Citroen XM Forum

I have bought another daily, partly becaause I like these and partly becuse the exhaust has broken again on the XM (usual place, entering the transverse box... grr) this is a 2.5 litre 24v Quad cam v6 version.. it's rather comfotable, and.. nice to drive (thats nice as in comfy not as in can do the nurburgring in 8 mins)

This is a very early car and has thus far avoided the typical banger ownership and it does show, most of it is like new, and previious owners have been exessivly OCD with it.. its had a new steering wheel as the original had been slightly grazed (still with the car) 3 of the sill chorme kick plates have been reaplced because of scuff marks.. theres more as well!

On the way home the trip claimed 38.7 MPG average.. we shall see about how accurate that is!!

Citroenmad's gone and got himself a Rover 75 as well. It's clearly catching in Citroen circles

I quite like the 75 Very classic retro looking. I've done a tad of spannering on the diesel version where access issues makes the XM look easy everywhere...

Sadly for me I just can't get comfy and content in one. Don't know why but the ergonomics are all wrong for me. I'm too small for it I guess...

And if you have duff clutch hydraulics on a diesel go into a corner and cry. They have the slave cylinder inside the release bearing. It fails regularly and the gearbox has to come off to fix it. That is a seriously not easy job needing the subframe dropping.

Someone once asked if I'd do a clutch on one. I ran away...

Yours looks lovely Zaphod. Enjoy it greatly

Lovely colour too

They are rather nice actually, I looked at several before I bought the C5, diesel of course, the estate is reasonably roomy but not in the same class as the C5. The ride is good for a conventionally sprung car and I do like the interior - but I am of that age

The C5 eventually won out on the basis of extra space and ride comfort, better economy and £135.00 per year road tax. Oh yes, and accessability.

Peter

Chris has bought a 75......

Really nice Rover there Zaphod and you got an earlier one, which should be better built and has the frowning headlights. Good choice. One of the best colours too. I have always had soft spot for these, nicer than the S-Type Jag launched at the same time. Very good ride quality, but surprisingly small inside I found, and I'm not a tall chap!
Best of luck with it.

russ92xmsed wrote:Chris has bought a 75......

Yes he has Russ but only as a change of spanner fodder and a little project. I think his is the 1.8...

I think you've hit the problem I find with the interior. I find it a bit of a squeeze and just a bit claustrophobic but then I'm very sensitive to things like that and one reason why I enjoy the XM. It's cabin seems to be about twice the size it really is - a Tardis

Agree Jim, I have a sneaky suspicion that the 75 is loosely related to the BMW 3 series, hence it's compactness. Shares the rear z axel which must of dictated things. The interiors are lovely, but a little too retro for my taste.

So is Chris having a brief affair then with the 75 ....fix it up and sell on, or is it a replacement for something else?

Yes, that's his plan. Fix up - which he's done now - and sell on...

The full story is in his blog over on the FCF...

I'll pop on over and see. Interesting. Does he do this often, picking up cars and selling on?

russ92xmsed wrote:I'll pop on over and see. Interesting. Does he do this often, picking up cars and selling on?

No, it's very rare for Chris and I think this may be his first non-Citroen too... I reckon he wanted to see what the grass looked like on the other side...

Not clutch issue on this one.. its an Auto.. there are a lot of romours about how much BMW influence there was on these, but it's not based on a 3 or a 5 and BMW were a bit embased to fine when they looked at the75 they found Rover engineers had made a car that was 50% stiffer than their own then new 3 Sereis.. and then banned all thoughts of the MG version as a result and forbade the car to have any sporting pretentions hence the nice ride (ever wonderd how the MG 'Zed' version was developed so quickly after BMW dumped Rover?)A lot of issues with these are not really down to much esle than bad maintanace (although the afore mentioned clutch was just Bad (BMW indcidentally) design). The 'Z Axle' was sort of forced on it as the Rover engineers had been faffing for ages about what to do with the rear suspesion and BMW got fed up and said 'use this, and thats final' or so the story goes.

This one is very very early, in fact its one of what are known as 'Dealer Launch' cars. These were sent to the dealers to put in the showroom on the day of the launch and as they were epected to be in the limelight at launch were finished a little better than normal. They can be spotted, they are all the same colour, are very near top of range, never have reversing sensors or the dimming mirror and have a sunroof (which at this age is not common on the AC cars) This one was built at Cowley before they moved the production line to Longbridge (Or so I was informed by 'Club-75'..)

But as an attempt to rescue rover.. it could have done had it been give the chance its very well screwed together, handles well rides well, and is a nice place to sit if you like retro or course. It is a bit small interior wise but it's also very very quiet, makes a rolls sound noisey! I have wanted to try one beofre they all became badly maintained uncared for cars which is where they are heading. In my eyes it's a fascinating look at 'Paradise Lost' as this one is a very well kept almost pamperd example and is at 67K I think they will soon be an endangerd species though as the Post march 2001 v6 petrols all fall into the top tax band and will soon be worth less than a years tax and the gooing rate for a cam belt (It has 3 of these by the way!) change won't leave much change form £600, the 1.8 likes a diet of head gaskets (althogh its not hard to change, but add labour its more than another running car) and the deisel.. that shares its engine with the 320d and 520d.. so will either become cheap spare engines or donors to convert 316i and 320is to desiel.. or scrapped as soon as the DMF fails which it will