Buying 2nd Hand 2005 C5 (new facelift)

[canterbury]

Hi all,

I am currently driving a Renault Scenic II and was thinking of changing into a 2005 C5 cause I am fascinated by Citroen suspension system.

However I got a hard time looking for one as the new C5 is relatively new and also partly I guess there is not much on the car for owner to sell them.

Pls comment

[voyager]

hi canterbury :-)

welcome welcome to our little community here :-)

i think i know how you must be feeling, regarding the fascination.

i had always promised myself to own a hydropneumatic Citroen, ever since i was in primary school.

i owned my C5 for about fifteen months, and frankly i regret selling it so soon, even though i traded it in for a (supposedly) nicer car. i am very sure that my next car will once again be hydropneumatically suspended.

i think it may be hard for you to find a second-hand C5, as you already have found out, for the reasons which you have stated in your post. further, because the depreciation is so savage, most owners would want to hold on to their post-facelift C5 before selling too soon. also, i think there is a sizeable proportion of C5 owners who are citroen-fan(atic)s, in other words, they would not want to sell their post-facelift C5 so soon after taking delivery. i'm just guessing here, but conditions might improve for you once the C6 is available in Singapore, as you might get some owners trading-in for the C6 (that may or may not happen).

i guess one of the best places is this forum, except that this forum is also quite small currently, and not many C5 owners are represented here. but something is better than nothing.

i do know for a fact that at least a couple of owners have traded in pre-facelift C5s very recently at volvo. i have seen this for myself at the volvo showroom, so maybe there might be C5s on the second-hand market, it's just a matter of finding them.

on the one hand it's a good idea to get a citroen second-hand. that way the first owner puts up with the bulk of the depreciation.

on the other hand, because the hydropneumatics are so different and somewhat complex (even though their reliability has improved a lot over the decades), it might be better to buy brand new, because one never knows the extent to which the former owner(s) looked after the car properly.

i can't really think of any other advice to suggest right now, except to say to hold on to your dream. it will definitely be worth it, especially as you already have this passion. the passion, once kindled, is very difficult to extinguish.

would you be at all interested in pre-facelift C5s? i suspect it might be easier for you to find second-hand examples, and maybe some members here might also wish to sell (not sure). pre-facelift C5s actually have a slightly better suspension setup than post-facelift models, here in the Singapore market. the pre-facelift ones (2.0 and 3.0) have a 'sport' mode with manual-override (which adjusts the parameters which trigger the firmer suspension settings), whereas the post-facelift ones don't have this (of course the post-facelift ones have other equipment, such as adaptive xenons and front and rear audio-visual park assistance).

please feel free to post more questions or comments - we'll slowly build up our community :-)

[Furry]

come for the meetup and see if it helps make up ur mind
else check out the dealers

[Ganny]

quite hard to find a second hand new facelift C5...

you need to wait i guess ... or just go for the new one! :)

[canterbury]

Hi Voyager,

Thanks for the detailed email. You are driving a Volvo XC 90 right? I was looking for a 2nd hand S60 2.0T as well as a C5 (post facelift). Comparing the specs of the C5 vs the Volvo, the C5 wins on most aspect in terms of equipment level except for the Horsepower. Of course Volvo is considered to be a more premium brand than Citroen. How is the feel of the XC90 as compared to the C5 that you formerly drove. From your mail, it seem like a lot of Citroen owners are switching to Volvo and I do not know if it is due to AA after-sales services

There are the only 2 cars that I am looking at now and yes a couple of prefacelift C5 are sold in the market now and their prices are attractive as well but I perfer the postlift C5 better.

Ganny and Furry, thanks for the reply as well.

Cheers!

[voyager]

hi canterbury,

the xc90 is actually my second volvo - before my C5 i had an S80 T6, and during the time when i had the C5 i also had access to my parents' former car - a C-class.

i'm giving the above background material because i want to reiterate that i found the C5 really different and special to drive, even though it lost out (by quite a large margin) on horsepower. the C5 felt the most durable in terms of absorbing the punishment that the poorly maintained roads in the West of our island could dish out. it also cornered and handled a lot more securely than the S80. my present car has a relatively soft ride and fairly accurate steering and effective brakes, but i just found the reflexes of the C5 to be more precise and sure. even compared with the C-class, i found the German car nice to drive, but it never really felt 'special'. the C5 has the ability to make every journey memorable, primarily (ironically) because of its horsepower deficit. it means that it is potentially driven nearer the limits of physics most of the time, as opposed to just burbling along as the volvos do (because of their tremendous torque).

however, i should also add that the build quality of my particular unit of C5 was not that great. although the mechanics didn't really go wrong, the interior felt a bit fragile.

as for AA's after-sales, actually to be frank i have not had an unpleasant experience with them. it's not that the car did not need attention either. there was once when my side mirror was swiped off by an oncoming car, early in the morning. AA got it replaced perfectly by the afternoon. there are other good anecdotes i could tell, but this one was by far the most outstanding, as far as my experience with AA after-sales goes.

for me, the C6 can't come soon enough :-)

[peterlee]

Hi canterbury,
I'm an owner of the facelift C5, just about 3 months old now...

Agree with voyager... build quality isn't as solid as I expected after owning opel and ford. But does give a memorable ride, especially when pushed hard around corners and bumps. ::)

But I do find the car is a head turner... I remember just 2 weeks after I started driving it, a lady was admiring it at a carpark. We spoke briefly and she said first time she saw one and found it very unique and beautiful. 8)

If by AA aftersales, you mean servicing department, I'd say they are pretty good and helpful. Don't have major complaints about them. I had to go back quite a number of times to rectify some faults, but they did explain the rationale of that - Troubleshooting process was to approach it one solution at a time rather than straight replacement of part, and it sounds right to me when they explained. Although I had to make several trips and incurred travelling costs, I understand where they come from. Of course there is always room for improvement. ;)

(Don't be scared off by my techinical faults, I guess I may just have too high expectations of the C5, and perhaps, but not necessarily, maybe I got a lemon... ;D No major faults, just me being fussy... Anyway mostly fixed now. Maybe that's why you want 2nd hand huh... got 1st owners who fix all the kinks... )

But I think the aftersales from the sales people after signing the dotted line still needs plenty of improvement. Of course, it depends on who is the SE.

[lrrp77]

Welcome Canterbury

Like what Furry said, c'mon down to our 1st Meetup on 8 April to check out first hand accounts from the owners.

[canterbury]

Hi Peter,

I used to drive the Opel Vectra and Ford Focus before I bought the Renault Scenic II last year. Agreed with both of you the German built cars are more solid and on general French cars are more comfy in terms of ride. I like the C5 looks and find it to be kind of different from the rest. Got to think hard on either the Volvo or Citroen now.

Cheers guys!

[voyager]

canterbury,

not sure if you have paid the local volvo forum http://www.volvosg.com/ a visit.

the registration process is very rigorous, but it might be worth your while if you're serious about considering second-hand volvos. that way you could liaise directly with owners, get their opinions and learn from their experiences.

speaking personally, i find that volvos can be very satisfying immediate ownership prospects, but in the long run, my heart would always be with the Tricouleur :-)

(regarding the build quality, i have found that facelifted C5s are more solid-feeling in the cabin than the unit i owned. and the C4 that my parents have is a model of solidity. it feels more hewn-from-solid than my present car, as i've posted in another thread that you've probably read)

[Furry]

lets just put it this way
when the new c5 just came out, i tested it b4 it went homologation
likewise for the c4
its really a different feel from normal cars
once u driven one, u would understand why ;D

the c5 2L is faster than a camry 2.4 or a cefiro 2.3 cos of its torque graph


http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/7006/newc584qc.th.jpg (http://img105.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newc584qc.jpg)

[jd_citroen]

hi all,

the new face lifted C5 has a sports mode as well. the S (sports mode) button is just behind your gearshift handle.fyi.

thanks

[voyager]

hi jd_citroen :-)

welcome welcome!

thank you for letting us know about that 'sport' button :-)

actually, that button is to put the gearbox in sports mode (ie, to change the shift parameters), but i don't think it also governs the suspension firmness.

the pre-facelift C5 has / had two 'sport' buttons - one next to the gearshift, and the other within the suspension height controls. in the post-facelift C5, it is where the word 'citroen' is between the two suspension-height control buttons are.

good to know there are more C5 owners here :-) i'm really glad we are slowly but surely growing :-)

[greatdad]

Hi,
I got a C5 S2, 2005 model. are you still interested?

[canterbury]

Hi greatdad,

Yes I am interested. What colour is the one that you are selling?

[peterlee]

Hi greatdad,

Yes I am interested. What colour is the one that you are selling?


See the post...

http://www.citroenchat.com/forum/index.php/topic,244.0.html

[voyager]

WA :-)

hope to welcome canterbury as our newest C5 owner soon :-)

[greatdad]

Hi Peterlee,
Sorry for the late reply.... I'm on vacation.... the colour is maroon metalic.

[voyager]

greatdad,

peter already is a proud owner of a facelifted C5 :-)

canterbury is the person who is interested in the colour. in the past, he has expressed interest in getting a second-hand facelifted C5.

have a good rest during your vacation!

[canterbury]

Hi greatdad,

Are you still selling your C5 or it has been sold? My fren was looking at it