Citroen CX experience?

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320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Monday 28th September 2015
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Collected a Citroen CX for a friend - Astonishing! A radical departure from what I usually drive and write/blog about



“It’s a car, Jim. But not as we know it”. It does all the normal car things, but in a completely ridiculous way.

The brakes for instance – about 1.5cm of total pedal travel, extreme sharpness and an “Anti-dive” system mean that subtlety of control is key.

DIRAVI Steering takes a fair bit of getting used to as well. However, the ride is stunning!

Are we fans of such a fine automobile? The Dashboard is a work of art!



Edited by 320touring on Monday 28th September 23:25

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
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Good to see that Graeme's Goldy has gone to a loving home, anyway.

I've had four CXs over the years - three of them s1 2.0 Douvrins, like that car. I reckon it's about the best "compromise" CX - not thirsty, respectably quick, smoother than a diesel, much less nose-heavy so handles better. The one problem is that the lump's not as indestructible as the pushrod.

The one outfit you really need to know about is CX Basis - http://www.cx-basis.de/ - there's a lot of bits that are only available from them.

rovermorris999

5,195 posts

188 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
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I've had two of these as daily drivers back in the 80's. Wonderful cars that I had a love/hate relationship with thanks to the dire build quality especially the electrics. The suspension was super reliable bar one 'octopus' return pipe leaking and the best ride available at any price. Thankfully bits were still available from main dealers. I'd love another, a push-rod series 1 would be great, but I had a couple of Basil Fawlty moments with mine which put me off a little.

320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
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Glad to see some love for them!

Alas, It'll be away soon to its new owner, but it has planted a seed..

thanks for the link to the cx club

sim16v

2,176 posts

200 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
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I love them.

And annoyingly, 3 of them went through one of Bonhams classic car auctions a few weeks ago for £115 each including premium!

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22724/?category=re...

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
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sim16v said:
And annoyingly, 3 of them went through one of Bonhams classic car auctions a few weeks ago for £115 each including premium!
And a fourth for £138. All inc premium, so three bids for £100 (starting price?) and one for £120?

Frankly, that doesn't look a million miles from what they were worth.

Two 2011-expiry MOTs, one 2009, and one that's on the road but by the skin of its teeth. I hope they'll get restored, but they'll cost a LOT more than they'll ever be worth, with the possible exception of the Prestige which achieved the big money...

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
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TooMany2cvs said:
Frankly, that doesn't look a million miles from what they were worth.
Or maybe not. I (sadly) broke for spares my F-reg GTi Turbo, and netted just over £4000.

320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
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Regardless of sub 200, or super 2000 scenarios, they do offer a genuinely different take on the whole concept of a car.

Based on the Pallas I collected It needed 3 things to bealmost perfect:

1. An Autobox
2. the 2.4 lump
3. A hatchback rather than a boot.

such a counterpoint to my old bmws, certaily gives an e32 a beating in the comfort department!

jontbone

214 posts

218 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
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I adore the CX, still look great today. If I ever come into money I'll be looking to source a mint GTI Turbo 2 for my collection



TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
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320touring said:
Based on the Pallas I collected It needed 3 things to bealmost perfect:

1. An Autobox
2. the 2.4 lump
A 25 auto is slower - and FAR thirstier - than a Douvrin, and understeers far worse. Sure, the clutch and gear lever are a bit at odds with the finger-tip nature of the rest of it, but nobody seems to moan about that in a Turbo...

320touring said:
3. A hatchback rather than a boot.



Both one-offs, unfortunately.

320touring said:
such a counterpoint to my old bmws, certaily gives an e32 a beating in the comfort department!
I handed back a co.car E36 in favour of running a 25GTi auto on the car allowance. Bit of a no-brainer, really.

320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
320touring said:
Based on the Pallas I collected It needed 3 things to bealmost perfect:

1. An Autobox
2. the 2.4 lump
A 25 auto is slower - and FAR thirstier - than a Douvrin, and understeers far worse. Sure, the clutch and gear lever are a bit at odds with the finger-tip nature of the rest of it, but nobody seems to moan about that in a Turbo...


320touring said:
3. A hatchback rather than a boot.



Both one-offs, unfortunately.

320touring said:
such a counterpoint to my old bmws, certaily gives an e32 a beating in the comfort department!
I handed back a co.car E36 in favour of running a 25GTi auto on the car allowance. Bit of a no-brainer, really.
Fair comment- just that the auto would suit the driving feel of the car much better in my limited experiencesmile

those hatchbacks are fantastic!

I run e30s - none of that watered doon e36 guff;)

sim16v

2,176 posts

200 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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280E said:
TooMany2cvs said:
Frankly, that doesn't look a million miles from what they were worth.
Or maybe not. I (sadly) broke for spares my F-reg GTi Turbo, and netted just over £4000.
I'd agree.

I value cars on the sum of their parts, so end up with a lot of cars I wouldn't normally buy!


If I was at the auction i'd have probably bid on them, then I could say I'd bought cars at a Bonham auction wink



I'd say they were at the completely wrong auction.

They'd have probably done £4-500 each on Ebay!



Edited by sim16v on Wednesday 30th September 00:30

JD2329

475 posts

167 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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Though the series 1 gets the most plaudits for purity of design, imho the series 2 is a far better ownership proposition. The 2347 pushrod engine in the S1 is almost indestructible, better than the 2500 in that respect, but the S2 has a far better built interior, is more refined and less prone to rust (though they do still rust, just not as badly).

The series 2 GTi turbo I had was such a good car, I didn't realise quite how good at the time. Sadly, little chance of finding another good one now at sensible money.

rovermorris999

5,195 posts

188 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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Good ones do seem to fetch big money theses days. I'd have any CX but I do have a soft spot for the bonkers dash of the earlier cars. I think they work really well, especially the finger-tip wiper, lights etc. Plus I love non-self-cancelling indicators.

Dapster

6,868 posts

179 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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320touring said:
TooMany2cvs said:
320touring said:
It needed 3 things to be almost perfect:

1. An Autobox
A 25 auto is slower - and FAR thirstier - than a Douvrin, and understeers far worse. Sure, the clutch and gear lever are a bit at odds with the finger-tip nature of the rest of it, but nobody seems to moan about that in a Turbo...
I seem to remember that the early S1 cars had either a standard manual or some kind of H pattern change and 2 pedals. Was there an option of some strange pre-selector semi auto?

Dapster

6,868 posts

179 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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Dapster said:
I seem to remember that the early S1 cars had either a standard manual or some kind of H pattern change and 2 pedals. Was there an option of some strange pre-selector semi auto?
C-matic. It worked like a normal manual box, except you didn't need do anything with your left foot.

Basically a four-speed manual with one gear missing, the clutch controlled by a microswitch in the gear lever, and a torque converter added on. The same setup was fitted to the GS, and something very similar to the RO80 (NSU and Citroen were working together on wankels in the early '70s, with the Ami M35 using the same single-rotor as the NSU SportSpider, the GS Birotor using the same motor as the RO80, and a rumoured CX tri-rotor, which died with the oil crisis.)



Edited by TooMany2cvs on Wednesday 30th September 17:15

Ian Wegg

647 posts

139 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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TooMany2cvs said:
And a fourth for £138. All inc premium, so three bids for £100 (starting price?) and one for £120?
Yep, that was it. I was actually standing outside the Bonhams tent listening to the bidding waiting for the barn find Bentley. I thought they were still on the motoring memorabilia until I caught a lot number and realised it was for the car I was standing next to!



They all had significant rust but even so seemed cheap.

TooMany2cvs said:
C-matic. It worked like a normal manual box, except you didn't need do anything with your left foot.
I once had a C-matic Citroen GS. A friend somehow managed to get it into reverse while travelling at 30 mph and it stopped very quickly! It's next journey was on a flatbed truck to a scrapyard.

~iw







coppice

8,561 posts

143 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
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Utterly sublime car; drove a friend's in the 80s and it didn't disappoint . A real grand routier.

And a nice change to find a corner of PH that isn't predominantly willywaving about how much bhp is under the driver's foot too...

S10GTA

12,645 posts

166 months

Friday 2nd October 2015
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Lovely cars but I've never had the bottle to buy one. Think it's the turbo 2 with the plastic slats over the rear window, always reminded me of a delorean