New Member and a few questions!

[Rossi1985]

Hello!

I've always loved the RCZ and am looking to purchase one in the next 6-12 months (I'm in no rush and will wait for the 'right' car to come up for sale).

I drive a BMW Z4 2.5 at the moment, which I've owned for almost 4 years, but at 23 years old and 102k miles, something new breaks almost every week, plus the sub frame rust will kill it in 3-5 years. Taking all that apart, sandblasting etc is well beyond my DIY abilities and way more than the car is worth if I get a garage to do it, so it's time for a change.

My other family car is also a Peugeot, a 2020 registered 3008 but the 300BHP Hybrid4 in top specification GT model (before they stripped it back with the Covid chip shortage). This has been a great car in the 3 years I've owned it and I plan to keep it long term. So it would be nice to have two Peugeots

So I've done some research and am aware that the petrols can have some issues. My top end budget is going to be circa £10k maybe £12k at the very most, which I know could just about get me into 'R' territory, however the running costs put me off of those (is it really several thousand Pounds for new brakes!?). Ideally I'm hoping I'll be able to buy a low mileage (sub 50k) car with all the toys. Heated memory seats are a must (my wife is very vertically challenged!) and I'm only interested in the cars with the pop up sat nav screens. The radio / orange screens on the lower spec models look very dated now.

Is the diesel potentially the way to go and how safe is remapping these to nudge up the power a bit? If I buy a car that breaks as often as the Z4 does, my wife will kill me!

Also, I think the facelift (2013 onwards) car looks vastly better from the front end, though hardly any of the facelift cars, even the GT spec models seem to have the JBL stereo, which seemed to be standard on the GT trim on the pre facelift cars? Is this upgrade worth it and why is it so rare on the later cars? Revised front end aside, does the facelift provide any other benefits?

One last thing, I appreciate the newest possible cars are still 11 years old now. Is rust an issue and are there any other common age related issues?

Thanks in advance for your help. I'm in Rayleigh, Essex, UK, I'm assuming there are decent amount of UK people on this forum?

 

[Verminator]

Happy hunting and hope you find the car that fits your criteria.
As long as you are going to wait the right RCZ will come along

 

[simonf7]

Hi Rossi,

Welcome to the group.

Lots to unpack here, and as someone who bought my blue 2014 RCZ 4 years ago, I think I can help a bit when looking for the right one.

I have the 2.0hdi diesel, and while I have also eyed up the R, in my opinion it is just not worth the reliability and cost aspect, great as it is. I would stick to diesel.

One thing to note is that the diesel is not ULEZ compliant. However, it is a very reliable motor and has been used in one form or another by PSA since the late 90s and I have never had an issue with this engine, both in the RCZ and in my 2002 xsara. My colleague at work bought his RCZ new in 2013 and did over 350,000 miles on the original engine! While not ULEZ, it does not have any of that adblue nonsense and is Euro 5.

I paid around £8,000 for my 2014 RCZ around 4 years ago when it was on 56k miles. I think you can get something very nice for your budget. Given what depreciation has occured, I reckon you could get something even lower mileage and nicer now.

I have the flip up screen, it is a cool party trick and the screen has actually held up very well in terms of how it looks, it is sharp and pretty snappy. I would agree and say it is worth getting one with the flip up screen, however, it makes it harder to upgrade the headunit as so much functionality is tied to the screen, including parking alerts and warning lights etc and other vehicle settings. The guidance is dated to the year your car was made, so for me my roads are still in 2014. While you can update this I believe to 2018, honestly it's a right faff and have seen others break their system doing this so just let it be. I just leave up the map and it is still handy for navigating around new towns and seeing which connects to what, but for actual guidance I have a magnetic holder for my phone with waze. If you want something more integrated then go for the cheaper orange radio and swap out the head unit for something with Andriod Auto or whatever.

Good point with the JBL obersavtion, also noticed this myself. While I hear it is a decent system, the factory one is not too different. And if you want to upgrade the audio for something punchier, then the stock speakers will cause less headaches as you don't have to mess around with the JBL amplifier. Personally I have wired in a plug and play in-line amplifier from Pioneer and a small under-seat sub I wired into the boot and it sounds good enough to my ears.

In terms of rust, Peugeots in general are pretty good at not rusting. This is because Pegeot/Citroen and Porsche were the only manufacturers who would fully galvanise their chassis etc. So no worries there, especially compared to BMWs... The main thing to look out for structually wise on RCZs is the jacking points. Check to see if it is folded in or not as that is a common issue. Usually not an MOT failure but something I had to fix at the local welders to reinforce them.

Another common issue is the third brake light, which is LED. These have a habit of slowly failing and if still fitted can be an MOT issue. New ones from peugeot are silly prices, mine started to go last year, however there are kits available on ebay to fit a new custom circuit board for around £40 which was a right pain in the arse but doable if you have the patience.

Other than that, they are a reall well-built machine and the only thing that broke in my ownership (touch wood) has been one wheel speed sensor which stopped ABS. I use mine to drive from Brighton to Exeter and average 67 MPG, at least according to the car...

You cannot really go wrong with them price wise for the looks... I also think the fdacelift really looks a lot better.

There were some special versions, such as the Magnetic and red carbon edition, which if I was looking again for one I would look for a diesel version of that. Nothing crazy, just nice coloured stiching and a few other tweaks I believe.

They were offered with xenons which do move. I did not get this and I don't think I am missing out personally as I replaced my halogen lights for £70 each brand new and look good, but the xenons look a bit more modern. They are expensive to replace bare in mind (I saw £700 once).

Anyways, I hope this helps. Happy to help if you have any other questions. Attaching some pics of mine...