Mme needs a new car

[L Austin France]

Mme was involved in a car accident a few days ago which resulted in her 2014 pride & joy Citroen C4 diesel, bought new, being almost certainly written off.
Fortunately nobody was injured but she's now looking for a reasonably new replacement. Thing is as I'm concerned that later Citroens are plagued by the wet timing belt problem amongst others I'm trying to steer her away from this marque.
It's a long time since we've looked at the car market so any suggestions as to a suitable replacement would be appreciated.

[exile]

From a very limited personal experience, I find the Dacia range excellent value for money and I have not had a single mechanical or electrical problem in 12 years. Two cars because a bit like your OH, my OH had an incident that wrote off the first - deer leapt out of the forest in front of her and trying to avoid the deer she hit a tree.

Being Romanian built Renaults, all Renault garages are able to do official servicing.

[RobertArthur]

For many years already nothing wrong with the Hyundai I10 of someone I know for many, many years. Not too many available in France, although one of my French neighbours, after long discussions, also decided to buy a second hand I10 (a 2011 model) after her Renault Twingo didn't survive a slippery road in wintertime. Took me a bit of defusing of the buy "Made in France" feelings, let's blame monsieur Arnaud Montebourg who was just spouting some ideological nonsense yet again.

Here the 2013 Hyundai I10 of Mme, diesel engines not available.

[Polarengineer]

If you are prepared to install a cheap chinese 11kW home wall charger (about €250), I would recommend a 3 year lease of a Renault 4 E-tech. I have used one since mid Feb, now covered 4500 km and used €140 of elec (not counting tax etc. purely tariff centimes/kWh)

[L Austin France]

If you are prepared to install a cheap chinese 11kW home wall charger (about €250), I would recommend a 3 year lease of a Renault 4 E-tech. I have used one since mid Feb, now covered 4500 km and used €140 of elec (not counting tax etc. purely tariff centimes/kWh)

I've only got a 9kw supply to house at the moment & seem to remember that 12 kw is our limit with o/h supplies

[RobertArthur]

LAF, not only for o/h supplies. Since the first of January 2009 12 kVA is the maximum for all single-phase supplies. Before also in 15 and 18 kVA puissance souscrite. More power? Switch to 15 kVA or more in three-phase.

[p4psb]

Is a diesel needed, if so you will have to look at used.

I second Dacia, and there are quite a few used diesels available.

[widge]

Personally I would think about a petrol, no problems getting a critair sticker if you need to go into pollution zones, also try and get one that can be converted to E85, we have a 2.0l 2005 Toyota Rav4 and a 1.3l 2012 Suzuki Jimny, I converted both, the kit is about 200€ , if you are able to fit it yourself, obviously labour costs if you have it fitted, but when you consider 80 cents compared with over 2€ a liter, it doesn't take much to get your money back. We did the rav back in 2017 and must have saved 1000s of euros in fuel so far.

[Loup-garou]

I have a 12 yo Dacia Duster diesel (bought from new in UK) which I really like and is still going strong and on it's original tyres - we only had four dogs then. We bought a new Peugeot 5008 diesel six years back (as we had five dogs), it runs fine and is very comfortable but mostly used by herself for UK or Basel airport runs. Personally, I don't like driving it much as it sometimes makes decisions and changes things which I need to change back by going through menus. Despite the spec, it dosen't change the date automatically!

Last year, we got rid of our van and bought a new Dacia Jogger Hybrid; it is surprisingly good, comfortable and very ecconomical. Much the same dimensions and spec as the Peugeot except that the wing mirrors don't fold in when you lock up - but it does change the date automatically. It does by far the most of our kilometrage and we both think it was a good buy. All three cars are the same metalic green colour and within a shade or two of each other.

I'm no petrolhead and cars are just tools to me. So it really depends on what you want it to do. Long runs or local shopping trips, five seats or fewer, big boot space or not, etc? But the Jogger is worth a look and if you want something smaller, Dacia have just launched a hybrid Duster.

[RobertArthur]

Diesel or petrol: as long as you don't go downtown where the lights shine brightly, disco, disco, or have to visit a hospital, the choise is yours, the colour of your crit'air sticker that comes with your new secondhand car. The Hyundai I10 (Juin 2013, 3-cylinders), has the category one colour, not too bad.

The Crit'Air colours:

Niveau 0 (Vert) : Véhicules 100 % électriques et à hydrogène.

Niveau 1 (Violet) : Véhicules essence Euro 5 et 6, gaz et hybrides rechargeables.

Niveau 2 (Jaune) : Véhicules essence Euro 4 et véhicules diesel récents Euro 5 et 6.

Niveau 3 (Orange) : Véhicules essence Euro 2 et 3 (1997–2005) et diesel Euro 4 (2006–2010).

Niveau 4 (Bordeaux) : Véhicules diesel Euro 3 (2001–2005).

Niveau 5 (Gris) : Véhicules diesel Euro 2 (1997–2001)