Citroen XM Forum

My son was a 'Droopsnoot' enthusiast but the nearest he ever got to it was a Viva E. I had an HA van at one time, I think that was ex GPO, dreadful thing to work on, you had to remove the exhaust manifold to get the starter off! Maybe I just picked a particularly bad job.

Peter

My early cars were Mini 1275GT (tinted glass, full length sunroof, wood dash Lasted a few days before letting a mate drive it..Oops. , good job for me all that welding held out... ), Triumph Toledo, Vauxhall Viva HC, Vauxhall Magnum, then into newer cars.
Before buying the Magnum I was going to buy a CX but the insurance was just too crippling.

By the time I got my CX I was already getting old so the insurance wasn't to bad

The best quote I could get was £750 TPF&T which was a lot of money in 1984. As an alternative I was going to buy a Vauxhall Carlton, but eh bank refused the full loan value, so I bought the magnum for £400 instead.
It's a good job I didn't spend a lot as I was made redundant a few months later and cash was very tight due to living on my own in digs in London and jobs were very scarce, which is why I was in London anyway.

I dont think mine was more than about £200.00 but this is a cheap area for insurance and I was in my 40s, my XM insurance has been under £200.00 - until our recent spate of accidents but I think its only gone up to about £250.00.

Peter

Really interesting reading peter !!
A great topic, and it's great to read about other peoples earlyer cars, i remember the Viva's, i remember driving down to Cornwall in the family SL90 estate, in the early seventies, and while driving back we lost 3/4th gears, so it was driven most of the way back with an over night stay involved somewhere to Haywards Heath, took bloody ages .
My 1st car when i passed my test in 1984 was a 1972 Austin 1300 gt ,navey blue, that was quite a quick car for me as a new driver anyway, them bought a R5 gordini, bloody hell that went, until the floor pans fell out of it ( and i scraped it )


Nigel

Hi Nigel

Remember the Reanult Dauphine? Possibly not, if you weren't around within 10 years of them being made they had regressed to iron oxide.

Peter

Hi Peter

Was that the little rear engined four door saloon ?? very square looking

Are i know the one you mean,

I don't really remember that model, the one i was thinking of was the R 10 , after a sneeky look though car & classic, thats the model i remember seeing around.

My R5 Gordini was a quick car, and was great fun and to this day i must say i have a bit of a soft spot for the R5, the mk1 i mean, i have had several R5's , the newer shape, but not a patch on the early ones.
Iv'e mainly stuck to french cars, with the odd 740 / 850 t5 estates , but still return to the french marques

No I think it was somewhat rounded at the corners, quite a nice looking car I thought, it hails from the '50s so they may have all gone by the time you were taking notice

Peter

I have just had a look on ebay images and there are several on there I'm amazed to see, they appear to be from the early '60s and there was a 'Gordini' model