British International Motor Show – oldies

It wasn’t just new cars at the motor show; there was the heritage pavilion, located outside and feeling a little like an afterthought. The choice of cars was superb but I think I’ll let the pictures do the talking.



Next to the heritage pavilion was a display of AA vehicles through the ages. My eye was caught particularly by the Morris Ital van. There can’t be many Itals of any sort left so it is quite nice to see one that looks cared for and it certainly isn’t the sort of thing you’d expect to see at a show for new cars.

Inside, I noticed but didn’t photograph a fine looking Mercedes-Benz 300SL gullwing and a certain internet magazine had a scrappy-looking mk3 Austin Allegro as “the worst car ever” on their stand. Frankly I think there are many worse cars than the “All Aggro” and it just demonstrates a lack of imagination on the part of whoever chose it.

Oh no, not again!

I visited my parents, in the South East, this weekend. Travelling down on Friday evening I did the 145 miles in 2hours 45 minutes at an amazing 42mpg. Of course it must have been too good to be true as, on the return leg last night the low hydraulic fluid light came on. I stopped in a lay-by to add some fluid (no Citroëniste is without a supply of LHM at hand), but that didn’t do the job. Carefully I made my way to Hemel Hempstead and found a Tesco petrol station forecourt in the middle of a retail park. This was a much better location to wait for help and I called the AA.

It must have been a busy night because it took a long time for the patrol man to get to me. He did at least know his way around the Citroën BX and understood what the hydraulic system did. Knowing there was nothing he could do he called for a recovery vehicle and I just had to wait. At 11:00 the recovery vehicle arrived and it then took 3 hours to get back to my home.

Now my BX is with the garage, waiting for a length of pipe to replace the faulty piece. I hope it turns up tomorrow as I need the car for the Easter weekend. I also hope that this will be the end of leaking pipes; I don’t have time for a car I can’t rely on.