Buying advice - Mk2 Ulysse 2.0 JTD

My Fiancee is looking at changing her 04 plate Stilo for an 05 plate Ulysee to cope with the expanding family!!

We have seen a 2.0 JTD Eleganza with 12k on the clock, lots of nice extras (Sat Nav, Leather Seats, cruise control etc).

Just wanting some honest advice on buying and owning a Ulysee and what to watch for and problems with them as I know Fiat's can sometimes have an undeservingly poor reputation - Fiancee has now had 2 Stilo JTD's and a Ducato van, none have ever caused a problem or cost her anymore than fair wear and tear, however Mother-inlaw is on her 3rd Punto and this one and previous one have caused her many headaches!!

Ulysee is not a Fiat it's a peugeot.

I am probably not the best person to respond, as I have only been an owner for afew days, but I am surprised at the little response that you have had.

Prices in the second-hand Ulysse market appear to have crashed recently, for two reasons: Fiat have stopped selling the model in the UK, and Addison Lee are offloading their fleet of up to 500 units. This presents great opportunities for buyers, I paid less than £8k for an 05 Eleganza last week, with less than 30k on the clock.

True, they do have their fair share of problems, but then again, what car model doesn’t? The 4 speed automatic gear-box seems particularly troublesome, Addison Lee have had to replace the gearboxes on over 90% of their fleet, some vehicles have had up to 4 gearboxes. However, the AL Fleet are going to be driven under very different circumstances to the way that you are likely to drive yours; mine is an ex-AL car and, on collection, the trip computer showed an average speed of 12 mph for the previous 1600 miles.

I did a lot of research before I parted with my money. Take some time to go through all of the threads on this board, and also have a look at the Eurovan2 forum – you will find some very useful information on both.

At the end of the day I still had concerns, but I felt that the benefit of the remaining manufacturer’s warranty (and the fact that the car had been given a new gearbox less than 150 miles previously) was sufficient to cover these concerns.

Best of luck with your decision, let us know how you get on.

Thanks for the advice, was also suprised by the lack of response!! I have taken the time to look through the other threads, and has made some interesting reading in places!!

However we have still decided to take our chance and bought an 05 plate 2.0JTD Eleganza, with 12k on the clock, sat nav, blue tooth and leather seats!! So hopefully all should be ok!!

Locate a good dealer who has had Ulysee experience.

Motorvogue Northampton is closest and is where we bought last Stilo from, but looking at feedback on site I think we will use Rockingham Motors in Corby as they are only 25 minutes away and seem to be rated highly!!

I use Motorvogue for all my servicing needs plus I get courtesy cars dropped off to my house, and discount on labour rate

Although their sales department wasn't great - but hey, staff change frequently no doubt.

I have purchased three vehicles from them over the past 20 years and have not had a problem with the dealer. I'm in London and often take my car up there rather then locally. I have not had many problems with my Ulysse so I am not sure how experienced they are with it. Having said that I am going up soon to get my anti-pollution warning looked at and I have been assured that they have always being able to resolve problems on the Ulysse's they have sold. I'm sure you are aware but just in case they have recently moved to new premises here is the address:

Rockingham Cars,
Cockerell Road,
Phoenix Parkway,
Corby,
NN14 5DU

Lou

Watch out for the ex addisson lee models , we bought one and of the 5 the dealer had they were all , very scruffy inside , all the extra kit that addisson lee put in , Nav unit car kit for phone , 2 extra roof arials etc , had been literally ripped out , all 12 lines cut off and left in place LIVE and untaped / insulated , some ting has shorted on ours draining the battery dry , and i have spent 3 hours so far ripping out all there crap wiring and trying to get it back to factory spec !

How did you come to that conclusion? I see the AL Ulysses driven about and all I can say is that they are driven normally.

The Ulysse obviously has a problem with this auto box. Not a problem as long as you buget for a replacement.

We have had our ulysse for just over a week now and can say (hopefully without tempting fate!!) that we are extreamly happy with it and love the versatility that it gives us!! Have also been bidding on Ebay for a seat belt extender to try and sort out the one gripe that we have with the car - what a nightmare it is to buckle up the seat belt when you have a 5 year old in a booster seat!!!

There is no reason why shouldn't this problem reoccur again and again.
The Torque-weight load is too high for this AL4.

Be careful if you buy an extender, the two outer rear seats have pre-tensioners which put additional load on the belts. Just be sure that they are very good quality and fit perfectly so as not to cause injury.

I would disagree, the AL4 has and is used on a number of cars also used on the previous Citroen Cynergy without serious problems.

I suspect it is a heat issue with the Addison Lee taxi's, they are used very much for stop/start and could be prone to heat problems.

Did the Synergie have this 250 Nm HDi engine?
I had mine warranty-reconditioned at 25K miles. When I asked another HDi Ulysse owner if he had any problems he said that he had had his AL4 warranty-reconditioned 1 year ago and he currently has less than 25K.
AFAIK the petrol model does not have such problems.
This gearbox is installed in many cars and functions better. There was an issue in former Renault Megane of water penetrating through a respirator hose (is this the correct term?) and causing damage, but this does not seems the issue here.

I think that as you wrote it has something to do with overheating since the first times where I got the "auto gearbox default" message were while climbing uphill after a long journey.