My New 16 Plate DS3 Dark Light

[DS3Will]

I have just bought this from my local Citroen showroom and got it just in time for the new 16 plates! How many Dark Lights are on a 16 plate??

I haggled a deal at £15,300 for the car on finance which I think is a fantastic price for all the features the car boasts!?

Overall I am very happy with this car, but there are a few little things that niggle me!

- MPG... For a small car with a small engine, I do not get the MPG I was told and hoped for. I am a bit heavy footed most of the time to be fair and I could definitely get better, but I kind of wished I had a diesel for the mpg.

- Leather seats... Well they look nice and are comfortable. But after only 270 miles, the drivers side right hand seat bolster has creased. OK I am not a small lad by any means, and I will take care when sitting down from now on to make sure its not folded, but after 270 miles this should no way have happened!

- The Floor Mats... Now this is down right dangerous and I will be making a complaint and a suggestion to Citroen/DS to have these called back or replaced or something! I have now clocked up 312 miles on my DS and 8 times now, yes 8 TIMES - the accelerator pedal has got stuck underneath the floor mat and jammed on!!!! Being automatic this is even more dangerous as the car keeps accelerating until I manage to unhook it with my foot. It is ridiculous. It is dangerous! Let me just say that the floor mats and pedals are standard fitted parts. What a bad design. Like I said I can drive a bit "heavy footed", not everybody will have this problem if they take it easy, but there are times when I like to see what the cars got lol.

- The air freshener, I can't smell the thing at all and Iv'e seen the price of the refills!


It probably sounds like I don't like my new DS, but I actually love the little car despite these problems! It drives great, the sound system is great, the sat nav is great, the xenon lights - great! i bought this for my girlfriend for when she passes her test, but my bmw 5 series hasn't been touched since we got this car! I don't like it anymore haha..

Anyway, hope you like our Dark Light, we will be around on the forum whinging about the car and sharing experiences more etc, thanks!

Oh, and our car already had the stickers taken off in the showroom, we got it with 3 miles on the clock and un registered - we are the first registered keeper on a 16 plate

[JEZDS3]

Welcome! Hope you sort out the little niggles in time and then you can love your car even more! Many of us have probably modified and improved our cars to lose any faults we may find!

[Hyperkev]

Welcome along , don't know about the auto box , but we find soakng the air freshener in your fav aftershave etc does the trick , and never heard of anyone suffering with the mats like you .

[cyclone]

My factory floor mats have retaining clips to prevent them sliding around. Have Citroen gotten cheap and stopped using those?

[DS3Will]

No the retaining clips are there and the mat sits fine, but when the throttle is pushed all the way to the floor it kind of hits the lip/edge of the mat and sometimes sticks there.

Maybe the throttle pedal is a little different on the automatic version?

I feel like taking a stanley knife and trimming the edge of the mat and pedal off, but I should not have to do that to a brand new car lol!

I will be taking it to the dealer next week and will tell you what the outcome is.

[Shiro]

No the retaining clips are there and the mat sits fine, but when the throttle is pushed all the way to the floor it kind of hits the lip/edge of the mat and sometimes sticks there.

The throttle pedal didn't look different between Manual and Automatic at pictures :/
Automatic vs. Manual

[DS3Will]

My pedals are rubber not aluminium :confused:

I will take a photo of my pedals and what is happening when I have finished work

[Shiro]

My pedals are rubber not aluminium :confused:

I will take a photo of my pedals and what is happening when I have finished work

The size is the same as far as I know :confused:

[pmk]

Better just to use a bit of duct tape over the edge so that the pedal doesn't catch than cutting the mat

[danlock92]

Welcome to the Dark Light club! Bloody awesome cars, aren't they! You got yours for a very good price!

I haven't noticed my pedal sticking under the mats at all, I will have a play around tomorrow though.

In regards to the auto box, mine seems to be at the other end of the spectrum, it can't wait to change up through the gears! Have you had a play round with the Sports & Snow buttons?? Sports will keep the car in lower gears for longer, Snow will do the opposite. Have a play and let us know how you get along!

I've just come from a 2.0 diesel DS 4 and i don't think the little 1.2 feels much slower!

[danlock92]

Ps. I managed to get mine before the vinyl was removed, it's doing good so far!

[DS3Will]

So here are a few pics of what i am talking about. Excuse the filthy mats I have had to park it near a lot of mud lately due to too many cars on the drive and snow etc!

It does not happen everytime, but it has happened 8 times so far in just 300 miles. The first few times was a bit of a panic as i didnt know what was going on, now i can kind of flick it out but the point is it shouldnt happen and its dangerous. I think it happens mostly as the heel of my foot pushes the mat forward sometimes when im driving with a bit of oomph.

The mat should be shorter so this could never happen in my opinion??

The top image is me pressing the pedal all the way to the floor and catching on the mat.

[lfcrule1972]

Mmmm my pedal has never become stuck under the mat, I do wonder if the rubber (auto) accelerator pedal is slightly longer ? I agree it shouldn't be able to get stuck like that as it could cause you an accident. On your other points:

MPG... For a small car with a small engine, I do not get the MPG I was told and hoped for. I am a bit heavy footed most of the time to be fair and I could definitely get better, but I kind of wished I had a diesel for the mpg.

As you know the quoted MPGs are not achieveable for normal driving conditions - how far off are you ? I have diesel eHDi 115 and with gentle driving I can get 60mpg, with normal commuting and a heavy right foot (and AC on all the time) I'm averageing just over 50mpg at the moment. I'd say I normally end up in the middle of these two figures when I'm not in a rush though.

- Leather seats... Well they look nice and are comfortable. But after only 270 miles, the drivers side right hand seat bolster has creased. OK I am not a small lad by any means, and I will take care when sitting down from now on to make sure its not folded, but after 270 miles this should no way have happened!

My car is three years old in May and is starting to get small creases in the leather bolsters, like you I'm not small but I'd expect that with cloth seats too after 40k miles. All I can suggest is that you ensure you get your ass in the middle of the seat and if possible try not to shuffle out of the seat over the bolster when exiting the car

- The air freshener, I can't smell the thing at all and Iv'e seen the price of the refills!

Yep we all agree here, totally ineffective and massively overpriced. As suggested above you can top them up with scented oils etc (soak them in a bowl of scented oil over night) or aftershave/perfume etc but tbh you'd do better to buy a California scent - http://www.amazon.co.uk/California-S.../dp/B003365FIA shop around you can get them cheaper than this and they last a couple of months. Mix the flavours over time so you keep noticing them

[Kat]

Welcome to the club

[DS3Will]

Hi thanks for all your messages

Today I went to the dealer and told him of my problems, regarding the auto box.. kind of my fault! I did not know that I was driving the car in Manual the whole time, which is why it would not shift up until 6000 revs!!! Ok Ok.. first automatic Iv'e driven!

Now with the mats, he agreed that there was a problem there and so he gave me a new set of mats but they were exactly the same size! He actually told me that if it starts bothering me, although not ideal, to cut out an inch or 2 of the floor mat... unbelievable!
At least the new mats he gave me are nicer than the original ones I got, they have DS3 in the corner and have an extra piece where the heel goes for extra ruggedness.