Bye Bye DS3 ... Hello Cactus

[gaz_dsport]

Just pay off the outstanding balance on the car. Basically making an early balloon payment less any interest rebate (it's on an Elect3 pcp).

The Cactus we are getting is quite subdued in Shark Grey with black Airbumps. The wife wanted purple but appreciated I may be uncomfortable when I drove it having to wear a paper bag on my head.

Hey now... What's wrong with a man driving a car with purple on lol

[CE11 LDB]

I am surprised mind that Electric Folding Door Mirrors and a Electrochrome Rear View Mirror Aren't available on the Cactus

[Bigfeet]

I am surprised mind that Electric Folding Door Mirrors and a Electrochrome Rear View Mirror Aren't available on the Cactus

Weight.

[CE11 LDB]

Weight.

Be making the mirrors non electric next and wind up windows all round lol

[cyclone]

Be making the mirrors non electric next and wind up windows all round lol

The rear windows do not roll at all!

[CE11 LDB]

The rear windows do not roll at all!

Just Remembered about the rear windows.

[Coupese]

This is where the Cactus may only appeal to certain people.

Our 4 1/2 year old has no opening windows in the back of the DS3. The pop out windows are a bonus for him in our case, and means the little bugger won't have an open window to throw anything through!

[#becauseracecar]

I have a massive soft spot for the cactus. Looks totally ridiculous. I think that's why I love it.

[idiot]

It's definitely not a beautiful looking car, but it looks so different and sort of ridiculous that I really really like it. And the simple and yet very modern looking interior is fantastic.

[DigitalCal]

I went to have a look at one. At 23, I suspect I ain't the target audience but I think it's brilliant. There are bits that annoy me (not sure how properly usable the touch screen is - I can cope with a touch screen stereo but unsure about air con controls being on the same screen) - but I would consider one. I'm in a similar boat to you, Coupese, with regards to mileage - My Aug 2013 DS3 is already on 24,500 miles and I'm on an Elect3. Need to think about when makes the most sense to change it without being bitten in the wallet. If you can offer any advice!

[dbrewood]

Looking forward to any folks sharing pics!

[Coupese]

Double post

[Coupese]

Digitalcal

If we kept our DS3 to the full term of our Elect3 we would have been 6 to 8k miles over our allowance.

Motorpoint wouldn't even value our DS3 properly as it would be less than £9.5k. The local Ford garage offered £9.5k against a year old Zetec S TDCi Focus. Seemed as though we were going to have to add £800 to any used car price due to the Elect3 settlement deficit at £9.5k trade in price.
Motorpoint locally sets the price point Main Dealers and independents are competing against and this effects px prices. The Citroen main dealer said they have to monitor Motropoints prices otherwise they will struggle to sell used stock.

We have a July 2013 115Airdream DSport (front tyres just under 3mm) which will have over 24k on the clock when we px it. We have accepted a £10k trade in price against a new Cactus and have been given a discount on the Cactus by the dealer that more than covers the £300 deficit on the Elect-3 settlement figure.

For us who need a larger car, it worked for us to buy the new Cactus with it being a good price, cheap to run, no tyre changing for a year, better px price for our DS3 and have 3 years warranty for the high mileage it's going to rack up ( will run out of mileage before 3 years in reality).
If we could have lived with the Ds3's size longer term, we would have paid it off via a cheap bank loan straight away rather than pay an excess mileage charges when the Elect3 was at full term.

I maybe wrong but thought the DS3 px price would be proportionally better at 15 months old with 24k miles than 2 years old with nearly 50k

We resigned ourselves a long time ago to the fact that cars damage your wallet especially when racking up high mileage. We always factor into our Household budget £220 to £250 a month to buy/lease a car.

[Bigfeet]

^ Touch screen is very useful at speed, the buttons are large enough for shaky hands to prod. Plus the shortcuts along the top help to make small changes easy.

[Coupese]

The deed has been done!

Sad to see the DS3 go after such reliable service. Really going to miss the enjoyment of slinging it round the country lanes and torque of the engine.

The Cactus is much larger, miles quieter and extremely comfortable. We are really happy with the shark grey colour as it doesn't look lary or make it stand out.

The engine is remarkably spritely given its only 100bhp and averaging 62mpg with 79 miles on the clock. If it under-reads the mpg like my DS3 did, I will be extremely happy.

The touch screen is utterly brilliant. Makes using an iPhone for calls and music so easy and has so many things to twiddle with via the touch screen when I'm sat waiting for the wife. Not quite sussed it but looks like it has an Internet browser that you can hotspot via your mobile. There is a £300 dongle that you can buy to access further apps, not look properly at that tho.

The tyres look like ballon tyres on 16inch rims, gotta be impossible for the wife to curb the alloys.

The one oddity is that the high level running lights stay on with the headlights. Thought this wasn't allowed, maybe Mr Biggie can shed light on this?

Just need to get a 4 gallon drum of Adblue additive as it will need refilling before the 1st service is due. I had to sign a paper acknowledging that this additive needs topping up.