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Orville, the C3 (Pic Heavy)

Introduction

As some may know the wife's DS3 (a car I never got on with due to being both diesel and terrible) has gone.

So Orville has replaced Roxy.



Yes its named after the green nappy wearing bird puppet..anywho it is a 110ps 1.2 petrol turbo flair with 0 additional options. So yes that green is actually the only free colour, white is 260 quid! However wife wanted green so score.

Interior is a very nice place to be (yes thats an official moomin):


Has cool door cards:


Unlike the ds3 there are no day one rattles but the glovebox is still hilariously small.

It has squishy but supportive seats, I can fit behind my own driving position in the rear, also unlike the similar DS3 based on the same chassis it doesn't make 3 toes on my left foot go numb after 10 minutes due to poor pedal ergonomics.

Touch screen works very well with android auto, my only complaint is the only physical heating control is demist, everything else needs to be on the correct screen.


It also has a reversing camera that appears on it, the car has 3 cameras in total. One for backwards, one for reading the speed limit which can be sent to the speed limiter/cruise control at the touch of a button. Finally It has the built in dash cam..which is good for making videos of Bini drivers lashing past at 50 in a 30.


Engine wise..


Cheeky intercooler..


Engine is the best part of the car by a long way, sounds fruity, has a big wedge of torque between 1500 and 4.5k rpm, is absolutely a bit overkill for the car. Handling is best described as "comfortably numb" and the gearbox can only be described as the same old crap PSA have been churning out for 20 years. But the ds3 was uncomfortably numb...with a crap engine and the same gearbox so progress is progress. Kind of car you can make stealthy progress and surprise a few people in given the absolute lack of any distinctive features other than the intercooler and rear disc brakes.

Quality wise it's a mixed bag, panel fit is millimetric, paint finish is perfect, interior fit is bang on (none of these were right on the DS3). But there's obvious signs of cost cutting in places as well so not all good.

Overall though really likeable car despite the DS3 similarities as it fixes the most annoying bits (driving position, engine, ride quality, seats and ergonomics) and is still funky. (y)
Golf wheels still don’t look like that after 9 years so not sure how the maths works on that, but definitely the higher north you go the higher the chances of rust and oxidation of alloys
 
Well, mine is coming up to 150,000 mines with no compliant in the last 7 years, so horses for courses
 
Well, mine is coming up to 150,000 mines with no compliant in the last 7 years, so horses for courses

If my wife used it to commute it'd be scrap in 2 years...

That's the thing...98% of the issues I have with this car are not the car. The manufacturer was just unaware of how it was going to be used..they do make one for these conditions but it's special order from the factory for 150k and mainly for special stage rallying so somewhat lacking in creature comforts.

It does OK considering...
 
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So fresh MOT on..for the princely sum of 243 quid. Which included the very important service stamp at a Citroën main agent.

This is important for reasons of 10 year warranty on the engine..for both wetbelt and oil use issues.

Although of course regular service with the correct oil means it's deeply unlikely to suffer either.

As covered elsewhere...MOT was not without incident.

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But the Citroën warranty covered it all...so she has a fresh ticket and no advisories and for the third of 4 years since the original warranty ended we've made a profit on the extended warranty (4k and counting...of which 0 was for the stereotypical Puretech things...).

Yet to drive it, but I'm pretty sure having a front anti roll bar that is connected should improve things.

Here it is in a still from the walk around...I could have picked a better image from the garages video, but oooh look at the Giulia.

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Back once again with the ill-behaviour.

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Heater fan bearing stopped doing bearing things, due to lack of spinning the fan drew more current than necessary, burnt out the fan speed resistor as well.

Warranty reduced 900 quid bill to 0...

Quite amusing how tiny it looks beside the pug and C3 picasso.
 
So the exhaust has made an appearance on the MOT advisory sheet two or 3 times and been welded at least twice if not 3 times.

As leisure lounge regulars know it died and broke in half round the centre silencer and the rear box dropped onto the rear suspension.

So here we go again...
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Just a "cheapy" at 400 quid but it looks like the OEM system at least which isn't always guaranteed...we'll see how long it lasts.

Edit.. Ok interesting A2A is apparently a UK built exhaust and they have a 3 year guarantee...I assume the various fast fit centres were marking their stuff up a treat then.

Will say underside of this is surprisingly rust free..
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