Hello! The forum is a great place to get invaluable info on keeping these great cars on the road and out of the clutches of the overpriced main dealer workshops.
Enjoy!

welcome to the forum

Hello and welcome. Another lamb wanders cheerily towards the trauma of Croma ownership!

I wish you well - may your brakes never rub and your driveshafts never waggle.

Hi Gaz,
Welcome to the forum.

Definitely one of the more helpful and better natured corners of the internet.

Hello Gaz-- Welcome to the light side!- no dark corner of croma ownership is too dark for us to explore. We proudly go where no main dealer will venture without a deposit!!
We are the bald owners( from tearing our hair out) who will have come across most of the things that you are likely to come across, and as a new owner you will probably notice things that you dont know if they are wrong or right, but we will.
On a positive note how much guarantee has the dealer offered? I would suggest a 200mile trip to get to know the car and to give you a good opportunity to identify any "anomalies" . Also to drive a car that will put a smile on your face

Hi all,

Thanks for your kind welcomes.

I'll hopefully be getting the car this week once they have done MOT service and valet and we have dug up the money from under the floorboards.

I do 500 miles a week so should have something (or hopefully nothing) to report in a few days after delivery.

Car is a 2006 56 plate and only has 37000 odd on the clock. I've always wanted an automatic diesel an now I have one!

Regards

Gaz

make sure that service includes cam belt all tensioners and idlers, water pump and aux belt and tensioners and idlers. ask to see old parts to make sure they do it.

dave said:

make sure that service includes cam belt all tensioners and idlers, water pump and aux belt and tensioners and idlers. ask to see old parts to make sure they do it.

Click to expand...

Would endorse this whole heartedly. If they dont want to do it ask them for paperwork to show its been done by the previous owner . 5 yrs is well past now so the belts are going to be in a bit of a state as mine was at 4yrs 7 months at 28000 miles. The water pump was on its way as it was weeping and the aux belt was fraying due to the tensioner being partially seized. Just got to it in time

Welcome, and yes we are very friendly.

You will find when you research this website that the Croma 2005 (and beyond) is actually a very good car, sadly flawed early production issues and some other issues.

However despite my possibly apparent negative comments the Croma still remains a cheap and reliable vehicle. I has it's issues and I know of no UK Croma owners having to be recovered a long distance home other than myself.

If you research this forum and Croma thread then you will find lots of great info, non satisfactory experiences, BUT despite any non satisfactory experiences nobody thus far has thrown their Croma in bin/scrap yard in disgust.

Cromas (2005+) have always been a bargain buy and as with all bargains it is prudent to set aside a contingency (be that financial or expectation).

I love my Croma, as do many here, and Croma ownership is not as bad as one may think!

Enjoy your new Croma acquisition and please do come back here with questions, problems (I hope not), etc.

The collective knowledge and experiences here is the best you will find anywhere.

Nick /////

Hi gaz, welcome to the forum

Welcome to the Mad Hatter club.

Hi all,

Took delivery on Saturday morning and just had my first 50 mile trek to work.

So far so sweet!

Still got some playing about to do.

Does anyone know - does the radio cd (Blaupunkt) have RDS? I move between frequencies on my Radio Station.

Is the clock totally manual or can it be synced in any way?

Regards

Gary

The radio does have RDS if I remember correctly (I've upgraded mine to a DAB head unit) but the clock has to be set through the menu system. It's worth scrolling through all the menu options to set up your Croma how you want it :thumbup:

Hello - The radio does have RDS, to set it up you press the menu button, select AF SWITCHING- then ON/OFF. traffic info is also set up in this way.
The clock is a manual set up only.
Did you get a blue plastic wallet with the Croma Handbook in it? There should be another handbook for the sound system in it.
Mine had the codes in it for the radio and the security code for the alarm(on a separate piece of paper-its an ex Fiat HQ car so that was to be expected) The only code it didnt have was for the CD Changer!!!
You can set up a lot of things from the MENU button so beware of "fiddling about too much if you dont have the book

traffic info will be very loud prepare your self for the shock

Make sure the anti-carjacking option is on, so all the doors lock with a thunk as you set off. It's great for terrifying your passengers into thinking you're kidnapping them. If you also set the child-locks it will greatly improve the effect.

The lock light and unlock button happen to be completely hidden from the driver's view by the gearstick. Don't forget to collect the taxi fare or ransom money before you let them out.

Hi,

Cheers for the replies. I do have the manuals and I have now found them. All my previous cars have RDS lit up on the radio and mine didn't. I searched through and found the AF bit. Thanks.

I'll have to manually set the clock then - that's okay. I was hoping for it to change for me next weekend though.

I like the carnapping idea though....

Regards

Gary

The clock works on the same basis as the Italian economy. Mine gains about a minute a week.

Mine goes slow. Perhaps they're the same speed, but time goes slower up north.