Just noticed we topped the 30,000 posts today.

Wow, 30k posts in one day! I'd noticed Citroenmad has been particularly "Citroen mad" earlier
and it's still only 4.00pm!!

(only kidding Chris - it's great there's always a discussion on the go here with almost instant
reactions/opinion from everyone not only you!)

Andrew

I may post a little too much! Ill try and refrain from replying as much as i do, I may get a little carried away at times

Good to see a few new member sigining up lately, can only help increase the popularity and thread numbers

(funny that my profile says one post per day, has it lost count )

This place has more people and more posts than CCC

And the Bxclub probably has more than both Clubxm and the CCC combined
Cit-mad, there is no such thing as posting too much, the more posts the more interesting the site gets!

D

I was joking, but as long as im not being annoying to anyone ill continue with my postings

Me looking for another Xm?

Well yes, after 500 Xm-ing miles im back, still with the one Xm! After seeing a lot of them! Plus other asorted Citroens.

I think I may have had too high hopes for the estate, possibly. Im sure it will go to someone wanting a hard working estate car to ferry big loads, but it was not for us. However the engine sounded very nice. Dan at WHM was very helpful and understood it probably wouldnt suit what we wanted, however we may be back for something else yet ..

I’ve realised it will have to be a pretty special Xm estate to match the quality and condition of the faithful hatch - which could not have gone any better today, simply perfect, I doubt that will ever be sold, so we will see if it reaches classic car status yet!

It was not a wasted day though, I had a thoroughly enjoyable day driving my xm, (i don’t think its done that many miles in one day ever, certainly not in the last 6 years) although the weather was pretty bad at times, not helped by the candles Xms use for headlights

WHM is a mass of fascinating Citroens, I could have spent all day just looking round them, made all the more interesting by a fair few being taken over by the scenery!

However on the way back home we could not help thinking how nice it would be to take one back out of the greenery and make it into a car which we want. There was a lot of estates to choose from (no wonder i can't fine one ) all needing work. There is one we liked more than others, it looked nice, however im not sure how much it would need doing to get it back on the road.

So we may well be in contact with WHM again to see if this is possible or not.

From what I understand of WHM they've tended to mop up all the available Xm's ranging from
the Good, the Bad and the Ugly and have a selection graded where some are donors for others
etc and presented as GWO again and to be fair that at least keeps some nice one's going albeit
I feel at the expensive end of the spectrum that may be no better than many owned and fettled
amongst us here on the forum.

Interesting to hear you say the one you went to see specifically didn't really float your boat!
What was more appealing about the one you have got more interest in then?

Did you take any piccies of the variety of cars on offer to whet everyone's appetite!?

Andrew

I think your right, WHM advertise in the Citroenian, although i only saw one or two of the advertised ones today, the rest are in a wharehouse i believe.

I agree with that, keeping ones which will not be going back on the road to keep better ones going. There were ones there with accident damage etc which would be perfect for that. Although there seems a fair few tidy Xm estates (hatches too) which are to good to be broken or used as parts, they were in one piece too but needed things doing. Such as headgaskets, suspension pipes, gearboxes etc.

One thing we need in an estate is aircon, that is one reason for getting another Xm too. We have two dogs and feel that having air con in the summer months is better for them than getting too hot in the back of the hatch.

We took electronic climate control as the digi air con type, but infact it was the standard VSX type with no air con. Our fault that as it did not actually mention air con in the ad (Note to self: must check that before viewing!). Xm estates often have it hard as people use them for what they were intended. All of our cars we try to keep nice, so try to find good ones in the first place. A few of the stored ones looked good, id rather start with one which has less wear and tear and go from there with the mechanical bits. It will never be an investment (which i think is a big reason why these are laid up as they need more spending on than they are worth) However if we end up with a good estate which will last a good few years then thats all that matters.

The one we kind of liked was an R reg 2.5 estate, although how much work it needs to go back on the road is unclear, as the thought about asking for one of the non runners only occured on the way home .

A non runner we could make into our own, with the choice there is im sure there is one which fits our bill with air con, good interior etc. It would also put another Xm back on the road too and be a nice little project. However they probably need far more work than i imagine.

Its only a thought, if a nice estate comes along it may well get bought.

I did take pictures actually, im not sure if WHM would want them posting on the internet though?

The rear pioework doesn't take very kindly to this treatment - the cars resting like this
are never going to go again - at least without a lot of growing pains!

Andrew

Some will never go again nope, they have just been sat for too long, however others have been sat for months rather than years.

Its probably a not so clever idea, its a shame to see them all go to waste though.

I hope it doesnt come to buying a C5 estate Im sure a good Xm estate will turn up at a reasonable price before too long.

Its a shame to see so many Xms just stood, but unfortunately, as you know, they are worth very little, so putting money into them to sell on is not really an option.



I hope ive not said too much

On a lighter note ....

Have any of you upgraded your headlight bulbs?

I know some will mention HID kits, are they actually legal?

Im going to do a bit of reasearch into them, and may start with a better set of bulbs. So i wondered if anyone recommends any particular ones?

I have done quite an easy mod to my headlights which increases the light output to the equivalent of many modern cars.

Remove the front grill, lever off the clips that hold the lens on, remove the lens followed by the plastic diffuser and the lamp hood and throw them away (not the lens!), get some methylated spirit and some soft tissues, soak the tissues in meths and carefully swab the reflectors and dry off with more tissue. Dont press hard or you will take the silver off. Reassemble and test - I can guarantee you will be amazed. You should be able to do the whole job in less than an hour.

Make sure the headlight aim is accurate or you will dazzle oncoming traffic. The light pattern will be altered but providing the lights are set correctly there is no unwanted stray light.

Peter.N.

Going back one post, I often wonder why people are so often in the habit of describing "thermostatic heater fan control" as "climate control".
We went to look at an estate in S. London, having specifically asked whether the car had aircon after being described "climate control" and been given an affirmative answer. On arrival there was no aircon and when asked about this the (long time) owner said he thought that's what air conditioning was.
We left dismayed, a 300 mile journey wasted, and we'd even made allowance for the error potential by asking specifically in advance.
In this particular case I would have thought that WHM would have known better.

Do bear in mind that aircon was also fitted without the digital control (we have 2 such cars) making a simpler system with fewer electronics to fail.

Good luck in the continued search, Citroenmad.

Rodders.