Hi,

I had an amazing trip down South, first long haul since I bought the car. (V6 XM Auto Estate). And it was a long haul; pulling a double axle car trailer empty down to Northampton, then pulling it back up North fully loaded with a Jones and Shipman Tool and Cutter grinder plus dust extractor. All up weight (load and trailer included) was around 2.1/2 tons. What I found genuinly surprising was I got an average fuel consumption of 24 mpg. Ok, it was a slow run; 50 to 55 mph maximum but apart from the long hills up towards Penrith and the run from Carlisle over the borders the gearbox stayed in top. Having fiddled around with the cruise control and got it working I set it to 50 mph and left it to its own devices. Box occasionally dropped to third and a couple of times going uphill it changed down to second, but it held its speed and returned excellent fuel consumption figures.

These cars are wildly underated; just as well maybe as it makes them afordable....

Now the cry for help bit. The entire ventilation sysyem, air conditioning etc has shut down. It did this before the run down South while I was driving the car, normal driving, A/C off. The display lights went off and the fan shut down. I've checked all the fuses, water level's ok and the engine is not overheating. I've replaced 5 of the seven relays under the headlamps (Lucas agent was out of stock of the last two, but they'll have them in shortly) and I'm going to fit new sockets for all seven relays. Is their anything else I should check? I really don't want to use the Citroen garage in Dundee; they want £45 per hour to make a report on the car; that's before they lift a spanner and actually do anything. I think basically Citroen, and therefore their official service stations, don't like XM's. They seem to be trying very hard to pretend they didn't actually make the XM. You'll find toy model displays in Citroen main agents; everything from the Traction Avant to the Berlingo. Over 50 models you can buy and your kids can play with....... but not a single XM.

Oh well, I think that's what this board's about really, spreading knowledge to help keep these cars on the road where they belong.......

Happy Bank Holiday,

Jim.