I was working late tonight (computers / servers, don't you just love em ), and had to get Caoimhé dropped off at my office, as her mum had to go somewhere.

Anyway, I worked till after 7, and the poor child was starving. As I had a ton of stuff to do, (and lets be honest, cookings not my strong point!), I took her to that centre of culinary excellence, McDonalds.

On the way home from McCardboard Burgars, I was driving across town and thought I noticed two familiar big headlights in my mirror, but thought nothing of it, as it was maybe a Xantia or something. Then it stopped in traffic under a street light, and I saw that unmistakibly massive bonnet and wedge nose, a Xantia it aint!
Unfortunately there was no real chance to get alongside it in the traffic, though I did glance across at one point and saw it was a 2.1 S2. We drove for a couple of miles before I eventually reached the turn off for home, and the other XM went on. I then pulled into the carpark of the shop at the bottom of our road, and what should come in from the opposite direction, but the other XM!

To cut an already long story short, I got talking to the driver in the shop, his names Paul and he has 3 of the things, including a Mk1 SED which hes breaking, so he has some spares available. We chatted for a while and exchanged numbers, and I made sure to give him the URL of this site, hopefully he'll sign up.

Robert, it appears we're spoilt for choice for parts this past week!

Ciarán

Excellent Ciaran! The more the merrier!

Where abouts is Paul from. Your XM is the only other one that I have seen in the wild over here recently.

What's left of his SED?

Regards

Robert

Hi Robert,

I actually forgot to ask where he was from, doh! He did mention that he has a mate from up near Ballymena though, who knows a hell of a lot about XMs, so I'm presuming hes from up around that area. I may be wrong though as I've seen his XM in Lisburn before, I passed it going in the opposite direction one night about a year ago.

As for whats left of the SED, the whole lot by the sound of it, I don't think hes started breaking it yet, just says that its sitting around and has too much needing done to go back on the road, so is going to be broken.

Ciarán

Ahh! Maybe we'll not be fighting over who gets what parts then after all!

And he may be a lot easier to pay since he's not deciding to ruin a XM and 205!

Hey

That's a nice story, the closest similar that's hapenned to me was that one morning like any other I suddenly bumped onto...David Hallworth in his 24v on a motorway somewhere in the center of Glasgow. Drove next to each other for a while, waved at each other, and then again split away!

Ciaran, just out of personal interest, I was wondering: why this person was not aware of this forum? Does he not use the internet much? Does he not browse web forums in general? Does he know all he needs to know on his Cits? Knowing his reasoning might be useful for thinking how we could achieve greater spread of this forum.

cheers
George

George,

interesting question about why he didn't know about the fourm..

I wonder also exactly how many more owners dont know about the fourm, it seems that a lot of XM owners are more mature drivers, that may not know how to use the internet, of course apart from our few resident members, you know who you are..

I still find theres a lot of mature people who DONT know how to use a computer, and so cannot find this site.. That said, surly there cant be many more owners, is there really still that many XM's out there!???


Rgds


C

I think you'll find there's a lot more Xm's out there than you think. Just saw one the other
day in Tesco's carpark - a series 2 silver estate with Alfa 166 Alloys fitted!! Someone there
knows his way around the car and has made an effort but he's nobody here AFAIK!

The internet isn't everyone's cup of tea - maybe instead of sitting at a computer they prefer
grappling with the intricacies of an Xm's innards!?

Andrew

Hi all

I know of about 5ish other xms over here who's owners are not members, plus a 16v black mk2 that's going for £1500 at a garage out Ventnor.
I think you hit the nail on the head Citroenxm. All other xm drivers (over here anyway) are of the .............less young variety and as such are less likely to be interested in or even have the Internet.

Dean

Are you sure!?

Could be they're outside as we speak struggling to take their
knuckles and fingernails off as they unsuccessfully attempt to
get the dashboard out to fix a heater matrix leak or make heavy
weather of a new head gasket job!

I think we can't be too generalistic! Do we have print off at home
club-xm flier to hand to folk (old or young!) when we see them
or their parked Xm? I'd personally object to a flier asking me to
spend money in an unsolicited approach but here we have
something unique that is helpful/beneficial and free!!

Folk can't begrudge that!

Andrew

It took me 6 mths to join this forum after I bought my XM. I am also a member of the Citroen Car Club, and would have used it for any XM issues. I am sure there are other folk on here who are CCC members.

Also the comments about older folk not bothering with forums etc would be one good reason, also I am sure a lot of folk out there aren't one bit interested in their XMs like we are. They just see them as big cheap disposable cars, and have no desire to keep them going since they can get some other big cheap car like an Omega, for pennies no problem.

Hi All

Difficult ground to enter here. You cannot generalise on people. Some would welcome a flyer, others see it as an intrusion. I think that real interested and longer term XM owners usually take a quick look at any other parked XM they see so perhaps we should get those Club XM Forum stickers printed up and onto our cars.
It was David Evans in the CCC mag giving the Forum a mention that first drew my attention to the site.

Regards

XMexc

That is exactly my point!

Jobs that we'd take in our stride and sort in half an hour may be a totally
unknown quantity and a daunting task for have a go newbie Xm DIY'ers!

Areas of the car we've (possibly fortunately) not had any issues/experiences
with may actually be someone else's specialist subject here!!

Andrew

Put another way. I got into Cx's from my enthusiasm/experiences and steep
learning curves from a GS - my first car as it happens and I loved it so much
I've been totally loyal to Citroen ever since.

Transposed to today's successor models, I was the equivalent to someone
who REALLY likes their Xantia and what it's all about, it being their first Citroen,
when taking the leap into the unknown with an Xm - I'd have had far greater
confidence and more focused energies had the web and it's forums existed
almost 20 years ago!! I've met fellow Citroen sufferers whom are still long
standing friends now who had the real world experiences to keep me going!

Basically, the point of where I'm going here in this thread is improved awareness
of the forum and how everyone can mutually benefit. That end can be enhanced
with a Club car sticker and/or a flier...

Andrew