Jumping Ship, No longer an XM owner

Hello All

Well this past weekend was a sad and happy one in the UFO house. We traded in our XM that we had owned for seven years on a new C5 HDi Exclusive. It was time for a new reliable car as we have aged parents and travel distances that we need to be able to walk out the door and do NOW and not worry about the events along the way (Mrs UFO's parents are 450km away, my Dad is 1400km away)

We have done a couple of hundred km in the car and every drive leads to a new surprise about some feature or another. We both agree that the Citroen ride has returned and is comparably comfortable to the D and the CX.

Here are some pics.

Sorry, no pics because this forum software will not link to Flickr pics!

have a look at

http://flickr.com/photos/31434041@N07/sets...57614890121409/

Hi UFO

The newer C5 is certainly an improvement on the old one appearance wise and I am sure all the bells and whistles make it interesting. I'm pleased to hear that the ride is good, after all that's the main function of a hydrpnumatic Citroen.

Sorry to hear you are leaving the fold, I shall be sticking with the XMs as long as possible, largely because I can repair them! I cant say mine have been unreliable though, the one I use the most has covered about 70,000 miles since I replaced the head gasket and has given very little trouble since and certainly has not let me down. Its coming up to 200k now and everything apart from the head gasket is original, I will be interested to see how the C5 fares at that mileage.

Enjoy your car

Peter.N.

Hi UFO, although your XM has gone, please don't desert the forum!

Derek

Derek,

I'll still be here. Seven years of XM ownership means I still have advice I can share. Besides, I can still admire the XM even if I don't own one.

Hi UFO

Just being nosey really, but unless my eyes are playing up I could swear you say in the first post you traded the XM in ?? I would have thought the fuel cost to drive it to the garage would exceed any trade in, any garage anywhere would give you for an XM, especially in the current climate. If not, I'm fascinated to know what they gave you on it.

Mike.

Only in this country is the XM worh 2p. In other countries it still has value. I presume Oz is the same.

You REALLY don't want to know how much I had to pay for my 1995 2.1td (Norwegian poverty spec) three years ago...

Colin.P

Its a pity that the steering wheel is on the other side or we could have quite a lucrative business

I expect that is one of the reasons that the 'trade' can get away with such low prices for second hand cars over here. If we (or they) drove on the other side then we could go and sell our cars in France giving all cars an immediate and substantial value boost and anyone claiming that a 10 year old car is only worth £100 would be laughed at.

As it is, the 'trade' says that a 10 year old car is only worth £100 and the public is happy to accept it.

It's the tax payable to the state when importing cars from other countries that stuffs us, plus the rip-off costs of having to pay for the cars to be fully inspected and re-registered as soon as they touch norwegian soil...

Colin.P

I got a reasonable trade in for the car and a good price on the new car so I am happy.

That our cars do not get the moisture, grit and salt treatment that the cars in the UK get makes them last a lot longer. I can confidently state there was no rust on the XM at 13 years old, and the only rust treatment it ever had was the continual fine misting of minor LHM leaks.

The UK market seems to be conditioned and therefore reactive to "keeping up with the Joneses" hence your appalling second hand prices.

Exactly - at least that is the consumer side of it.

Apparently the fact that there is no credit available for people without jobs to buy brand new cars is just as much of an economic issue as the fact that businesses cannot use their overdrafts and so go out of business. Sometimes I feel the leasing industry is not the place I should be working in

Scary fact - in the UK for the past 5 years, the 3-series BMW has outsold the Mondeo. Make of that what you will...

what do u expect of a tacky mondeo were rear bumpers seem to crumble away revealing the foam behind

I know which id rather have


Paul