...and I thought XMs were unreliable!
As mentioned elsewhere, today was the day we went to pickup my new XM. The story behind me unexpectedly acquiring this XM is that back in 1993, my cousin bought a new XM Prestige (that had the 2.0 16v Auto combination...none of this TCT lark!

) from Citroen. 19 years ago he was made redundant and so he decided that he'd buy an XM with his redundancy money...

75,000 Miles and 19 years later, unfortunately today was his last day of ownership because as he's now 81 years old it's time for him to give up driving. This was due to him getting pulled over by the police after he kept driving on and off the kerb - they pulled him over and he said that
"I only normally do that when I've been drinking!"

The Police wanted to get the car taken away (who knows what would have happened if it was), but thankfully Gordon said that he wanted to give it to his cousin - luckily the Police were understanding and that's where we are today!
Dad and I headed down to Cheshunt, Hertfordshire on the train and I thought XMs were unreliable!

In the end the number of trains we went on doubled due to "mechanical failure".
The second train broke down and so another was brought in to 'rescue' it...and then that one developed a mechanical failure too after being nearly half an hour late.

Anyway, after experiencing East Anglia's finest trains we got to where the XM was:
Here's the man himself that bought it Brand New all those years ago - still smiling as well!

Gordon tells me that in the 19 years he's only ever needed to call the AA out twice - once for a battery and another for some wiring. Amazing!
It's a nice enough car and it's well spec'ed up too. Finished in Meteor Grey, it's got A/C, Sunroof and Leather. As he only used to go up to the local shops a couple of times a week he reckoned he was only getting in the 20's for MPG. The 70-odd mile run would have done it good, and with a couple of new spheres it'll make it into a beautiful drive - it really does cruise well.
It needs some work as is expected, but nothing that can't be sorted as it's just a mix of bodywork and of course, electrics! It's got a hefty dent in the drivers wing and nose-cone but luckily I should have a black wing and nosecone coming soon so I'll get those put on until I have them painted.
Otherwise, I'll try to get some more pictures over the coming week and start on giving it a thorough spruce-up. Ideally, I would like to get it to the X Rally...seeing that it has got an X in it!

Suffice to say, for the use of the word...it's certainly a "keeper".