General New(ish) Ulysse Purchase - Where to start?

[big adam]

Hello all,

I've just taken the leap and purchased a 2004 (53 plate) 2.0 Petrol Auto Ulysse Eleganza. 35000 miles on clock with full service history and 10 month MOT for £6845.

It's a genuine Eleganza (not an ex-Fleet rebadged Dynamique) so it's got most of the essential toys. Non-electric doors but I can live with that for the price. It's certainly a step up from my 1997 Laguna.

I'll take delivery next week and have spent a couple of hours trawling the forum for good advice. However I would appreciate any advice on what people think are essential upgrades, 'tweaks' or checks?

The key areas I am looking at are (in no particular order):
1. Luggage cover / Tonneau
The standard small solid parcel shelf is fitted but this Ulysse will spend most of it's time in 5 seat config. I'd really like to source the optional "roller blind" luggage cover which snaps in behind the middle row. Have scoured ebay but have come up with nothing. Is it a case of searching breakers or is there an aftermarket source?

2. Tyres
Rear tyres are good but fronts show the tell-tale uneven wear. Still a couple of thousand miles left in them but I'll be changing them by the summer. It seems that Michelin's HX-MXM High Loads are now impossible to source in the stock 205/65/15 size. Any ideas on what has replaced them? I'd really like to stick with a good low sidewall deformation tyre to reduce the wear problem.

3. Spare Wheel
Strange one this. Dealer was offering car with no spare wheel. I asked him why and he stated that it was due to a problem with the worm gear on the retention mechanism. Winching from inside the boot lowers the wheel bracket but not very far. Visually, it all apppers to be complete. Dealer reckoned that replacement mechanism would be about £60 fitted (is this realistic?).
Anyway, talked dealer into supplying full size steel spare with new branded tyre and knocking £50 off price to compensate.
Will pop round to local dealer and enquire but has anyone experienced something similar?

4. Carpets
Despite the car being dark grey, the upholstery is dark beige with spotless carpets throughout. I'd like to keep them that way and am hunting around for a good set of non-black mats.
There's a few available on ebay which claim to be for 2003- Ulysse and look ok but I'm doubtful that they'll be a perfect fit.
Any pointers to good suppliers would be gratefully received.

5. Boot liner
Not so essential but does anyone have a good link for a supplier of a well fitting rubber boot liner for the Ulysse.

6. Lights
Haven't had a chance to fully test the headlights yet but what are people's opinion of the stock bulbs? Worth upgrading to those new Philips jobs? I will NOT be buying el-cheapo blue-tint not-real-Xenon bulbs from ebay! :yuck:

7. Seals
Fortunately, no sunroof to worry about but one of the reasons this car was cheap was due to a fairly big crease at the bottom of the nearside sliding door. This means that the trailing lower corner of the door bends out by about 1/2" from the chassis body.
It's by no means a serious 'ding' and visually it's easy to miss. My only concern is that the rubber seal around the door does not now sit tight against the chassis with the door closed. In the short term I'll simply keep the lower runner well greased but eventually I'll take it to a body shop.
While I'm thinking about the seals, what are the other key areas for "unexpected" water ingress? Roof lining is spotless so I guess the bee-sting aerial is fine.

8. Anything else?
Just wondered what other tweaks people have made to their Ulysse's? For obvious reasons, engine remaps do not really count.

First treat next weekend will be a good wash and polish (weather permitting) and a full oil change. Then I'll have to work out how all the electric toys work! :idea:

Thanks in advance for any advice. Now I'm in the club, I hope to stick around for a while.

 

[T14086]

Welcome to the forum Adam...

Have a good look around the Ulysse section

 

[Pat H]

Re the lamps. I upgraded to the brghter Xenon bulbs and found a big improvement. The std bulbs just aren't quite there.

 

[poggy]

That was a good price you paid. You can look on e-bay for the cover but also search under Citroen C8 and Peugeot 807, I am pretty sure they are the same part. I have seen a few on there before.

I have the 16" wheels and stuck with the MXM high load, but the local tyre place had to order them which took a couple of days. You can get them off the internet though and although I can't remember the website there is a web company which comes to the house to fit them. I would consider having the front wheels tracked as this seems to be a common problem.

We have a LPG system fitted so the spare wheel sits in the back strapped to the metal dog guard. I was tempted not to have one, but the AA & RAC won't help if you don't have a spare wheel. They do help if the car didn't come with one from the factory though (i.e BMW's with run flats etc)

Well worth buying the proper carpet set as it comes in three parts, but I have seen these on e-bay. I think we paid about £60 from Fiat for our's 3 years ago.

We have a proper Fiat boot liner which cost £30.00. It's not made of rubber but of some sort of foam. I though it looked pretty flimsy, but after more than 3 years of abuse and the dog jumping in and out it is still as good as new. It also fits perfectly, but I am not sure if Fiat UK still sell Ulysse accessories.

I swapped to the Osram Silverstar bulbs which make a massive improvement. On our other car I fitted the Halfords versions as they had an excellent write up in the Auto Express test. I think they are +50 or something. Despite what some garages say you can swap them without taking the bumper off, it's a bit of tight squeeze but you can do it.

The other thing to check is the operating software version in the navigation system RT3 (you can download this from www.eurovan2.com website). Send me a PM if you haven't got the latest navigation CD as I have the latest one with traffic alerts etc.

By the way fuel economy is not the best on the petrol auto, which is why we opted for LPG conversion, but I would be interested in the MPG you get as mine has dropped a lot recently. It's booked into the local specialist who will service it and check the lambda sensors etc to see if there is a problem.

Enjoy your car, I still think it is one of the best MPV's on the market which is why we are keeping it.

 

[big adam]

Thanks guys,

I spent a couple of hours trawling the first 10 pages of the Ulysse forum last night. Seems that Powerbulbs.co.uk are a good source for upgrading the bulbs. The Osram Silverstars do seem good value so I'll probably plump for them.

I realised this morning that I didn't actually check if my Ulysse has the optional 16" wheels! :bang: I guess I'll find out next week as I'm collecting on Thursday. If the 16" tyres are fitted it will help a lot as it increases the options available to me. I will definitely try and stick to the MXMs though and tracking is essential.

Apparantly I can still order the big luggage cover from my local dealer but I'll keep 'em peeled for an ebay bargain. I know there was a couple for sale late last year.....unfortunately I didn't own a Ulysse then!

My wife has told me that I'm colourblind and that the upholstery is mid-grey and not beige which makes things easier for the carpets. I'll be placing an order on ebay later today and might also take a punt on a boot liner as well.

The LPG conversion is something we have umm'd and ahh'd about for a while. We are interested but what puts us off is the sacrifice of the spare wheel. We plan on doing a little touring around Europe which is why we really wanted the full size spare. Thinking about it we could simply stick the wheel in the boot on these occasional trips abroad. Will see how much the stock petrol fuel consumption hits us in the pocket over the first 6-12 months.

I'll spend some time over at Eurovan today. I'm sure I'll have some niggles to sort out very soon.

 

[Hippo]

That's a good price.

1/ I would stick with eBay on this one. Might not be on there all the time, but check once a week.

3/ Ah! You will probably find that someone nicked the previous one. Get it repaired if you want to, but if you replace the spare ensure you padlock it. I have a 2m padlock on mine.

4/ I would go for a propoer mat set from Fiat. The ones on eBay aren't OEM and tend to be cheap, and cheap looking with it also.

First treat next weekend will be a good wash and polish (weather permitting) and a full oil change. Then I'll have to work out how all the electric toys work!

If you're buying from a dealer shouldn't they be doing this for you?

 

[big adam]

If you're buying from a dealer shouldn't they be doing this for you?

Ah! Little private dealer. Essentially operates out of his own (quite large) private property. All legit and above board, just typical of "The Fens"

Car is perfectly clean but in all honesty, even if I got the car from a 'proper' dealer, I'd still change the oil. I have a general distrust of dealers I don't know.

I was thinking of going for the less-cheap carpet option via ebay. Perhaps I'll go round the Fiat dealer first and get a few quotes for mats, luggage cover etc.

 

[Pat H]

I use the halfords generic Mats. They do a set for the Ulysse. Drivers one is held in place with a fixing the passenger one floats.
I put one of the small carpet squares between the front seats as far forward as it will go.
I use rubber mats in the back.
Works fine for me. They tend to last 3 years or so (40,000) miles