For me, it's a bit of a mixed bag, regarding desireability.
Good points:
Mandarin-Nacre pearlescent paint, which is one of the best colours for a series 1 Xm.
Judging by the front jacking points still being there the car has no rust.
Low mileage, generally very good condition.
Automatic heating control and A/c, so basically, climate control. I prefer the rotary dials to the push-button control, so positive here.
The Rp number is 4923, so a production date of 2nd May 1990, which makes it a reasonably early Xm, which adds to desireability as they are the original design concept, with items such as the rotary lights switch.
The items that would make the car less desireable to me...
It's a basic spec car, no electric seats, low spec seat material, no height adjustable rear head rests, no electric mirrors, no front foglamps, no steering wheel radio controls, no inner rear window, possibly the door armrests don't open for storage and they and the centre armrest are in plastic, not velour.
This car isn't fitted with the optional Hydractive suspension, so will ride like any standard Hydropneumatic citroen. Hydractive gives very a high level of ride comfort, but then switches to give sports car handling. Imho, This is the unique feature of an Xm, over other cars
The 2.0i engine is ok, just about powerful enough with average refinement, frugal if not driven hard.
The Be3 gearbox is not as slick, or robust as the Me5T of more powerful versions, but again is fine. Again, in my opinion the manual is the better option out of manual, or auto. The auto blunts the performance of the 2.0i quite a bit.
As far as reliablilty goes, there is nothing wrong with an early Xm. The stories that circulate are mainly myths and quite a lot of lies. The people circulating these know why they are doing it and now we know too. It's nothing to do with the car
The actual issues with early Xm that I am aware of are:
The Bosch fuel injection system was supplied with a plastic pulsation damper, which could overheat and leak fuel. There were some fires. That car appears to have the later metal damper fitted, which I think was standard fitment by the date that car was built.
The front height corrector rod bushing was a bit too tight on the shaft, so could cause binding and irregular height selection. Again, i think that car will not be affected as it is after the change to the bushing, which would have worn to tolerance by now anyway.
The multipole earthing points behind the headlamps could have poor connection, mainly causing issues with the Hydractive system going into hard mode. That car doesn't have hydractive, so no issue, but making good the Gnd terminals fixes any issues anyway. I personally prefer the multipole Gnd terminals and never experienced any issues.
For me, the Xm was meant to be a car bristling with technology, toys, buttons and hydractive suspension.
You may not be interested by the technology add-ons and may prefer a less complex classic car.
As far as I can see, there's no reason you shouldn't buy that car, but it might not fulfil your dreams of an Xm.
Antonio purchased a 2.0i and seems happy with it, so maybe ask his opinion. His is the next trim level up and does have hydractive suspension.
See his thread.
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