Citroen XM Forum

I've been wondering why the series 1 cars in the photo's all look sleeker than mine; I've just twigged it - they've all got collapsed suspensions (no antisink) .

There is another reason: the black side strips. Realising that the XM's height to length ratio was less favourable than the CX, the designers used the black cladding to divide the bodyside. It's an old optical trick. Horizontal stripes make a thing look wider. The groove in the side is also helping the effect. It's a pity that semantically the unpainted plastic is felt to be "cheap". But practically speaking it makes no sense to paint something destined to be bashed. It's akin to having silk elbow patches. The Ford Ka was also designed to have unpainted bumpers. Again painting them spoiled the balance of the proportions. Car designers spend a lot of time finessing these kinds of details and so every good design is composed of a mass of delicately balanced relationships.Facelifts nearly always upset these .

My dream XM has an illuminated rear ashtray and lights on both sides of the luggage compartment.

casalingua wrote: My dream XM has an illuminated rear ashtray and lights on both sides of the luggage compartment.

I'd be happy for just the one in mine to be working

CitroJim wrote:

casalingua wrote: My dream XM has an illuminated rear ashtray and lights on both sides of the luggage compartment.

I'd be happy for just the one in mine to be working

Lol, i know what you mean Jim.....mine just has a gaping hole...seems someone has binned it at some point.

Casalingua, these are easy additions to put in surely? Ill probably do mine when the other hundred or so more important jobs have been done

DerekW wrote:I've been wondering why the series 1 cars in the photo's all look sleeker than mine; I've just twigged it - they've all got collapsed suspensions (no antisink) .

All Citroens should be sinkers....it's the Law...

Dieselman wrote:

DerekW wrote:I've been wondering why the series 1 cars in the photo's all look sleeker than mine; I've just twigged it - they've all got collapsed suspensions (no antisink) .

All Citroens should be sinkers....it's the Law...

I quite agree

The xm does have an illuminated rear ash tray................

Having sampled anti sink i must say i much prefer the sinker, hiss and all, anti sink sounds like a good idea but you still get sticky steering if you saw away at the wheel too much too fast but it takes an age to change height and causes all manor of issues with sticky height correctors as the suspension never moves, the other issue i found with anti sink is they seem to eat spheres a little faster than a sinker when doing low mileage.

D

Dean wrote:the other issue i found with anti sink is they seem to eat spheres a little faster than a sinker when doing low mileage.

D

I hadn't thought about that, but it makes sense, as the spheres are under full pressure all the time, whereas in a sinker they are under no pressure so the membrane sits tight against the steel shell.

Very interesting. All Citroens should sink, it's just better!

All Citroens should have a steering wheel which the centre stays fixed...