The Xm Centre, Still going?

[Citroenmad]

Does anyone know if they are still in business?

I found a link to their website, but it has expired

Did any of you ever buy an XM from them?

I was just looking at some pictures of their centre, they look to have had a load of Xms in.

[roddew]

Hi Citroenmad, I'm pretty sure that they're still there but have moved on to largely deal with newer Citroens and fewer XM's with a commensurate change in trading name. Citroencentre or somesuch, I'm afraid the exact name escapes me.
No doubt some other estwhile member will be here shortly with all the details.
I expect the phone number and address will still be the same and a little searching should turn up the new website.

Regards Rodders.

[Citroenmad]

Hi Rodders,

I did find: Citroen Centre & Oxford performance cars.

Maybe that is their new name, if so they don't have one Xm in now. I supose they have to move with the time, still it was a nice thought that there might be a place with a good stock of XMs!

I found a few pictures on citroenet.org.uk and recommendations about The Xm Centre, it seems they were very old articles i was reading.

[Ciaran]

CitroenCentre is their new name yes.
They sold off their old XM stock by the truckload a few years back.

Julian's two XMs that you see on Citroennet were both XM Centre cars. He offered me the chance to buy the black 2.0TCT one before he moved on to a C5, but alas funds were tight at the time...

Ciarán

This post has been edited by Ciaran on November 07, 2008 09:22 am

[Citroenmad]

Ah right, i thought it might have been a few years ago, as I was reading Julians comparison between his old Xm and new C5.

Oh, i was also reading your XM write up, good read


On a side note:
As I was flicking through this weeks Autocar, i came across James Rupperts column. Its about why downsizing your car has its dangers. As i was reading about the plans to encourage the scrapping of old cars to increase the rate at which motorists trade them for newer models could achieve environmental benefits. It goes on: It rekons that the ideal age to incentivise car scrappage would be around 17-18 years.

As i was reading i was thinking how this would effect the number of older Citroens on the road, namely the XM. As i read on it says: Such a scheme would remove mot of the last non-catalytic cars. It would get rid of Citroen Xms, proper Mercedes and even Integrales, so i hope the scheme would be voluntary.

I had to read it again just to make sure id not thought up the Citroen Xm part! It just shows these cars have a real following, ive not had one negative comment about my Xm yet, everyone who has been in it loves it

[xmexclusive]

Hi Citroenmad

Paul Johnson is always worth a ring. He still has the odd XM in but very few are worth retailling. I believe he has a list of phone numbers for people who still want XM's. I personally have had a few trade XM's ( take what you see and do not bring it back) from him over the years and they have been both great fun and good value to me.

John

[Ciaran]

The only way I'll get rid of my XMs is when someone pries the keys from my cold, dead hands.

Sadly though I'd say schemes like that are not too far off, though how the government can justify them, being that from a 'carbon footprint' POV, they fly in the face of green (is the new gold) incentives.

What consistently fails to be mentioned is that the environmental impact of building a new vehicle is much greater than any pollution that car will ever output in its lifetime, by many orders of magnitude. How the hell can they possibly justify legislating perfectly serviceable cars off the road in favour of the wasteful practice of 'throw it away and buy a plastic fantastic new one'. IMO it just illustrates what utter bollox all of this is, and how they never gave a shit about the environment until they realised they could rake in more taxes from it.

Anyway I'm getting sidetracked. Back to the original point about lack of CATs etc, I know in Germany a lot of older cars have had them retrofitted because legislation there bans cars without them from doing certain things, including using the autobahns, so it is possible. Whether this current bunch of fuckwits in government here will allow for such a thing, is another matter entirely sadly.

Ciarán

This post has been edited by Ciaran on November 07, 2008 02:24 pm

[DerekW]

Ciaran, you've been reading my mind again!

I bought my V6 five years ago from Paul Johnson. At £7,000 for a (then) four year old car it was probably a bit over the top but it was what I wanted and I've never regretted it.

Derek

[roddew]

Ciaran, you missed your vocation.!!

Hi guys, if I can be forgiven for continuing the "off original" topic already running here, might I add my take.

!. The largest hit of depreciation on a car is when it drives out of the showroom-- you lose what it cost in tax and who's responsible for that? Our wonderful government. No green savings there.
2. About 45 years ago I remember as a lad reading in Car Mechanics that one of the journalists would conduct an experiment. He had always previously bought a new car every 2 years. ( Herald, Anglia that sort of thing) and logged every penny and mile through to disposal. What he then did was buy an early 50's MK6 Bentley which did 16 mpg and kept the same records for comparison. Result...Bentley cost less. What would you sooner drive?
3. I also read somewhere that keeping a large quality car for a great number of years, even having substantial restoration along the way, is far more eco-friendly than buying a new sardine tin every 5 minutes. Even the materials used are more sustainable (leather, wood, wool, recycled metal rather than single use synthetics) and the skilled work it provides maintains a useful workforce and gives them a living (in this country). I've seen it quoted that 65% of the lifetime energy consumption of the average car is in manufacture. I believe average car life is about 8 years.
4.By the time a car gets to the age of most XM's it has gone through the "skint, run it to the ground" phase of ownership and is then enthusiastically maintained to a standard where emissions are not an issue even without a CAT. Don't forget they originated in the States where a car's fuel system is sealed for life and only delved into when it ceases to function at all. Otherwise they keep on driving with no maintenance.

Surely there are far more important issues to be tackled than the persecution of the likes of us. I, for one could name a few issues that need addressing as you well know.

Relax now, rant over.

Rodders.

[Citroenmad]

Go off topic all you like My original topic has came to an end it seems, no more Xm Centre

There has been talk about getting older cars off the road for years now. They had a similar thing in France did they not? Where people were getting good money for their old cars to be scrapped. Which did seem to get rid of a lot of cars we would always try to spot when we were holidaying. Namely Renault 4s and older citroens.

They do seem to be pushing the blame onto others, i mean how many older cars do you see now. Its quite a rare thing to see a car on an N/P plate, never mnd anything older than that!

Most people change their cars so often now, for newer models. A lot of people i know get a new car on finance, after 2 years they swap it in and get another finance deal, so the car is never really their and is more like a throw away item.

Oh, i should edd this fromn the end of the topic i quoted from Autocar: "Never mind smaller cars, we should actually run cars that could cheer us up"

Says it all really. I dont want to be swapping from one eurobox to another every few years to be 'green'. I want to own cars which i get enjoyment out of

This post has been edited by Citroenmad on November 07, 2008 02:11 pm