1997 2.1 Td Auto Estate, Dodgy Gearbox

I collected a server cabinet from Rochester last Thursday -- incidentally, saw a same colour dark blue XM Estate in the town centre too, and naturally we both exchanged glances -- and my car swallowed the thing with only a minimum of pushing and grunting. The fact I could raise the car up onto its haunches to make it easier to see where we were guiding things made the chap from whom I was collecting it go, "wow, I didn't know they did that".

(Hardly anyone I know realised that Citroen suspension was quite so magic).

Anyway, my C5 Estate just didn't have the depth and in addition the preponderance of airbags and side airbags and inner thigh airbags and cupholders and arm rests and cubbyholes meant that it was also too narrow. Not only that, it was impossible to move the passenger seat far enough in any direction to allow it to sit flat in line with the rear seats so that I could rest the cabinet door on the dash.

In the XM - this is an ordinary saloon remember - the passenger seat went far enough forward and then tilted far enough back that I could push the 6'6" panel all the way to the windscreen. What I'm getting round to is the fact that with this crazy (and quite possibly illegal) load on board, I could not reach the dashboard let alone the gear lever. I was also squeezed over towards the driver's door. Had it been manual I could not have driven home!

Praise be the almighty auto!

So, of course, you are satisfied with your V6?

Of course!

....Aaah! Cupholders!

Derek