Twenty-two years of Citroën XM ownership comes to an end.
Two decades account for about two-thirds of my time on earth so far. How began this span? In Billericay, Essex where an unseen driver, who suddenly wanted to Continue reading “How the Dreams Stopped”
An innovative but unapproved plan to build a flagship Citroën XM convertible.
After Citroën officially withdrew from the US market in 1972, an independent company called CX Automotive commenced unofficial imports of the CX model, much to Citroën’s annoyance. When the CX was replaced by the XM, the company, now renamed CXA, began imports of the new model and embarked on an ambitious plan to enhance the prestige of the XM by creating a convertible version via an innovative construction method devised in The Netherlands.
The seeds of the idea were sown in 1985, when CXA approached French carrossier Chapron to Continue reading “Not Leading by Example”
An unofficial American take on the Citroën XM.
Like many European automakers, Citroën had a torrid time trying to establish a sustainable business in the US market during the second half of the twentieth century. It finally threw in the towel in 1972, but there remained a demand for cars bearing the double-chevron badge from a small hardcore band of marque enthusiasts.
To meet this demand, Dutchman André Pol and Malcolm K. Langman established CXautomotive, later renamed CXA, in the mid-1980s. Their plan was to import and modify Citroen’s CX model so that it would comply with US regulations, then distribute and sell the car nationwide. Bruised from its previous US experience and wary of potential ongoing liabilities, Citroën refused to Continue reading “Brother From Another Mother”
The art of protection.
Well, you’ve made it. King of the hill, head honcho. Now to get the country sorted, getting to grips with the nitty gritty. But, you’ve made more enemies than friends getting here. Some of those policies have disgruntled the populace. Changing the whole economy didn’t help, nor banning Sunday morning lie-ins. And as for pulling out of the Tufty Club.
Fortunately, some bright spark in procurement realised you might Continue reading “Bulletproof, Baby”
It has been thirty years since the Citroen launched the XM, on this day in 1989. On sale for 11 years and out of production for nearly twice as long, that makes it a real antique, doesn’t it.
(There are now people around who may never have seen an XM in motion, anyone born after 1999, I suppose.)
It is something of a pleasant coincidence (for me) that the self-titled album by Tin Machine came out just one day before Citroen announced the CX´s replacement. If Tin Machine was David Bowie’s way of getting back to what he most wanted to do, the XM presented another step towards watering down Citroenisme.
In the long game of a professional musician at Bowie’s level, Tin Machine was a necessary experiment, a form of throwing paint around and casting off unwanted rules. It was a step toward something else. For Citroen, the XM was claimed to Continue reading “Tin Machine, Tin Machine, Take Me Anywhere”
It’s high time to quench the thirst for all things Citroen that I know smoulders among the denizens of this little corner of the World Wide Web.
And Jaguar comes into the story too, so that’s another little need satiated. If I push it I can also mention Lancia*. First we’ll start with the source. My reading today is Autocar & Motor January 30 1990 Vol. 187 No 5 (4901). A delightful little snippet about A&M is that in those days a certain Mr James May acted as the chief sub-editor.
And Jesse Crosse served as the technical consultant; now there’s a journalist whose work I always like to read because he has a knack for explaining things with concision and clarity. With those preliminaries out of the way we can now
Continue reading “In The End It Ends In Tears That Mark The End”
It’s not commonly known outside Denmark and northern Germany that the Danish border has only been in its current place since 1921. Before then much of what we call southern Denmark was in German hands.
Near the old border which runs east to west from Kolding, I found this car, a 1978 Rover SD1 which had been redecorated as a post-1982 Rover Vitesse (it’s a mash up). I am not an SD-1 expert so I restrict my comments to the vehicle shown in these photos. I passed by the car in order to visit Askov, a small town famous for its folk high-school which sojourn took me by the hand and led me to Continue reading “No, Stand Ye Not By The Yonder Line”
We ought to rename this site Le DTW. After yesterday’s Peugeot review we now have a whole slew of early 90s French cars under the spotlight.
In 1991 L’Automobile ran an article assessing the comparative strengths of the main three French brands, Renault, Citroën and Peugeot. It was a huge group test: 24 cars. The magazine passed judgement on the main classes and in this article I will pass judgement on the 1991 verdict. Were L’Automobile’s assessments in line with mine? Or indeed yours? Continue reading “Anticipation Creeps Headstrong Towards Us”
Sales success is relative. Some unimpressive sales figures go unremembered and stay that way. BMW sold fewer 728s per year than Citroen did the XM or Peugeot the 604, both viewed as laugh-until-you-faint failures.
Do I sound bitter? I suppose so. Injustice always rankles. The E23 (write it down, learn it, use it: “e-twenty three”) can be defended by its defenders though. The car represented a new market for BMW so anything was better than nothing. The next model sold a bit better (and not worse). The XM’s sales fitted into a downpointing jagged line, a nose-dive to extinction. Towards the end the production line at Rennes was a carpark. The 605’s sales held steady at or near irrelevance, so they judge it. Continue reading “Photos For Sunday: 1977-1986 BMW 728”
Saloon or hatchback? Which is it? Why?
From 1972 to 1984 the VW sold the Passat with the option of a 5-door as well as 2-door and five doors. Today it’s only sold as a saloon and estate. The Citroen XM came as a five-door hatchback and as a fabulously useful estate. Its predecessors and successors could only be had as saloons or estates.
All generations of the Seat Toledo, barring one have been hatchbacks. For 1999, the second generation Toledo astounded the world with its saloon format (except in Britain where it was a hatchback**). By 2004 the status quo ante resumed and remains so.
In the 1970s quite a few manufacturers experimented with the 5-door format but reverted by the early 80s. We know this. Don’t Continue reading “Plentiful Phlogiston, an Ample Ether and a Strong Vital Force”
The other day we were talking about the Renault 16 which led us to the Renault 21 which…
…led me to look for one for sale. Finding one I noticed the unhappy design of the nose cone, the plastic mask around the headlamp and containing the upper grille aperture. Here (below) are some other cars which demonstrate an attempt at rethinking the way the front fascia was handled.
One of them really works – the Ford Sierra is utterly industrial design. And have you noticed the Dacia Duster uses the same concept but eschews the body-colour for the lamp panel? In fact the elegance of the concept is hidden by the Duster’s other fussy details.
I have done this theme before, I think – the new bit is Continue reading “So Lay Upon the Riven Meads the Sullied Rags of Hope”
We have a chance here to examine the implications and otherwise of Citroën’s announcement about a forthcoming large saloon.
Our good friends at Autocropley reported this the day before yesterday but the message only turned up in my in-box yesterday. I opened the link with trembling fingers. First, there will be a new flagship saloon which Citroën would like us to see as “distinctive”. In line with Citroën’s current self-identity, the car should be laden with technology and be a design that is comfort led. Making this possible is the Chinese market where saloons still thrive.
We should see the car in 2019 or 2020 which means they are working on it now. And should someone from Citroën chance upon this article, please ensure the car has a decent ashtray and manual transmission plus a properly large boot. Linda Jackson, reports Autocropley, says the car will Continue reading “If There Could Be a Sign, if There Could Be A Sign”
Dateline: Thuringia, summer 2038. Internal combustion engines have been phased out across the EU for almost a decade now. However, their use has not been eliminated entirely and much as one can still ride a pony and trap or a stream train, one can still enjoy the petrol-driven experience.
Thuringia is one of Germany’s many attractive regions, famous for the Thuringian Forest, JS Bach’s birthplace, fine mustard and sausages. Another reason to go is the possibility to enjoy five days of driving classic cars from the Eisenach Automobile Museum hire fleet.
Visitors can Continue reading ““Duermete niño, duermete ya, que viene el coco y te comerá””
It’s been a while since we did one of these, and while today’s candidate might appear a little tenuous at first sight, look beyond the scudetto and there are chevrons galore.
First shown at the 1983 Geneva motor show, the Delfino was an attempt by carrozzeria Bertone to update the classical luxury gran turismo after almost a decade of decline. Alfa Romeo’s relationship with Bertone was long-standing, but had entered a prolonged period of stasis, with Portello forging a closer relationship with Ital Design when they were not Continue reading “Cars That Could Have Been Citroëns – 1983 Bertone Delfino”
As a person with a strongly archival temperament, it was disturbing for me to read Citroën’s announcement that the firm intended to auction part of its historic collection.
You can see the catalogue here. It took me about a week to gather the courage to take a look. Sure enough, I found a few cars I’d really like to have and can’t actually afford. The GS with its perfectly intact interior must be museum quality. Some of the others are peculiar: not that cheap and not that special. Once out in the open they will quickly Continue reading “Not So Suddenly We Heard a Sound”
During a hunt for some other information this image crossed my path. It is an attempt to visualise a Citroen XM coupe.
It interested me to see these because I had discussed the idea of Citroen XM coupe with our correspondent in Switerland, Simon, some time ago. As a result of that discussion I decided to rustle up some visuals but never did more than send them to Simon. Those images are shown below the break. Continue reading ““Ne, hvala gospodaru!” he said.”
The Guardian reported that electric cars are cheaper to run than other powertrains. This might have implications other than only cheaper motoring in the near future.
“The researchers analysed the total csot of ownership of cars over four years, inlcuding the purchase price and depreciation, fuel, insurance, taxation and mantinance. They were suprised to find that pure elcectric cars came out cheepest in all the mrakets they examined: UK, Japan, Texas and California,” the Guardian wrote**. Last night I stood in the underground garage where my car is parked and it occurred to me that almost none of the vehicles parked there would Continue reading “How the Cnidarian Drifts in the Sapphire Waters”
To start this week with a little splash of Tabasco, we will consider the rear of this 1995 Peugeot 605. What´s missing?
The answer and the rest of the article will, without a shadow of a doubt, turn up later on in the day. Continue reading “The Sorrowful Detective”
The idea of an authentic full-sized Citroën now appears entirely beyond imagination. But some of us still think otherwise. Thought experiment or idle fancy, we make no apology. Citroën matters.
Why Citroën matters is a question worth asking, although why it has ceased to matter; both in the minds of its PSA masters and more importantly still, the wider public is perhaps a better one. But how to make Citroën matter again is the question we are here today to address. Continue reading “Idée Fixe [1]”
We’ve moaned about the dull uniformity of the world’s car parks. TTAC has some insight on the fact that opting for the boring colours is not helping you resell that car.
This is the link. “Silver and beige, the go-to colours of the 1990’s and 2000’s, have higher depreciation rates, but nothing is worse than gold. With an average depreciation of 33.9 percent, gold vehicles are dead last. Oddly, it’s the third-fastest-selling colour in the study, behind gray and black,” says the article. As it reports American data it does not say so much about black or mid-grey metallic. I imagine that a similar study would show that these colours aren’t helping protect value at this stage. There can’t be a competitive advantage to having a silver-grey or black Audi or Ford at this point. We must at this point be at peak monochrome. Continue reading “Theme : colour – The Lost Competitive Advantage”
After discussing the dead centre of the car market, we take a visit there: the Ford Focus 1.6 CDTi Econetic. [First published May 11, 2014]
This is the third generation Focus that I have tried. The Mk1 is a landmark and indeed a benchmark for many. It casts a long shadow over its successors. The Mk2 added refinement at the expense of driver enjoyment. Compared to the Mk1, the successor felt like being in a fat suit. So, what is the Mk 3 like now I have finally gotten behind the wheel? The main impressions are described below. Continue reading “DTW Summer Reissue: 2014 Ford Focus 1.6 CDTi Econetic Review”
Given Lancia made only 9028 examples of the Kappa SW, I see them often enough.
Pininfarina did the design and construction and I expect charged Lancia more for this than Lancia made selling them. That makes them good value now.
You’d want an SW if a Kappa saloon appeared too common, if a BMW 5 too mainstream, an XM too complex and a Scorpio too ugly and an Omega too banal.
Eventually this one had to make an appearance. It’s been a long while since I sat in a W-124 too.
Everything about the W-124 is executed to a high standard. That includes the driver’s ashtray in this quite high-spec version. That said, I recall the Renault 25 and Citroen XM’s as been deeper and wider. Continue reading “Ashtrays: 1984-1995 Mercedes W-124”
When Citroën showed the way but the industry was too dull to follow.
For all-out minimalism, the TPV prototype of the Citroën 2CV is hard to beat but, since then, Citroën have produced some of the most adventurous dashboards.
Throughout its twenty year life, the DS dashboard went through various iterations but, in its first instance, it was as modern as the outside. The least successful DS dash was the length of plywood fitted to the fascia of some of the upper range Slough built UK cars, on the assumption that Brits must Continue reading “Theme : Dashboards – Citroën, a Dash of Style”
After discussing the dead centre of the car market, we take a visit there: the Ford Focus 1.6 CDTi Econetic.
This is the third generation Focus that I have tried. The Mk1 is a landmark and indeed a benchmark for many. It casts a long shadow over its successors. The Mk2 added refinement at the expense of driver enjoyment. Compared to the Mk1, the successor felt like being in a fat suit. So, what is the Mk 3 like now I have finally gotten behind the wheel? The main impressions are described below. Continue reading “2014 Ford Focus 1.6 CDTi Econetic Review”
Richard Herriott introduces an occasional series, kicking tyres in Denmark.
Marcellus said to Hamlet “There’s something rotten….isn’t there?” Hamlet turned back, puzzled. “Come again?” Marcellus pulled a mildly irritated expression. “There’s something rotten…you know…something rotten-in-the-state-of-Denmark….” Hamlet’s face clouded. “This no time for cryptic clues, Marcellus….my dad’s been poisoned and I am pretty ticked off about the whole deal. What are you trying to say?” Taking a deep breath Marcellus then sighed. “I mean, Hamlet, there’s something profoundly wrong with things. Denmark is a metaphor for the situation we’re in. And all is not well. It’s a figure of speech… sorry I mentioned it.”
Driven To Write 
