3500 Miles To France And Back-no Trouble, Hows that for a £500 XM?

Just completed a massive 3500 mile round trip to the South of France from near Inverness in Scotland. The XM exstate was full of gear and bikes and had no issues whatsoever.

Between Inverness and Paris we saw only 1 other XM (from Belguim). How's that for exclusivity? In all we saw less than 5 in total and only one other estate! (in white like mine-with old exc alloys)

Fuel economy and ride excellent, Most motorway / autoroute stuff at 3000+ rpm in top. The most relaxing car I've ever driven long distances in.

The car originally cost me £500, but I've spent a wee bit on it, but I'm smitten.

Thanks to everyone who helped sort out the prejaunt niggles.

MC

Hi MC

I have been sold on XMs since my first one about 12 years ago, once you get them running OK they can be very reliable. I do the trip to the far North of Scotland once or twice a year and usually clock up well in excess of 2k. The green estate I am runniing at the moment I only paid £800.00 for nearly three years ago, I did have to do some work on it including a new head gasket, but for about the last 40k it has been virtually trouble free - well the sort of trouble that stops you using it anyway. We have just returned from a 1,000 mile plus trip to North Yorkshire on only just over a tankful of diesel! I am sure there is no other car that could do that in the same level of comfort.

Peter.N.

The thing that really struck me was the XM's motorway capability and range. I don't really drive on motorways that often, there arent that many in Scotland.

We drove from Edinburgh to within 200k of Paris on almost half a tank (on the guage). I'd love to see how economically a tankfull could get you. We did a similar trip last year in an mx5. It has a fuel tank just bigger than a lawn mower's, so while you could zoom along, you'd have only a couple of hundred miles before the tank was empty again. You'd then see the same cars you had passed all over again. My last diesel estate was a VW Passat 1.9 tdi. The XM is much more relaxed and torquey and returned comparable fuel economy. And then there is the ride...... Everything that the ads promised is true.

MC

i seem to remember when citroen launched the xm they did a PR stunt of running three of their range from lands end to john ogroats on a single tank. the xm, a bx but cant remember the other. not a bad stunt anyway back then.

I am sure it is easily possible. I regularly, well once or twice a year, drive from Devon to Sutherland and have usually only used about 2/3 tank by the time I top up at Inverness. 55 mpg was my best recorded consumption, but now I am getting old and slow, I'm convinced its improving. I have done over 900 miles on two recent tankfuls.

Peter.N.

Hi Gav,

I also like the slogan Citroen used when they launched the XM in Norway (courtesy of www.citroenxm.no):

For non-Norwegian visitors we can tell you the "interesting" slogan used introducing the XM in Norway! An attempt to translate it to English would be like: "For the costs developing Citroën XM, we could have straightened out the 500 km E6 between Oslo and Trondheim - the effect would have been approximately the same" To this should be added that this road is definitively not straight!

Roy

I like that Roy. I wonder how much they got paid for thinking it up!

Peter.N.

Hi Peter,

..enough to straighten out the M25 probably.

Roy

3500miles - pffft!

Try 11 000+ km in a month from one side of Aus to the other and back. Did that in '05 with 20 other Cits for part of the trip. I saw zero other XMs (IIRC) on the trip. The only problem we had to assist with was replacing the starter on a BX 16v 1000km east of Perth.

We had the car full to the brim with camping gear and luggage. Supreme touring comfort. Some asked why I took the XM and not our D Spec (it was a D 50th anniversary trip to our annual national meeting). I responded that it was 30+C most days, the XM had climate air, auto, cruise and relative quiet. Silence from my fellow Citroenistes was the usual response!

One stretch of road on this trip was dead straight for 147km and is the longest straight in Aus. Its next nearest competitor is the approx 140km stretch that it is joined to by two gentle curves in the road. So that's nearly 300km straight. The undulations in the road are the only interest!

As others have said, a beautiful car to go any distance in. I would dearly love to bring it up to its original new glory then ship it to Europe for a long holiday. The fastest I have ever had the XM to was 160km/h on the trip above (it was illegal but worth it). I would love to experience the XM on a wound out 180 or so in Germany.

Hi Craig,

160km/h (100mph) - pffft!

A trip to Germany to do 180km/h (112mph) - and you've got all that space - and such straight roads on your doorstep - what's up? The Australian Police must be pretty scary!

I know where I'd prefer to be doing that sort of speed (if I had to) - and it's not the German Autobahn.

Seriously though - your trip sounds absolutely fantastic - would have absolutely loved to have done that.

Cheers

Roy

Now that we have our website and gallery sorted we are working hard to get pics up there. Soon soon... We only have to catch up on NZ twice, Britain, Ireland, France, France again for DS50th, Various aussie Citroen trips and by about 2020 we should have them all up there. We have some great shots of the trip showing, as our French friend calls it that "Australia is a so huge country".

Up until recently the only state in Aus with no speed limit was the Northern Territory. They also had the highest road toll per capita in Aus but that was probably also because they drink a lot, have huge distances to drive and there is lots of wandering wildlife. However, govt being weak kneed gave in and all highways in the NT have 130km/h limits which is still the highest in the country by 20km/h.

You can imagine the tedium of doing 2 x 900km days on our return when in reality the fastest indicated speed you can get to is about 120. Mind you hitting a 'roo, emu, camel or stray stock at that speed would be horrific. Red 'roos grow to over 2m tall and weigh in excess of 120kg.

I often thought that Aussie freeways should have higher limits, until I saw those that you have, with continuous safety barriers etc. In the country areas ours have shrubbery! A car doing +110km/h will go through a shrubbery pretty quick.

The Police in WA and SA in particular can be sent out on highway patrol for three or four day stretches, overnighting at the roadhouse motels (eerrgghhhh) and they do pull you up. On that trip one guy in a DS23ie 5sp was pulled up for doing about 140km/h, but as he was old and a bit of a charmer the female cop let him off with a warning. WA police also use plane spotting etc with ground based catch crews (pigs in space).

While in the UK in 2004, a friend picked us up from Shepards Bush and took us to his place at Leighton Buzzard via Oxford (XM Centre) and some cute pub by a canal for lunch. On the motorway out of London I took a pic of us doing 100mp/h in his V6 XM. The thing was hunkered down and purring!

By the way , good comeback! - pfffftt!

There - I knew it!

pfffftt! - we've got some fair size wildlife here too - try hitting a red deer stag - at 200kg.

Reminds me of a story my father used to tell. Driving along early one morning behind an open top sports car when suddenly some deer sprang out of the trees at the side of the road. The first few went in front of the sports car - the next one over the top of it and the remainder between the cars before they vanished into the trees on the other side of the road.

I know you're going to tell me your camels are bigger - but I bet they can't jump as high.

I'm from Caithness in the north of Scotland. Historically a very bad accident record with insurance premiums to match. There is a speed limit - but not much attention paid to it sometimes. (Locals also hate a drink.) The problem there too is long straight roads (for the UK) - unfortunately with some very sharp bends at the end. The final ingredient is bored teenagers - sadly with sometimes tragic consequences.

At least you were doing it in an air-conditioned XM - it's got to be some compensation. I'd still have loved the trip Craig - I've never been to Australia.

Your new web site looks really good - I like the way Chevrons can be downloaded as .pdf's too. Obviously a lot of hard work going into creating it. I'll look out for your photos and have a good look around.

Cheers

Roy

Hi Roy

I know this is getting off the subject and I will probably get told off by Noz, but I know parts of Caithness better than I know Dorset! We have been going on holiday up that way since about 1977. We stayed in a cottage at Bilbster on the Wick to Thurso road , once or twice a year for 17 years. We saw the original 'Caithness Glass' factory, and then the new one near the airport, which was deserted by them and is now occupied by someone else. We have seen wick industrial estate grow from two wooden huts surrounded by a wire fence to having a huge Tesco's built on it. My, how its changed. I new a TV engineer who was also a radio ham who had the distinction of being the first person to be involved in an accident at the newly installed traffic lights in the High St. Did you know John who used to have the Dunnet Head Tearooms?

You can tell a local driver as you get overtaken at suicidal speeds on the bends on the A9 (or what used to be the A9) When we first went there, which took us 23 hours! before the new A9 was built, Wick looked like the East end of London after the war, its now becoming very prosperous, where do they get their money from?

Peter.N.

Hi Peter,

Well - it does say "anything goes chat" - so maybe Noz will go easy on you!

Although I'm from Caithness - I grew up and went to school in Edinburgh. I still have lots of family there though and go back as often as I can - though that's not as often as I'd like.

I used to play there as a kid - not long after it opened. Their skip was a veritable treasure trove and the source of countless mothers day gifts.

I can't recall John I'm afraid.

Well - back on the subject of speed - for as long as I remember - everyone comments on how long it takes them from Edinburgh to home - very much a competition - but never quite acknowledged as such.

I know what you mean - but it always seems like a ghost town to me since there's no fishing fleet there any longer. I remember Wick harbour as a busy fishing port - though not as busy as it was in it's glory days when you could walk from one side to the other on the herring boats (you've probably seen the old photographs). Wick has an amazing & very interesting history.

Hard graft I think. There aren't that many of them remember - the whole county only has around 20,000 people! There are quite a few big employers too based at Dounreay of course and manufacturers like Norfrost in Castletown. Did you know they were there? A major freezer manufacturers based in a little place like that - quite extraordinary really. (Started by friends of my father.)

Anyway - it's a magical place - and I'm always itching to get back. The thing I miss most is just how clean natural & unspoilt it is.

Cheers

Roy

Hi Roy

I had forgoton what category I was in! A couple of friends of ours up there worked at Dounray, one works at Sellafield now. No, I didn't know about Norfrost, I've been through Castletown a number of times but have not seen them. I have heard of them of course. There seems to be a lot of industry building up around the airport. I have a video here somewhere of crossing the runway when the traffic lights were there, of course they have stopped it now. I'm told that someone drove across in front of a plane which gave them the excuse to close the road.

I have heard tales of walking across the trawlers but sadly there only seem to be two or three there now. Have you seen all the new shops on what was the A9 coming in from the south? Looks like a boomtown!

We first went there when our son Martin was still at primary school, he is 38 now! We took him and his wife up there last year and he still loves the place as we do and she liked it too. Although we stay at Rogart now, we always go up to John O'Groats, and visit our friends in Wick.

Peter.N.