it that way!
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