The search continues and other thoughts on a Saturday morning

Up early today to collect the pipe ordered by the Citroën dealer last week. Not the right part, despite what the computer says. They did try to find the correct part but to no avail. Did give me the contact numbers of people who might be more sympathetic to my plight and who might be able to correctly identify the part I’m after.

Another moan about advertising. Last night I saw a BMW advert on television, promoting their Efficient Dynamics system for reducing fuel consumption and all the nasty stuff associated with burning a hydrocarbon fuel. The theme was BMW saying “thank you” for all the things that saved fuel, such as gravity. One of the things thanked was “the stop sign that allows the engine to switch off and save fuel”! Can you believe such a thing! The very act of stopping and starting is incredibly wasteful.

Treated myself to a McDonald’s breakfast on my way home from the garage. In the past I’ve struggled to get these things home without the coffee cup falling over and spilling. Today, somehow, I managed it – despite having a longer journey than I used to. I’d like to think it was down to my prowess as a driver but I wonder if it is down to the soothing properties of Citroën suspension?

A real treat as I drove through my village, 3 vintage cars in convoy. The lead car had the look of a Bugatti and, as it drove past, I could see that the two other cars were also Bugattis. They were all 4-seat open tourers and much quieter than I expected. Two were Type 50s and one, I think, was a Type 40. It is nice to see rare cars being driven, rather than confined inside a museum

Citroën: moving out of the bargain basement?

In the ongoing saga of the hydraulic pipe I ventured bravely to the parts desk of my local Citroën dealer. I am told that owners of old BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes can order parts from the dealer as though they were ordering parts for current models. Of course you need to pay Mercedes-sized prices for that facility. Citroën offer no such assurance but I went armed with a part number and a mental picture of what it should look like. All credit to Murley Citroën of Leamington Spa, they found the part was available and have promised to order it. Maybe one day I’ll be able to drive my car without fearing the sudden loss of hydraulic fluid.

I also noticed that the showroom had a new C5 on display and I couldn’t resist going in for a closer look. It is an impressive looking car; it does have a German look and feel. The doors close with an impressive thunk and the interior is full of handy cubby holes with damped lids. I’m not sure how much praise I want to lavish on the C5 as I still feel betrayed by the absence of self-levelling, oleo-pneumatic suspension across the range (just as I was irritated by the elimination of the Citroën short-travel brake pedal on the old C5). Final judgement depends on actually driving a C5 or two.

Behind the C5 was a silver C6, looking as impressive as ever and unmistakably French. Next to the C6 was a C-Crosser, another model I’ve not had the chance to study at close quarters. It looked like another quality product, with nice plastics and high quality switches. Contrast this with Citroën’s recent efforts to sell cars based on low prices and generous discounts. Somehow the cars looked like bargain basement products, more like the stuff the Malaysians and Koreans used to make.

Strange behaviour

When I had my Honda Preludes I used to drive with the fastest flowing part of motorway traffic. I was careful, observant and only occasionally the fastest driver of any group (much better to let someone else attract the attention of the Police). Long journeys always felt shorter and more pleasant when I was making progress. From time to time I was irritated by those who would not do as I (try to) do and keep left when not overtaking but everyone suffers because of them. Times and circumstances changed and the Prelude was replaced by my first Citroen BX, the 1.9 litre automatic. It was a long-legged car, typically French in that it gathered speed slowly but felt as though it could sustain high speeds all day. Respect for the car's great age and the lower level of performance available caused me to drive more slowly in the Citroen than I did in the Honda. Journeys took a bit longer but it was something I (grudgingly) accepted. Now I have a 1400cc Citroen BX which is slower than the old BX. As a result my cruising speed on the motorway has dropped considerably. In the old BX I'd keep the speedometer between 70 and 80mph, in the new car it is more likely to be 60-70. Not only does this have an impact on the time it takes to make a long journey but I have noticed something new about the so-called Middle Lane Owners Club. While I am passing a convoy of slower I will try and do it as quickly as possible but there are drivers who will sit right on my tail, clearly wanting to go more quickly, even when there is a clear overtaking lane to the right. Only once I pull over to the left do they drive past but they don't pull over into the clear left-hand lane.

Know your car better: drive something different

Variety, so it is said, is the spice of life. I certainly find that true with cars. This week I had a chance to drive something different and the most interesting part of the experience was the new perspective it gave me of my own car. The first thing was an insight into the driving position of my Citroën. I find it comfortable but it is a little like the classical Italian driving position with the steering wheel a bit further away than normal. Strangely, it is only when I drive something else that I realise this because I wonder why every other car puts the steering wheel uncomfortably close to my chest.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that the BX seems quite spacious. Old cars, like mine, generally have modest dashboards and slim door trims. New cars seem to be bulked out with oversized door trims, massive dashboards, consoles and thick window pillars. But the one thing that always astonishes me, very few cars can match an ageing and scruffy Citroën for ride comfort.

One day you’re riding high…

… the next you’re sat by the side of the road with a growing puddle of green fluid under the car. So much for all those kind words I lavished on it. Ah the joys of a Citroën and their weird, hydraulic ways.

Another weekend, another long journey

It was a close thing; I wanted to go away for the Easter weekend but at the start of the week I had a car where the vital hydraulic systems had suffered a large leak. My usual reaction is to sulk and spend an excessive amount of time avoiding the issue. This time I leapt into action, on Monday I arranged for the car to be towed to the garage who I asked to remove the offending component. By Tuesday I had a new pipe ordered and coming in the post. Wednesday was a little fraught as I had hoped the pipe would come from Citroën specialist Pleiades overnight. I started looking at the cost of train tickets but the prospect of engineering works disrupting the timetable meant it was a last resort. I even contemplated coach travel, almost half the price of rail travel but with a limited service. On Thursday the pipe turned up, was fitted and everything was well. Listening to the news on Good Friday I was glad I had a working car, every bulletin carried tales of missing trains and long delays. Having seen the level of train service on the West Coast Mainline (the service I’d have used if I was going by train) on Saturday, Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday if I’d managed to get away then I would never have got home again.

Did anyone else see Torchwood this week?

I’m sure I saw a police-liveried Citroën C6. Having been to the BBC iPlayer site and reviewed the few seconds of disjointed film where the C6 appears it is unmistakably the big Citroën. The C6 seems like an odd choice for a police car; too complex and plush. What cars do Cardiff police actually use? Anyway, the pictures are taken from the BBC.


Not sure if you can make out the frameless side window


Unmistakable tail lamp


Blurred but clearly a police C6

Large, heavy load

I was asked to help transport an armchair over the weekend. It is the sort of task that Citroëns do well. The BX isn’t a tall car but you can get surprisingly deep loads inside and even when fully loaded the self-levelling suspension keeps everything nicely level. If you need to, the whole car can be lowered to ease loading or unloading. (So much for the virtues of oleo-pneumatic suspension not being worthwhile).

What I hadn’t planned for was the meanness of the specification of a base-model car. My old BX had a back seat that could be folded completely flat. Foolishly I thought my current BX would enjoy the same detail. I discovered that the seat back would fold down but there was no way to move the seat cushion to make a flat floor. As a result the chair wouldn’t quite fit and I had to tie the tailgate closed.

It is hardly the end of the world but it is an object lesson in not taking things for granted.

Of Citroëns and Auto Express

Auto Express is one of those magazines that I stopped reading a long time ago. Something about the way the features were written sucked all the joy from the subject. The feature that brought me to that point was a supposed celebration of a Ferrari anniversary (probably the 50th) which failed to convey any magic of the cars the magazine gathered to mark the occasion.

If the issue I borrowed from a work colleague today was anything to go by things have improved as Auto Express. AE does seem a little more serious than its main (only?) rival, Autocar. With my mind in an analytical frame it seems that Autocar’s writers put more of themselves into their features than the Auto Express team. I still prefer Autocar as it seems to carry a greater variety of interesting features.



One of the features in Auto Express was a first drive of the new Citroën C5. It was the second review I had read and I am worried that the C5 will be a disappointing car. At the behest of fleet managers Citroën have restricted hydro-pneumatic suspension to the top models. Fleet managers are unable to appreciate the virtues of hydro-pneumatic suspension and are not prepared to pay for it on the mainstream C5s. It does rather beg the question; what are the people who do appreciate the self-levelling, smooth-riding virtues of hydro-pneumatic suspension supposed to buy?

Slow recovery

As my arm heals I am once again able to do with ease the ordinary things I’d always taken for granted. Most things anyway – driving remains a challenge. Gripping objects in my left hand is difficult and painful as is applying any sideways force with my left arm. Managing unassisted steering is a bit of a chore and a gear lever is very hard work indeed. Even pulling on the handbrake feels like painful exertion.

It does give you a new perspective on car design. My Citroën needs more effort to move the lever into the plane of 5th and reverse than it needs to push towards 1st and 2nd. I can manage the push into first or second easily but fifth is hard work and I prefer to use my right hand to select reverse. There can be no need to make things hard work and my car is by no means unique in having a stronger spring on the 5th-reverse plane of its gearbox. In the old days some 4-speed gearboxes had no spring assistance, which made changing gear very easy but I’m not sure there are many cars that are tolerable with just 4 gears. A sequential gearbox would work too, just pulling and pushing for each gear. An automatic would be better.

The design of the old-fashioned pull-up handbrake seems to be falling out of fashion, which is a good thing as it is an absurd piece of design. Pulling it on seems to involve all the wrong muscles (especially when they are impaired in their operation). In my present condition a right-hand handbrake would make more sense (off the top of my head that means cars like the Jaguar XJS, Aston Martins, the Lotus Esprit and the W123 Mercedes-Benz). A lever that could be pushed forward, even with my left arm in its present condition, would be better still; or maybe a foot-operated parking brake is the answer (various Mercedes, the Citroën XM and lots of Americans). I’m not sure an electric handbrake is the answer – with automatic transmission it works well enough but I think something more progressive is needed when balancing on the clutch biting point.

Power steering is the obvious answer to ease the last of my troubles but it needs to be quite direct – don’t want too much arm-twirling. Citroën have probably made some of the most direct powered setups – the SM needed only 2 turns to go from lock to lock and if the CX was slightly less responsive it was still sharp compared to many of its rivals. A C-matic semi-auto CX would work well, I think and there are some CX automatics. An SM would be better, being left-hand drive the gear laver and handbrake can be operated by my “good” arm. But if someone lent me an SM while I recover I’d be tempted to fake my symptoms to prolong the loan.

Interesting idea from John Simister in The Independent

The Independent may no longer be producing a weekly motoring supplement but it still producing some decent motoring content. Road tests from John Simister are a particular highlight, John has been testing cars professionally for over 20 years and knows what he’s talking about.

Recently the Renault Laguna estate came under his scrutiny and he was somewhat critical of the modern trend towards nose-heavy car styling. The problem is that a lot of cars have their engines mounted ahead of the front wheels. To conform with regulations the engines must be surrounded by sacrificial crumple-zones which pushes the front of the car further and further ahead of the front wheels.

It is possible to make cars that follow the established mechanical layout and conform to the regulations for occupant and pedestrian protection, Audi do it well and Citroën did a magnificent job with the C6. On the whole, however, it is a bad idea both in terms of styling and engineering to have so much of the car ahead of the front wheels. Simister suggests,

“One of these days a mainstream car maker is going to take a deep breath and reconfigure its front-wheel-drive powertrain so the driveshafts run in front of the engine instead of behind it, but until then, cars are condemned to be ungainly.”

Which reminded me that Jim Randle, formerly head of engineering at Jaguar, suggested the best driveline layout for high-speed stability was front-wheel drive with the engine mounted behind the driven wheels. It is a layout that probably wouldn’t suit a small car, even though the Renault 4 and the original Renault 5 used exactly that layout. It does recall some of the greatest old French cars including the Renault 16, Citroën SM, DS and the father of them all the Traction Avant. It is an idea long overdue a revival.

Hard year’s drive 2007 Part 3

Continuing the account of the cars I drove in 2007. This time it is out with the old and in with the (slightly) new(er).



When I drove the MG Midget I struggled initially to get to grips with a manual transmission. Those skills have lately been refreshed as my old Citroën BX19TRS auto was replaced by a Citroën BX14TE St Tropez. The new car has proved to be full of surprising contradictions. The BX14 doesn't have the central locking, powered windows, electric sun roof or even power-assisted steering of the old car but the seat fabric and dashboard plastics seem much better quality. It looks a lot smarter inside and more modern. With the smaller engine I expected it to be much slower but more economical; subjectively it does not feel slower and my economy checks suggest that the BX14 is only 2mpg more economical than the BX19 - I expected more. Despite an unexpected and nearly catastrophic failure of a hydraulic pipe early in my ownership the new car is proving to be just as endearing as the old one.

To be continued ...

After the journey

The BX and I survived the 300 mile round trip to see my family over Christmas. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination a pleasant journey but it was an instructive one. The backache that sets in after 15 minutes gets no worse and is soon forgotten at the end of the journey. The engine feels perfectly happy at 70mph and even for occasional stretches at 80; Citroën claimed the BX14 could do 100mph and it feels like it still could. The vibrations through the steering past 80 were enough to put me off trying; at some point I must get the front wheels balanced. Cruising at 70-80 is also an expensive business as I estimate the fuel consumption is no better than 32mpg at those speeds, staying between 60 and 70 is much more economical but does increase journey times. I also checked the speedo accuracy against the emergency telephones (roughly 1 mile apart) and at 60 I would estimate the speedo at about 5% fast. On the homeward leg of the journey I cot caught in a traffic jam and I discovered that my car does not like extended periods of ticking over and crawling along. The idle speed starts to fluctuate and pulling away feels erratic. When I opened the driver’s window I could smell petrol so I wonder if the carburettor needs adjustment.