COOL CLASSIC CAR SPOTTERS POST! (Vol 3)

[5 In a Row]

Dapster said:

yellowjack said:

Apologies for the quality of this picture...



...but it is the only shot I took of the rear of this 1.7 litre Ital estate.

There was a 'Morris Marina Owners Club and Ital Register' sticker on the rear window. It looks like it's in generally good shape, but there was condensation in a lot of the lights.

For sale here (with a set of dodgy alloys) a few years ago with only 8.5k miles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7aHzrFtNIc


And then summer '24....

Is that a period correct (or possibly original() raised lettering numberplate?

[Watcher of the skies]

5 In a Row said:

Dapster said:

yellowjack said:

Apologies for the quality of this picture...



...but it is the only shot I took of the rear of this 1.7 litre Ital estate.

There was a 'Morris Marina Owners Club and Ital Register' sticker on the rear window. It looks like it's in generally good shape, but there was condensation in a lot of the lights.

For sale here (with a set of dodgy alloys) a few years ago with only 8.5k miles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7aHzrFtNIc


And then summer '24....

Is that a period correct (or possibly original() raised lettering numberplate?

Were you trembling with excitement by the time you took the last picture?
Looks nice though - a good piece of nostalgia for someone.

[uk66fastback]

Not seen this one before and I go past here regularly. I’ve been eyeing up the c reg Scimitar that hasn’t moved in five years.





This thing had real presence! What a great shape it is.

[Blown2CV]

my family used to have citroen dealerships and a long long time ago i used to work there. I was seeing a girl in london at the time, and I used to borrow an XM at weekends to go visit her. An excellent mile muncher and incredibly comfy (and vast).

[swisstoni]

Blown2CV said:

my family used to have citroen dealerships and a long long time ago i used to work there. I was seeing a girl in london at the time, and I used to borrow an XM at weekends to go visit her. An excellent mile muncher and incredibly comfy (and vast).

Not sure she'd appreciate that description.

[Den Den]

swisstoni said:

Blown2CV said:

my family used to have citroen dealerships and a long long time ago i used to work there. I was seeing a girl in london at the time, and I used to borrow an XM at weekends to go visit her. An excellent mile muncher and incredibly comfy (and vast).

Not sure she'd appreciate that description.

I ran a 2.1 diesel XM estate for a few years back in the early nineties, it was fabulous when nothing fell off, and would cruise down to the south of France on less than a tank full of fuel.
Unfortunately it was a manual, and I had no end of trouble with the clutch mechanism for some obscure reason, something the garage couldn't ever fix properly. I gave up on it in the end, but still miss it.

[bolidemichael]

swisstoni said:

Blown2CV said:

my family used to have citroen dealerships and a long long time ago i used to work there. I was seeing a girl in london at the time, and I used to borrow an XM at weekends to go visit her. An excellent mile muncher and incredibly comfy (and vast).

Not sure she'd appreciate that description.

Driving an XM is like making love to a beautiful woman...

[generationx]

This looks like a late Beetle, will it be am original convertible or a conversion? Nice condition in either case.

[uk66fastback]

That’s a proper Karmann Ghia.

[Blown2CV]

swisstoni said:

Blown2CV said:

my family used to have citroen dealerships and a long long time ago i used to work there. I was seeing a girl in london at the time, and I used to borrow an XM at weekends to go visit her. An excellent mile muncher and incredibly comfy (and vast).

Not sure she'd appreciate that description.

[tog]

Blown2CV said:

my family used to have citroen dealerships and a long long time ago i used to work there. I was seeing a girl in london at the time, and I used to borrow an XM at weekends to go visit her. An excellent mile muncher and incredibly comfy (and vast).

I had a friend who had retired after being a Citroen main dealer for decades. About 15 years ago I asked him for advice on buying an XM and he strongly recommended I didn't buy one!

[Dan Singh]

bolidemichael said:

swisstoni said:

Blown2CV said:

my family used to have citroen dealerships and a long long time ago i used to work there. I was seeing a girl in london at the time, and I used to borrow an XM at weekends to go visit her. An excellent mile muncher and incredibly comfy (and vast).

Not sure she'd appreciate that description.

Driving an XM is like making love to a beautiful woman...

And the XM won't screw you over for half of your assets a few years down the line.

[JeremyH5]

Dan Singh said:

bolidemichael said:

swisstoni said:

Blown2CV said:

my family used to have citroen dealerships and a long long time ago i used to work there. I was seeing a girl in london at the time, and I used to borrow an XM at weekends to go visit her. An excellent mile muncher and incredibly comfy (and vast).

Not sure she'd appreciate that description.

Driving an XM is like making love to a beautiful woman...

And the XM won't screw you over for half of your assets a few years down the line.

Probably more like 75%

[yellowjack]

Watcher of the skies said:

5 In a Row said:

Dapster said:

yellowjack said:

Apologies for the quality of this picture...



...but it is the only shot I took of the rear of this 1.7 litre Ital estate.

There was a 'Morris Marina Owners Club and Ital Register' sticker on the rear window. It looks like it's in generally good shape, but there was condensation in a lot of the lights.

For sale here (with a set of dodgy alloys) a few years ago with only 8.5k miles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7aHzrFtNIc


And then summer '24....

Is that a period correct (or possibly original() raised lettering numberplate?

Were you trembling with excitement by the time you took the last picture?
Looks nice though - a good piece of nostalgia for someone.

That picture was the first one I took. I'm not sure why it turned out like that, but in my defence, I was close to the end of a half marathon run.

[yellowjack]

Today's run done. Quite a few classics on the streets, including a pair of very shabby looking grey Land Rover Series III SWB soft tops. Sadly, rain put me off stopping for pictures of most of today's spots.

I did spot this one...





...before the rain got too heavy, though.

[Blown2CV]

tog said:

Blown2CV said:

my family used to have citroen dealerships and a long long time ago i used to work there. I was seeing a girl in london at the time, and I used to borrow an XM at weekends to go visit her. An excellent mile muncher and incredibly comfy (and vast).

I had a friend who had retired after being a Citroen main dealer for decades. About 15 years ago I asked him for advice on buying an XM and he strongly recommended I didn't buy one!

yea warranty was a strong plus. I wonder if you can even get parts easily now.

Ours was one of the final ones of the run. I seem to remember they were like half price new or something.

[tog]

Blown2CV said:

yea warranty was a strong plus.

I also spoke to my local Citroen dealer about XMs around the same time who told me he'd only ever sold two V6 XMs new, and both of them had three replacement gearboxes under warranty. He also said when they worked they were brilliant. The adaptive gearbox learned how you drove and would adjust its shifts appropriately. Of the two V6s, one customer was an old chap who just pottered around and the car did too - the other was run by the 40-something female owner of a local fancy hotel and went like a rocket.

I still want one!

[Doyliestag]

tog said:

Blown2CV said:

yea warranty was a strong plus.

I also spoke to my local Citroen dealer about XMs around the same time who told me he'd only ever sold two V6 XMs new, and both of them had three replacement gearboxes under warranty. He also said when they worked they were brilliant. The adaptive gearbox learned how you drove and would adjust its shifts appropriately. Of the two V6s, one customer was an old chap who just pottered around and the car did too - the other was run by the 40-something female owner of a local fancy hotel and went like a rocket.

I still want one!

I took a black V6 in part exchange against a Ford Granada. It was a lovely looking thing and was five years old with under 50,000 miles on the clock. My Sales Manager made a big song and dance about how he would drive it before we agreed a part exchange price as he would be able to spot any faults. He reported back that all was okay apart from a faint noise from a wheel bearing. Deal done and the car taken in to stock it then sold quickly to a local customer who fancied a change from his Rover 820e.
Approximately a month later it returned on a recovery wagon with a broken gearbox. The wheel bearing noise had never been mentioned during it's PDi, luckily his warranty did have a generous claim limit.

[Turbobanana]

Doyliestag said:

tog said:

Blown2CV said:

yea warranty was a strong plus.

I also spoke to my local Citroen dealer about XMs around the same time who told me he'd only ever sold two V6 XMs new, and both of them had three replacement gearboxes under warranty. He also said when they worked they were brilliant. The adaptive gearbox learned how you drove and would adjust its shifts appropriately. Of the two V6s, one customer was an old chap who just pottered around and the car did too - the other was run by the 40-something female owner of a local fancy hotel and went like a rocket.

I still want one!

I took a black V6 in part exchange against a Ford Granada. It was a lovely looking thing and was five years old with under 50,000 miles on the clock. My Sales Manager made a big song and dance about how he would drive it before we agreed a part exchange price as he would be able to spot any faults. He reported back that all was okay apart from a faint noise from a wheel bearing. Deal done and the car taken in to stock it then sold quickly to a local customer who fancied a change from his Rover 820e.
Approximately a month later it returned on a recovery wagon with a broken gearbox. The wheel bearing noise had never been mentioned during it's PDi, luckily his warranty did have a generous claim limit.

One day an XM arrived at the Peugeot dealer I worked at. Had some sort of a problem, can't remember what, but we were on a main road and the owner didn't fancy driving it any further.

The workshop guys had a look, fixed whatever it was, and parked it out the back. The owner never came back.

A year or so later, after we'd grown tired of having to jump start the thing to get the suspension up so it could be moved, one of our customers asked if he could buy it. He was a jack-the-lad type, young chap with a bit of money and a 205GTI his dad had bought him.

As we couldn't trace the owner, we said that if he applied for a V5C in his name and was successful, he could have it but we'd invoice it at £0 with the caveat "sold for spares or repair only" or something similar.

A few weeks later he arrived with a trailer and a shiny new V5C. As he was loading it onto the trailer, something got dropped onto the large, curved glass hatchback, shattering it. Realising this was probably a death sentence he drove it straight to the scrappy's and weighed it in. Shame.

[Blown2CV]

tog said:

Blown2CV said:

yea warranty was a strong plus.

I also spoke to my local Citroen dealer about XMs around the same time who told me he'd only ever sold two V6 XMs new, and both of them had three replacement gearboxes under warranty. He also said when they worked they were brilliant. The adaptive gearbox learned how you drove and would adjust its shifts appropriately. Of the two V6s, one customer was an old chap who just pottered around and the car did too - the other was run by the 40-something female owner of a local fancy hotel and went like a rocket.

I still want one!

if they're still around now then they're probably pretty good ones! Citroen suffered terribly from lemon/friday afternoon syndrome but if you didn't get one of those you're good.