Citroen AX GT 5 Door
Discussion
Some of you may have stumbled upon my other Reader's Car thread about my experiences with a Ford S-Max 240 ecoboost down here in New Zealand (where the S-Max was never officially sold, all of them are grey imports, and are such rare cars that the only people you ever encounter who have heard of them are ex-UK where they were a lot more common). As I pointed out in that thread, I had to get a people mover-type car to transport a toddler and unexpected twins, and considering the purchase price was less than the first mile's worth of depreciation on a newer Kia Carnival or whatever, it was a good buy.
Anyway, part of the family expanding so much was that I also had to give up my Hyundai i30N as it was no longer suited to our needs, chopping it in for a very late model Pajero so we would have a second, practical family car that can haul things around. Not the ute-based Pajero Sport, but the proper 'big Pajero'.
What this meant is that I was left with an itch to scratch for a fun car ... the Pajero is great to waft around in, the S-Max drives better than it has any right to do, but having lost the true performance of the i30N I need something that is a bit of fun. Doesn't have to be the fastest, or the best, or the nicest, just a laugh. But as you might expect I'd been finding my "man maths" kept stretching to the likes of a nice late 90s WRX STI, even a clean RX-7 wound up on the list ... but the sensible side of me won out and said "that money is better off kept aside for taking the kids on holiday or doing up the house".
As an aside, I've always wanted to basically buy a car 'sight unseen' and take a punt. I sort of did it about 10 years ago with an Alfa 156 JTS (but I did test drive that, in the dark - for 5 minutes on the way home from work when I saw it parked up and knocked on the guy's door). It was one of my favourite cars ever. But I've always wanted to just find something interesting, haggle over the phone, and then have it arrive on my doorstep. No real reason why, it's just a bucket list thing for me.
The chance presented itself yesterday with a 1992 Citroen AX GT 5 door.
I had a Citroen Xantia in 2014 (buying it because my old Mazda Sentia had a timing issue after a mechanic mucked up the cambelt change and it died) . I bought the Xantia because it was the cheapest "warranted" (our version of MOT is called a Warrant of Fitness) car available in walking distance of my house that I could pick up on the Sunday, needing wheels for a new job on the Monday.
I loved the Xantia, but moved it on when I got a payrise and wanted something a bit smarter.
My parents have had a Citroen 2CV from brand new (still have it) and used to have a 205 GTI, so French cars are not unfamiliar to the family.
All this to say another Citroen appealed, and I know the AX GT has a decent reputation for being fun (albeit very lightweight).
I saw it on Facebook marketplace, and the owner send me a bunch of info and photos. It had just had a brand new WOF on it with few advisories, and he had completed some servicing with evidence and was very up front about what he saw as the issues (poor paintwork being the main issue).
In order to get a sharp deal, and because I've always wanted to do it, I just offered him cash to literally come around that evening and drop it off as long as it was filled up and it arrived on its own accord, not on a tow truck - no questions asked. He told me that he'd had a fair bit of interest (which I know sellers always say BUT with inflated used car prices anything with a new WOF is worth money and sells at the lower end) and I wanted to "secure the bag" so made the offer. We shook hands electronically and he said he was free later to drop it off. So a few hours later he did, and I"m now the proud owner of this little green machine.
I paid $2500 NZD (approx 1100 GBP), which seemed a good deal for both considering the seller (who was a very eager young petrolhead university student who also has a diesel AX and was a very nice person to deal with) got an easy, hassle-free sale and walked off with cash, and I got a sharp price as the last AX GT I could see that sold in NZ sold for about $1000 more in seemingly worse condition. Even if it blows up I'd imagine I could get about $1500 for it as a non-runner.
Stupid as it sounds I asked ChatGPT and Google Gemini, and both said "based on what these are worth in places like the UK, if you don't buy it we will" and UK-based classic sites seemed to indicate these are selling for a lot more than they are in NZ. Can you really say no to a bit of a classic for less than the price of a decent spec iPhone?
Needless to say I slapped some insurance on (for the princely sum of $200 a year including windscreen cover ... less than what my i30N used to cost me a month) and went for a drive on a pleasant, late summer Saturday evening.
What a fantastic little machine to drive. Such an old school driving experience, and ever so engaging. Going from my giant Pajero sat right up high, to sitting down low on 13 inch wheels is an experience, to say the least. It feels much quicker than it is on paper, and I'm surprised by how nicely it handles. I'd say (from recollection) it drives better than my Xantia in terms of fun factor, although that was admittedly a different class of car but not too dissimilar age-wise.
It has 220,000 KMS on the clock, and is an "NZ new" car not an import from Japan or another country as many cars are on our roads.
In terms of good and bad:
And, at the very least, I have ticked something off my bucket list which to a certain extent is worth the price of admission all by itself.
I will try to restore it (obviously not to concours condition) gradually over time and keep it. I think it is such a curious piece of history in the sense that such lightweight, basic cars do not exist any more.
Anyway, part of the family expanding so much was that I also had to give up my Hyundai i30N as it was no longer suited to our needs, chopping it in for a very late model Pajero so we would have a second, practical family car that can haul things around. Not the ute-based Pajero Sport, but the proper 'big Pajero'.
What this meant is that I was left with an itch to scratch for a fun car ... the Pajero is great to waft around in, the S-Max drives better than it has any right to do, but having lost the true performance of the i30N I need something that is a bit of fun. Doesn't have to be the fastest, or the best, or the nicest, just a laugh. But as you might expect I'd been finding my "man maths" kept stretching to the likes of a nice late 90s WRX STI, even a clean RX-7 wound up on the list ... but the sensible side of me won out and said "that money is better off kept aside for taking the kids on holiday or doing up the house".
As an aside, I've always wanted to basically buy a car 'sight unseen' and take a punt. I sort of did it about 10 years ago with an Alfa 156 JTS (but I did test drive that, in the dark - for 5 minutes on the way home from work when I saw it parked up and knocked on the guy's door). It was one of my favourite cars ever. But I've always wanted to just find something interesting, haggle over the phone, and then have it arrive on my doorstep. No real reason why, it's just a bucket list thing for me.
The chance presented itself yesterday with a 1992 Citroen AX GT 5 door.
I had a Citroen Xantia in 2014 (buying it because my old Mazda Sentia had a timing issue after a mechanic mucked up the cambelt change and it died) . I bought the Xantia because it was the cheapest "warranted" (our version of MOT is called a Warrant of Fitness) car available in walking distance of my house that I could pick up on the Sunday, needing wheels for a new job on the Monday.
I loved the Xantia, but moved it on when I got a payrise and wanted something a bit smarter.
My parents have had a Citroen 2CV from brand new (still have it) and used to have a 205 GTI, so French cars are not unfamiliar to the family.
All this to say another Citroen appealed, and I know the AX GT has a decent reputation for being fun (albeit very lightweight).
I saw it on Facebook marketplace, and the owner send me a bunch of info and photos. It had just had a brand new WOF on it with few advisories, and he had completed some servicing with evidence and was very up front about what he saw as the issues (poor paintwork being the main issue).
In order to get a sharp deal, and because I've always wanted to do it, I just offered him cash to literally come around that evening and drop it off as long as it was filled up and it arrived on its own accord, not on a tow truck - no questions asked. He told me that he'd had a fair bit of interest (which I know sellers always say BUT with inflated used car prices anything with a new WOF is worth money and sells at the lower end) and I wanted to "secure the bag" so made the offer. We shook hands electronically and he said he was free later to drop it off. So a few hours later he did, and I"m now the proud owner of this little green machine.
I paid $2500 NZD (approx 1100 GBP), which seemed a good deal for both considering the seller (who was a very eager young petrolhead university student who also has a diesel AX and was a very nice person to deal with) got an easy, hassle-free sale and walked off with cash, and I got a sharp price as the last AX GT I could see that sold in NZ sold for about $1000 more in seemingly worse condition. Even if it blows up I'd imagine I could get about $1500 for it as a non-runner.
Stupid as it sounds I asked ChatGPT and Google Gemini, and both said "based on what these are worth in places like the UK, if you don't buy it we will" and UK-based classic sites seemed to indicate these are selling for a lot more than they are in NZ. Can you really say no to a bit of a classic for less than the price of a decent spec iPhone?
Needless to say I slapped some insurance on (for the princely sum of $200 a year including windscreen cover ... less than what my i30N used to cost me a month) and went for a drive on a pleasant, late summer Saturday evening.
What a fantastic little machine to drive. Such an old school driving experience, and ever so engaging. Going from my giant Pajero sat right up high, to sitting down low on 13 inch wheels is an experience, to say the least. It feels much quicker than it is on paper, and I'm surprised by how nicely it handles. I'd say (from recollection) it drives better than my Xantia in terms of fun factor, although that was admittedly a different class of car but not too dissimilar age-wise.
It has 220,000 KMS on the clock, and is an "NZ new" car not an import from Japan or another country as many cars are on our roads.
In terms of good and bad:
- As you can see from the photo, the paintwork on the bonnet is terrible. There's also a dent caused by a school student cycling into it while it was parked up, and the roof is very faded along with the black plastic trim being one of the fifty shades of grey now. But overall the body actually seems very straight and I can't see any noticeable rust (cars in NZ tend not to rust badly as we don't salt the roads or anything).
- Interior is basically immaculate. The seller actually fitted an interior from a scrapped, much lower mileage AX GT he found for sale about a year ago. The only issues are the headunit isn't wired up, and it needs a new bulb or two on the gauge cluster (plus there's an annoying rattle around the parcel shelf - the seller informing me that a drunk friend pushed on it one night on the way home and it made a noise ever since).
- It's had some recent servicing work including a brand new battery, oil and filter, some work on the rear brakes and a replacement speedo cable.
- Even came with two keys.
- However, no cambelt history so Monday's job is to call the local Citroen independent (whom actually owned this car according to the ownership history) and get a price on that.
And, at the very least, I have ticked something off my bucket list which to a certain extent is worth the price of admission all by itself.
I will try to restore it (obviously not to concours condition) gradually over time and keep it. I think it is such a curious piece of history in the sense that such lightweight, basic cars do not exist any more.
Mr Tidy said:
That looks like a bit of a bargain, even on that mileage, which would probably put off any prospective buyer in the UK!
I didn't know Citroen ever built any 5 door AX GTs - I'm sure I've never seen one.
But it sounds ideal for some fun with no risk to your licence.
To be clear it's 220,000 km (so about 130k miles) - definitely not 'low mileage' but not mega mega kms either. I didn't know Citroen ever built any 5 door AX GTs - I'm sure I've never seen one.
But it sounds ideal for some fun with no risk to your licence.
Most of the GTs I've seen online are all three door, surprisingly practical though and it's definitely a genuine GT if the badging, registration etc are to be believed.
Just a bit of interesting, quirky, rare fun is all I want. Fully intend to keep this long term and try to do it up to a decent standard. I can't get over how much fun it was to drive at sensible speeds (can imagine it would suck in bumper to bumper traffic though).
Definitely think it was a reasonable buy. Unsure if UK is like NZ, but used car prices have climbed significantly here at the lower end. As long as a car as a WOF (and this has a brand new one) there's a bit of a floor to pricing - $1500-2000 depending on what it is. This is nowhere near the worst car I've seen for the money.
Also if this whole Middle East thing blows up (as I awoke to this morning) perhaps a cheap, economical runabout won't be such a bad idea ...
Edited by samjaynz on Saturday 28th February 23:57
Screenwash said:
Kudos OP: an S-Max and an AX are both as rare as rocking horse poo in NZ! In fact you rarely see a Citroen of any kind.
Thanks. I am a sucker for unusual cars, but the S-Max is 'part of the family' now and I will fight tooth and nail to keep it running well for as long as possible. The Citroen is a total punt, but I figure how bad can it be considering the cheap purchase price.Already found one thing I need to tweak/change. As I basically bought the car sight unseen, I didn't check particularly thoroughly under the bonnet.
I've come to realise that the following component(s) are actually missing. I've drawn around the entire section in red.
if anybody reading can point me to some part numbers and/or names I'll get buying.
I assume the previous owner (or one of them) has removed this to effectively open up the air filter somewhat - maybe there was some kind of cold air intake fitted with what we call a 'pod filter here - but unless I'm much mistaken part of the purpose of this pipework is to help the car start and run better in the cold, and I'd also like it for originality's sake.
samjaynz said:
To be clear it's 220,000 km (so about 130k miles) - definitely not 'low mileage' but not mega mega kms either.
No, I realized that but most UK buyers won't consider anything with more than 100K miles! But it does mean there are some bargains if you don't mind 6 figure mileage.
Mr Tidy said:
No, I realized that but most UK buyers won't consider anything with more than 100K miles!
But it does mean there are some bargains if you don't mind 6 figure mileage.
Ah my mistake, I understand what you mean now.But it does mean there are some bargains if you don't mind 6 figure mileage.
Yes definitely some bargains at higher kms.
Have been on the phone to the local Citroen independent this morning. Turns out it was their courtesy car for a number of years, and they bought it off a guy who had it from brand new from the Citroen main dealer (in fact I found the original paperwork in the glovebox). The mechanic was very pleased to hear it's still on the road, and it's going to go in to have the cambelt looked at because there is simply no record since it left their ownership - approx 10 years ago - of this ever having been done again in the last decade.
I'm happy to try and tackle most jobs myself, but as an impractical guy I think a timing belt is probably a bridge too far for me. But will depend on the cost as need to be wary of dumping too much into it (if the mechanic price is too high I'll have to look at rolling up my sleeves and roping my dad in to help).
Also need to look at replacing that pipework I outlined on the image above that has gone missing.
Re: earlier comment about the green vs red stripe (assuming that GT 5 indicates a 5 door car in the UK like this one) my factory stripes are red!
Had a bit of downtime at work this week so started sourcing parts various.
There's a bit of a misfire on cold starts (goes away after 20-30 seconds) and my dad suggested looking at spark plugs as there's no records of these being done in the service history I've got.
Managed to score a set of Bosch iridium plugs that were normally $50 each for $6 each on clearance. Then an oil filter same as is currently on it from - bizarrely enough - a truck spares and parts retailer for the princely sum of $13.
Turns out I've got a spare unopened bottle of oil in the garage, so for the princely sum of $37 or approximately 16 pounds I've got what I need to do an oil and filter and spark plugs.
Looks like sorting the timing belt will be a bit more challenging. Haven't heard back from the independent garage despite following up a few times, and so it's off to the Citroen main dealer who seemed perplexed when I mentioned the letters "AX" ... not sure if they'd be any better at the job than a decent 'non-Citroen' mechanic. Nobody seems that keen to help.
Looks like it's about $400 NZD or 180 GBP to get the timing belt kit and water pump ... maybe it's going to come down to whether or not I can convince my dad (who informs me he was a good home mechanic back in the day - and I've seen plenty of first hand evidence on his cars) to pull another rabbit out of his hat.
There's a bit of a misfire on cold starts (goes away after 20-30 seconds) and my dad suggested looking at spark plugs as there's no records of these being done in the service history I've got.
Managed to score a set of Bosch iridium plugs that were normally $50 each for $6 each on clearance. Then an oil filter same as is currently on it from - bizarrely enough - a truck spares and parts retailer for the princely sum of $13.
Turns out I've got a spare unopened bottle of oil in the garage, so for the princely sum of $37 or approximately 16 pounds I've got what I need to do an oil and filter and spark plugs.
Looks like sorting the timing belt will be a bit more challenging. Haven't heard back from the independent garage despite following up a few times, and so it's off to the Citroen main dealer who seemed perplexed when I mentioned the letters "AX" ... not sure if they'd be any better at the job than a decent 'non-Citroen' mechanic. Nobody seems that keen to help.
Looks like it's about $400 NZD or 180 GBP to get the timing belt kit and water pump ... maybe it's going to come down to whether or not I can convince my dad (who informs me he was a good home mechanic back in the day - and I've seen plenty of first hand evidence on his cars) to pull another rabbit out of his hat.
POIDH said:
Love the shoestring budget and rare-as-hens-teeth-parts in NZ challenge here.
To be fair, I can afford to fix it (and I want to do it up) but I do need to be wary of overspending, and ultimately scoring the main service items for cheap can't be bad. Also need to ensure my $$$ are retained for the S-Max as that is the family wagon and must be operational with as little downtime as possible so we can haul the kids around.I want to get as much done as cheaply as possible - but to a good standard - and then if/once the car proves itself I will look to spend a few $$$ on the likes of paint and panel work as the paint is genuinely awful. At the same time it's kind of nice to drive around in a bit of a beater that puts a smile on your face.
Went out in the Citroen again today. Hit nearly 30 degrees celsius so was warm with no AC, but sunroof opened and windows down and it was tolerable.
Feels like a rocketship compared to my Pajero, I find myself taking the long way home every drive in the AX because of how engaging and hilarious it is to somebody who didn't grow up with cars of this nature (when I was at high school something like a Honda Civic VTI or Toyota Levin GT Apex - which would eat the AX for breakfast - was what you'd buy if you were into cars but somehow the little Citroen is more fun than I remember any of mine or my friends cheap, light, fast 1990s Japanese import cars being).
TBH I am a bit surprised at how hard it is to find somebody to do the cambelt. The news here is always on about how bad the economy is. Clearly not if you're a mechanic, they must all be swimming in work.
I am still to actually work out what that piece(s) of pipework is that connects to the air filter and some outlet near the radiator. If anybody reads this and knows what that is (look at the images earlier in the thread) please let me know. I can't seem to find anything looking through parts catalogues etc.
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