General Buying advice - Mk2 Ulysse 2.0 JTD

[Colin1297]

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!!

 

[T14086]

Ulysee is not a Fiat it's a peugeot.

 

[adadof2]

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.

 

[Colin1297]

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!!

 

[T14086]

Locate a good dealer who has had Ulysee experience.

 

[Colin1297]

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!!

 

[Stu DemonD]

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.

 

[Lou]

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 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

 

[gisburn20]

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 !

 

[Hippo]

However, the AL Fleet are going to be driven under very different circumstances to the way that you are likely to drive yours.

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.

 

[Colin1297]

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!!!

 

[apis]

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

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

 

[poggy]

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!!!

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.

 

[poggy]

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

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.

 

[apis]

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.

 

[poggy]

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.

The box is designed for use with engines upto 330Nm of torque, as you suggested I really suspect the cooling isn't upto to scratch. The diesels tend to have less cooling capacity designed into them because they don't produce
much excess heat. That's why they have to fit supplementary heaters to a lot of diesels now, they are just too efficient.

I am only guessing, but I wonder if the cooling system was designed for the heat output of the engine and that when they added the auto option later they forgot to take into account that the gearbox uses the same cooling system as the engine. Only a guess, but as it works find with the manual cars and the Addison Lee taxis have just highlighted the problem because of the way they are used in town.

I do know of one petrol auto failure, which Fiat blamed on the LPG conversion because this was coupled to the water cooling circuit (they refused to pay for a replacement). Maybe they know there are heat issue's, which is why they said it. The only problem with their argument is that the LPG system uses the heat from the water to heat the vapouriser so in fact it is taking heat from the cooling circuit rather than introducing any extra.

I think one of the other problems (see other post on warranties) is the not very well implemented "self learning" software for adapting to your driving style. I had mine cleared a couple of times and it made the gearbox much more responsive. I wish they had added the "economy, normal & Sport" options which feature on a lot of the other AL4 versions. At least this way you could overide it.

 

[adadof2]

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.

Read the rest of the paragraph. Average speed of 12mph, might be normal for a cab in central London, but not for a family in the sticks/suburbs.

 

[NovaVan]

Sorry to bring this old topic back up but I was wondering....

Addison Lee, are they a cab company in London? I have read through the whole of this thread and I'm presuming they are. I have been on their website where they're Ulysse pictures show "DU" at the beginning on the reg plates. Did the company go bust or simply sold all their vehicles and upgraded?

I'm a cabbie in Exeter and have taken to the Ulysse and thinking about buying one I have seen off eBay. The seller trades with stock from fleet sales and all his Ulysse stock have the "DU" at the front of the reg like the ones on the Addison Lee website. They are all black too and of the same spec. Some autos and some manuals though.

Also, my friend who is also a cabbie has HPi'd one of the cars and it is showing finance outstanding. I'm prepared to take the risk on the basis that the company Addison Lee is still trading and has not gone bust.

This thread has revealed some answers! Me and my friend have been wondering why the market seems to of been flooded with exactly the same spec, colour and age Ulysse's!

Can you advise further on this matter and any information you may feel relevant or may wish to let us know before we spend our hard earned pennies.

I have included a link to the fleet seller on eBay.

Many Thanks,
Neil.

Link............ Clicky!! I think he has more available than what he has listed on eBay though!!

 

[poggy]

Addison Lee are a huge taxi company and they purchased a huge quantity of Ulysse for their fleet. Beware of the spec as although the seller on E-Bay claims they are Eleganza spec, they are not (and he knows it) and have had lot's of features removed such as alloys, sat nav, cloth trim is lower spec, but also a couple added such as the electric doors, blinds. They are basically dynamics and you should price them according to this. The only reason they say Eleganza was to get the electric doors which weren't available of the Dynamic spec.

The company is still trading but they have swapped to another manufacturer as they have had so many problems with the auto boxes. I am also dubious about the warranty as I thought the 3rd year warranty excluded use as a taxi, but I may be wrong.

 

[NovaVan]

Thanks for getting in touch. Hmmmmm its so tempting because of the price but I've been offered a private one which is of a much higher spec. I've only got about £6k to spend and this one is up for £7k so might have to say "hello" to the bank manager.

I want something that is top and the one I've been offered is just that! I'm a cabbie so want it to be perfect as I will be sat in it for 40+ hours a week. Plus its in silver and not black. As much as I like black I would still need to have the black one resprayed if I bought it. This is due to the idiots in charge of our licensing department at the local council who refuse to taxi plate black MPV's!

So if we add it up £5500 + £500 basic "mate of a mate" spray job with no added extras, on a "04" plate with 94000 London taxi miles...

......OR

£7000 in silver so no spraying costs involved. Tinted windows. Fully loaded with extras!! Too many to list infact!! But on a "53" plate with less miles at 65000 private miles.

I'd be crazy not to try and source another £1000 and go for the other option wouldn't I?

Many Thanks,
Neil.

P.S - Again, sorry for bringing up an old thread!