This was my car
It was a 2L 16V SX estate.
I am the "son" that the guy who listed it on ebay mentioned who bought it off his dad. I fitted the 7 seater conversion and the full black leather interior and wired up the electric seats.
It was a good car when i sold it on - only slight problem was a heavy clutch which probably required the bellhousing split and lubing on the moving parts, but it didn't annoy me enough to investigate it further.
The engine (a 2L 16V) was a good one. I used the car as family foil for my classic cars (lotuses). It did camping trips, towed car transporting trailers, took me to the continent and general trips to Tesco.
I disagree with the sellers description on ebay that it wasn't a "cost no object" maintained car, because mechanically it was. I drove an old XM estate because I wanted to, not because I couldn't afford a newer car, and it was serviced to within an inch of its life by an enthusiast home mechanic owner.
it was like triggers broom in that almost all of it had been replaced at some point:
All spheres
99% of all the pipes
diode replacement on the regulator module
alarm ECU
Exhaust
Clutchcable
16 inch Volvo S80 "saturn alloys" and 5x Michelin tyres
two leather interiors (bought two and combined the best bits) Still have a spare rear from a S3 hatchback that provided its fronts and doorcards (which will become a topgear style sofa for my mancave...)
Catalyst
Lambda
Battery
Discs
Pads
Clutch ( whilst my dad had it)
continued ABS sensor issues/replacement
(and a million and one other items I have forgotten).
I was constantly buying new parts for this car....
as a mechanic owner I had a bit of a love-hate relationship with it (you all know what I am talking about). Still have many happy memories of floaty relaxed trips to centreparcs with the rear bike carrier on the back and luggage area filled to the gunnels with 2 weeks of family kit. 90 mph and 30 ish to the gallon and a ride like a magic carpet.... A technical tour de force.
Then there was the time when I had been held up, and had to thrash the b'jesus out of it across country roads to get back for an appointment, and I parked it up with the front wheels covered in brake dust, and the discs ticking with heat.
came back an our later to find it had gone - as the front brake discs cooled and contracted, it backed the stupid front handbrake off and the car had inched itself down the hill outside my house and come to rest parked against a neighbours wall 150 ft away! That was how it got that little scratch on the rear 3/4 that the seller mentioned in his ebay advert.
other memories of split high pressure pipes and snapped clutch cables leaving me stranded...
RIP P992 HNC
It had a happy life as a family chariot for the 8 or so years in was in my mechanical care.
I actually miss it.....