[colinjm]

Our Cee'd is now 5. We bought it in Mar 2008, but it's an Oct 2007 car. Next Tuesday it goes in for its 5 year service and 3rd MOT.

It's been pretty good, it's on 48000 miles now, and has had a few niggles and warranty fixes, but the current list for them to look at next week is...

* Rear off side Child lock doesn't work, its stuck on thankfully so we can live with it.
* Rear off side window fails intermittently, it got stuck down the other day.
* Diesel filter needs draining of water again, after it was done only 2 months ago.

And that's about all that's at fault at the moment. The car still drives well, and we are happy with it, but I cant help thinking we could do with something smaller and petrol now the kids are getting older and we don't do as much mileage.

I want them to check the brakes, as it's still on it's original set all round...but there is no reason to think they are no good, I just worry that they are going to be getting close to replacement.

I also think my front tyres (2nd set) are down to about 2.5-3mm so they will need doing within a year.

 

[AyJay]

Thats not a bad list of faults for a five year old car and of course theres the warranty to cover it!

Water in the diesel filter cant really be blamed on the car, thats the fuel supplier so they may not cover that i guess but at least you know the filter is doing its job.

As for the brakes, my 09 Pro is on around 46k and when i visually checked the brakes the other day there was plenty of meat left on the pads and he discs were fine. I was expecting them to need doing at my last service but it seems not!

If you want a smaller car then how about the Picanto? Seems to get good reviews and the 3 door looks pretty funky.

 

[colinjm]

Last time it went to the dealer for water in the fuel filter, they sorted it out for free. I think the fuel filter is done as part of the service so i'm hoping it will be OK next week now.

I think we could live with a 5 door Picanto. We have 2 small kids, who travel light now they are not babies, and we have a roof box to use for long journeys. I cycle to work, and my wife uses the car a few times a week. Easy! the overall costs of running a tiny car would outweigh the occasional inconvenience of lack of space.

 

[dubster]

Thanks for sharing that Colin, good to see some truly positive feedback.
Agree with AyJay, that's good going for a 5 year old car with less than average mileage.

You'd prolly regret going to a ceed petrol tbh, but the current Rio is a good mid-way between a bouncy super-mini Picanto and your Ceed. Plus I think the 2 door Rio looks stunning

Boot space in Picanto really is the main downer, you wouldn't get a week's shopping in there mate. We always had to put ours on back seat in our 2009 Pip, not practical if you've got kids in the back

 

[Smellmet]

I drove a new Rio petrol a few weeks ago - very impressed with the build quality and handling, I'd have one

 

[Ace Demon]

Our Cee'd is now 5. We bought it in Mar 2008, but it's an Oct 2007 car. Next Tuesday it goes in for its 5 year service and 3rd MOT.

Same age as mine. Service just done. The next service is the last to needed for the warranty. It will be nice to change to maintaining it according to my schedules.

It's been pretty good, it's on 48000 miles now, and has had a few niggles and warranty fixes, but the current list for them to look at next week is...

My only irritation with the car has been the design faults of the climate control panel. I have eventually managed to tame it with my own electronics.

The car still drives well, and we are happy with it, but I cant help thinking we could do with something smaller and petrol now the kids are getting older and we don't do as much mileage.

Ours have left us and commuting has changed so it's only done 5k in the last year. My wife has never liked the car, mostly due to the way all the obligatory safety nonsense prevents her from seeing out - brilliant thinking by the bureaucrats. Most short journeys are done in our KA.

I also think my front tyres (2nd set) are down to about 2.5-3mm so they will need doing within a year.

Yours seem to be doing better than mine.

 

[Smellmet]

My only irritation with the car has been the design faults of the climate control panel. I have eventually managed to tame it with my own electronics.

Care to expand on that? I've found the climate control on my Pro Ceed to be one of the highlights of the cabin - really good to use, my only gripe is that when you set it to 'Lo' it automatically puts the air con on and closes the recirculation fan, I'd like to have the choice over wether that happens, other than that I think the systems great

 

[Ceed3]

I also think my front tyres (2nd set) are down to about 2.5-3mm so they will need doing within a year.

Change them now, any less than 2.5mm and they are next to useless in the winter. What is the point of fitting nice new tyres for the summer.

 

[Ace Demon]

My only irritation with the car has been the design faults of the climate control panel. I have eventually managed to tame it with my own electronics.

Care to expand on that? I've found the climate control on my Pro Ceed to be one of the highlights of the cabin - really good to use,

The only positive feature is the one touch demist. The faults are the subject of an essay. The biggest one is that there is no easy way to turn the cabin heater off but keep the fan running - something that's ordinarily done with a manual panel. To say this is irritating is an understatement.

Basically, I covered the cabin sensor with a heating element so I can trick the system into thinking that temperature is satisfied and hence not turn on the cabin heater. I regulate the element with a processor having three temperature sensors of its own so it has a graduated effect, to fix some other behavioural gripes.

my only gripe is that when you set it to 'Lo' it automatically puts the air con on and closes the recirculation fan, I'd like to have the choice over wether that happens, other than that I think the systems great

Absolutely. I don't understand the point of LO (at least in northern Europe) because if you get in the car on a hot day, the system provides max cooling as a matter of course. To suddenly have all hell breaking loose when casually turning the dial down while trying to concentrate on what is in front of the windscreen is annoying.

Operation should be logical without needing a display; it serves no purpose other than to differentiate auto from manual in the showroom.

 

[Smellmet]

The only positive feature is the one touch demist. The faults are the subject of an essay. The biggest one is that there is no easy way to turn the cabin heater off but keep the fan running - something that's ordinarily done with a manual panel. To say this is irritating is an understatement.



Absolutely. I don't understand the point of LO (at least in northern Europe) because if you get in the car on a hot day, the system provides max cooling as a matter of course. To suddenly have all hell breaking loose when casually turning the dial down while trying to concentrate on what is in front of the windscreen is annoying.

Operation should be logical without needing a display; it serves no purpose other than to differentiate auto from manual in the showroom.

But you can turn the air con and the recirc button off so the car's heater is not on, but you still have control of the fan speed - or am I missing something?

 

[Ace Demon]

But you can turn the air con and the recirc button off so the car's heater is not on, but you still have control of the fan speed - or am I missing something?

That's right. But think of it this way:-

On a manual system - turn the heater knob down. A bit of warmth required again? - give knob a tweak up.

On the Ceed CC - turn temperature to LO, press aircon off, press recirc button (twice), adjust fan. A minimum of 5 operations.

A bit of warmth required? - turn knob back to 15.5. System sees a temperature error - gas mark 10 for 5 minutes until it is happy. It's bad enough during engine warm up, but do it when the engine is properly warm...

 

[Smellmet]

That's right. But think of it this way:-

On a manual system - turn the heater knob down. A bit of warmth required again? - give knob a tweak up.

On the Ceed CC - turn temperature to LO, press aircon off, press recirc button (twice), adjust fan. A minimum of 5 operations.

A bit of warmth required? - turn knob back to 15.5. System sees a temperature error - gas mark 10 for 5 minutes until it is happy. It's bad enough during engine warm up, but do it when the engine is properly warm...

I see what you're saying, but it doesn't bother me at all, the dials and buttons in them are to hand, and very slick to operate so I'm fine with it. The intermittent setting for the wipers on the other hand feels sticky and cheap and I don't like using it unless I have to

 

[Ace Demon]

I see what you're saying, but it doesn't bother me at all, the dials and buttons in them are to hand,

Oh, they are. But when a supposedly automatic system needs more tweaking than a manual one, it rather defeats the purpose.

At least the thermal interface offers a nice easy way to "get at" it, instead of having to exchange electrons.

 

[colinjm]

I've never had an issue with the climate control, i have no idea how it works, but by randomly stabbing buttons it seems to do what I want it to do.

The one touch windscreen clearing is excellent though.

It turned out to be an expensive weekend for us in the end, a quick look over the tyres revealed that the 3mm all over was mostly correct. It seems our tracking was out a bit and we were going bald on the inside. The fault lies with me, for not checking my tyres properly...this'll teach me. I keep an eye on the pressures, and have a quick feel over the tyres, but I've not been thorough enough.

Anyway, a friend of a friend sorted us out with a bit of internet price matching and we got some nice new tyres fitted (and tracking done) just before MOT time.

I'll update this tomorrow when i get the MOT results from the dealer.

 

[Ace Demon]

I've never had an issue with the climate control, i have no idea how it works, but by randomly stabbing buttons it seems to do what I want it to do.

My Ceed is the only car in which I have experienced climate control for any period so have no idea of whether it is uniquely bad or whether all systems work on similar faulty principles. (Given comments in the forum going back, I suspect the former.)

My impression of cc was that, in principle, you set it to Auto and dial the temperature when you take possesion of the car and then never need to touch it again while you own it. So if yours is behaving in such a way that you randomly stab buttons to get it to do what you want, are you sure it is behaving as it should?

 

[colinjm]

Yes, I think it is. It warms up, cools down and clears screens when we want it to so I guess it's working fine. I've just never bothered to learn how it all works properly, randomly stabbing buttons is a bit of a simplistic description I suppose.

Anyway, the car was Serviced and MOT'd today, all went fine. There were advisories on the front pads and rear disks/pads that they would need doing soon, but fine at the moment. The dealer messed up the invoice so I ended up getting a bit of a discount, but it was all still very expensive.

Here is a list of maintenance costs over the last 5 years, this does not include finance/insurance/breakdown/road tax or of course fuel

Year 1 Service
Sept 2008
Cost £170
Mileage 10311

Year 2 Service
Sept 2009
Cost £175.67
Mileage 21151

Tyres
Feb 2010
Hankook Ventus Prime x4 £260.96
Mileage 25266

Year 3 Service & MOT
Oct 2010
Cost £254.46
Mileage 31496

Year 4 Service & MOT
Oct 2011
Cost £218.82
Mileage 40041

Tyres
Oct 2012
Dunlop SP FastResponse x2 (front)
and Tracking £177.77
Mileage 48110

Year 5 Service & MOT
Oct 2012
Cost £264.23
Mileage 48189

 

[Ace Demon]

Yes, I think it is. It warms up, cools down and clears screens when we want it to so I guess it's working fine.

Oh, mine can work out when it's cold or hot and to provide heating or cooling in response without needing any knobs pressed. So on that basis it meets a definition of being functional and automatic. Maybe I'm just being unreasonable in expecting some finesse.

 

[113943]

My Ceed is the only car in which I have experienced climate control for any period so have no idea of whether it is uniquely bad or whether all systems work on similar faulty principles. (Given comments in the forum going back, I suspect the former.)

My impression of cc was that, in principle, you set it to Auto and dial the temperature when you take possesion of the car and then never need to touch it again while you own it. So if yours is behaving in such a way that you randomly stab buttons to get it to do what you want, are you sure it is behaving as it should?

Had to agree with your posting, it is, to me, somewhat difficult to set up to change without stopping the car in a lay-by. My trouble is I take the time to understand the system, and then forget part of it, as I use it so rarely. If I ask my wife to adjust on the move so I can safely watch the road it can end up with a big sulk at times. We sometimes laugh remembering our first Ford heater controls, off and on. Then we get back to remembering the non electric wipers driven when the engine was speeding and slowing and stopping at low speeds. If I remember correctly they worked on the carburettor vortex???
I suppose it’s the saying about teaching an old dog new tricks.

 

[WURZEL]

Had to agree with your posting, it is, to me, somewhat difficult to set up to change without stopping the car in a lay-by. My trouble is I take the time to understand the system, and then forget part of it, as I use it so rarely. If I ask my wife to adjust on the move so I can safely watch the road it can end up with a big sulk at times. We sometimes laugh remembering our first Ford heater controls, off and on. Then we get back to remembering the non electric wipers driven when the engine was speeding and slowing and stopping at low speeds. If I remember correctly they worked on the carburettor vortex???
I suppose it’s the saying about teaching an old dog new tricks.

Yes, remember them working off vacuum in manifold. I was in torrential rain and of course had to slow down to see which meant the wipers slowed down also. The only way was to keep revving hard and keep slipping the clutch to get the wiper speed up again. Probably why clutches burn out quickly in those days! Trafficators before proper indicators were fun also as you had to smash your hand against the door pillar when driving to get them to come out of the slots. Has all the fun gone out of motoring now?