Visitors of Autoportal constantly write to us asking to share impressions about a car after a long period of operation. So we waited until all our colleagues finished testing the Citroens and took the cars again. After the C-Elysee has been in the hands of journalists of different ages and driving styles. And these guys are not particularly careful with test cars. We got both a petrol and a diesel Citroen C-Elysee. The first one has covered almost 20 thousand kilometers, and the second about 35 thousand kilometers. Although this is not very much, the model is new, so we believe that such mileage allows us to objectively assess what happens to the car during operation and how reliable it is. This is especially true for the car with a diesel engine. How the fuel system of such an engine works on our fuel is the third most popular question from our readers about this car.
Video test:
Much has already been said about the car's appearance. Most people rate it as modern and stylish. Most importantly, the car does not look like a budget car. This is the case when in the price-quality ratio, the second is far ahead of the first.
Moreover, this is expressed not only in the exterior, but also in the interior.
Even if the materials used in the car are inexpensive, this does not affect the visual perception. If some Chinese car uses hard plastic, you will determine this not only by touch, but also by sight, and the most unpleasant thing – by smell. In the C-Elysee, only by touch. Your vision and smell will not suffer, neither in a new car nor in a used one. If you do not have the habit of touching everything with your hands, you may not even notice the budget materials.
If the desire to find flaws prevails over common sense, then of course you will find signs of savings. For example, you will discover that the front hood has no internal sound insulation, the trunk lid is without upholstery, and so on. But on the other hand, this does not greatly affect the noise level in the cabin. Everything is known in comparison. It is clear that if you compare the Citroen C-Elysee with representatives of the premium segment, it is noisy. But if you compare it with competitors, the noise level is almost the same. At the same time, a buyer who switched to the C-Elysee from budget cars of previous generations will not understand at all what complaints there could be.
But let us note the main thing - both on the car with 20 thousand kilometers of mileage and 35 thousand km, no changes compared to the one that left the showroom have been noticed. Nothing dangles or creaks, all buttons work.
The suspension also works without visible differences from new cars. As on a car without mileage, the suspension is moderately stiff and allows you to drive over small potholes painlessly, and only significant potholes can cause additional knocks in the rear semi-independent suspension. The steering remains sharp with clearly traceable feedback. The car's reaction to pressing the brake pedal is absolutely predictable. It is easy to dose the braking force, the feedback on the brake pedal is clear and does not require a long adaptation period.
Regarding the ground clearance, we can note the following: do not forget, this is a sedan, not a crossover. Driving on roads without normal surface was not intended by the designers in principle. Nevertheless, during the entire test drive we had to go on dirt roads. In this case, you just need to remember that the ground clearance of 142 millimeters requires reducing speed and moving more carefully, carefully choosing the trajectory.
The conclusions that can be drawn when evaluating the Citroen C-Elysee are unambiguous: contrary to stereotypes, the car is quite reliable, does not annoy the owner with breakdowns, and the design itself was clearly developed with an eye on our, not the best, roads. Evaluating all of the above, we note: today the C-Elysee (as well as the Peugeot 301) is one of the best offers on the budget sedan market. This is exactly the product that is chosen by evaluating the price, quality and operating costs ratio.
You can assess how profitable it is to purchase the diesel version of the car compared to the petrol one in the given tables for calculating operating costs. Here we took into account not only the cost of a new car, but also all operating costs for a certain mileage.
Evaluate, compare. In any case, the choice is yours. We also recommend watching a comparative test of five budget sedans – it will help you see the difference in trunk volume, cabin space and generally in the behavior of cars on the road.