More thoughts from my travels

Spending time in my Citroën BX this week left me feeling somewhat uneasy. Using a 20-year old car every day was always going to be a risky business and it isn’t that something has gone wrong rather a sneaking feeling that something isn’t quite right. Maybe the tickover wasn’t as steady, the throttle response less sharp and the vibrations more pronounced.

So I find myself contemplating my position and it isn’t great. Maybe my car just needs a service or maybe this is the beginning of the end. Do I spend money (which I don’t have) on the Citroën or save the money for an eventual replacement?

Contemplation of a new car is the best part of the exercise. I know what I want; something taught, purposeful, well made. Above all I want something with decent steering; the problem with the BX is the soft, rubbery steering. What I want is another Honda Prelude, maybe a Legend coupe or 4WS Accord; maybe a hydractive Citroën XM or Xantia; an Alfa Romeo 164; I even caught myself admiring a Vauxhall Carlton 3000GSI. Of course there is potentially a vast gulf between what I want and what I can afford.

That looks a bit like … oh, hang on it doesn’t

A Citroën C4 Picasso drove past me the other day and I looked at the rear quarter. The kink in the waistline the angle of the tailgate and the way the painted surfaces of the roof and body sandwiched the glass made me think of the Citroën XM.



Citroën have not always relished the proud history that they should celebrate at every opportunity. Even so, they have plenty of press photos of old models available for members of the press. Finding a suitable picture of an XM was easy. But looking at it only the treatment of the glass and paint are really similar. I’d forgotten how steeply sloped the XM’s tailgate is. The C4 Picasso’s kink goes the wrong way and it doesn’t have the quarter lights in the rear doors.

Even so, it was great to be reminded of the XM. That car pioneered the hydractive suspension still used on the C6; it was the last Citroën to have Diravi self-centring steering (LHD only); there was a second rear window to protect the people in the car from draughts when the rear hatch was open. It was probably the last genuinely quirky Citroën and one day I’ll have one of my own.