Does anyone have one of these? They are the weirdest looking car I've seen for a long time. The inner door panels are on the outside for starters. Can't help thinking they will depreciate quite quickly.

See quite a lot of them round here. Can only assume that they like the outside panels because no fooker drives properly and they're cheaper to replace than getting scrapes repaired. Truly horrible looking cars but if they depreciate quickly enough I might reconsider...

I've just ordered one for 'er indoors. £128 a month on a 12 month lease is tough to beat.

A new car every year.

Incidentally, they bill them as the new 2CV, hence the quirky looks.

That is cheap. Probably much the same as other cars under the lumps. Always disliked 2CVs so that won't win me over. Anyway, wasn't the Pluriel a few years back the new 2CV?

I'm trying to think of a.funny link between er being indoors and the fact that the inside door bits are on the outside. However I'm knackered and disappointed with the Pools result so I'm going to bed.

Can't say fairer than that Mr Nottingham. At least we played OK though.

All 2nd hand Citroens are worth fuck all divided by four, FACT

Never crossed my mind to lease a car.

Just about to get a new one (okay nearly new) and was going to do a part ex and take out a loan for the difference.

What are the stand out positives and negatives

Three aspects to it:

Depreciation, maintenance and tyres. Everything else will be like for like.

This lease car will be swapped every 12 months and she does 10-12k miles a year so no tyres and no servicing costs. If it was bought I'd be putting new boots on it towards the end of year two and servicing it as and when required.

Just on depreciation and interest @ 4%, based on a car depreciating on a typical 25% reducing balance over three years.

The list price is £12990 OTR but lets say we haggle 10% off that which brings us to £11691. Over three years that gives to £324.75 a month in depreciation and a further £38.97 in interest. More on a bank loan. So a total of £363.72 over three years to buy it.

That said, on the purchase option you will be left with an asset which stands at around just shy of 5k so we need to deduct £137 a month to make the figures like for like.

End result is:

Lease: £128.00
Purchase £226.71

I also have the advantage of swapping the car every year so as technology improves so will fuel economy. As for reliability, there is a replacement car if the vehicle is off the road. Unreliable cars are generally a thing of the past anyway.

One last point: my £128 is a 'mates rate' so you'd have to do your own comparison on whatever figures you can get but don't forget to haggle and don't be afraid to play one off against the other.

To be fair to Citroën, our 12-year old Berlingo is still going as strong as ever and it's got a fair amount of poke as you'd expect from a 2 litre TD.
Nearly all the problems have been from French drivers running into the damn thing, regardless of whether it was being driven at the time or not.

For every Citroën theres a near-identical Peugeot. I'm not sure what the equivalent of the Cactus is but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have mattresses glued to the side

Luck of the draw here I reckon. I ran a Peugeot 106 into 110k on the clock up and down the M1 from London to Hartlepool pretty much every weekend, then managed to flog it for nearly £800 in 2010. The only fault was an electric sensor issue causing an engine management light to constantly show, but the car itself ran faultlessly.

I'd appreciate your views on the Dacia Duster Mr I.

I bet you've owned the same Citroen Dyane for at least 40 years you cranky old fooker..

I've had a Duster for nearly 3 years now. No problems and I've done 150,000km. Not great fun but easily as good as cars that cost ten grand more.

Too good for you Sussex you tramp etc

It is what it is mate, a low priced, budget car that does what its supposed to. Don't expect any bells and whistles but don't expect any breakdowns either. It's practical and cheap. If that's what you want, and there's now't wrong with that, then you could do a lot worse.

Just remember that you'll need to keep it a long time if you buy new otherwise you'll bleed depreciation.

Whats the reliability of Citroens and Peugots like these days? I seem to remember a few years ago they both were at the bottom of the list. I think the figures were from the RAC or AA.

I know a bloke who has one, he says its the best thing since sliced bread!

It`s the stigma, a fuckin duster, what next dacia dishcloth, that would fuckin clean up wouldn`t it

Putting aside the terrible stigma of a slightly iffy name, thing I like about it is that it just does what you want it to without breaking down or costing a fortune. If you're buying new you can add most of the comforts you want and it is done through menu pricing which basically means I picked out all the bits and bobs I wanted like air-con, a decent stereo and protection round the wheel arches but didn't have to pay for a touch screen navigation system that does the same as my phone but can't be upgraded without selling the car.

The depreciation thing hasn't happened over here. They launched them a year or so earlier and the reputation for reliability combined with the low buying price means they'e a very popular second hand buy so the price has held up pretty well. Mind you, that is in a market full of Citroens and Renaults that don't depreciate steeply either.

Well now Dacia is Renault in disguise innit, and if there's one thing the French are good at it's looking after their own (just ignore that it's built in Romania).
They might buy the odd Toyota Yaris seeing as it's made somewhere in the north of France.

Very true Monty but when Renault decided to copy VW's antics with Skoda and relaunch the old Dacia brand that they'd bought in Romania they moved production to India - hence the reliability and price. It is basically a Renault but with Indian engineering and manufacturing standards so it doesn't break down all the time.