Citroen XM Forum

G'day, I'm Karu from Australia. I have owned over 300 cars, many highly sought after, and most, I believe, found me more than I found them. Being a car lover from a very young age, and believing that I knew every car sold in Australia for close to my 60 years, I was wrong. About 10 years ago I was driving behind the most amazing looking car, so I pulled over and googled Citroen XM on my phone and knew it was my MUST have car. But, they are very rare here and more expensive than I could afford. I might have owned a huge collection of cars, but remember, they found me and therefore, didn't cost me much money. A few weeks ago I found myself driving to the local shops a different way, just going with the flow, the only way I know how to live life.
There it was sitting in a front yard. A 1998 XM Exclusive. Not wanting to knock on the door to hassle someone I drove past often until I saw the garage door open. I walked to the open door and asked the gentleman. Can I have look at your XM as I have only seen one for a short time?
Happily he opened it and started the 24 valve 3 litre engine and showed me the suspension raise and lower. I sat in those leather seats and dreamed it was mine. He then said. "I have too many registered cars, so I will sell it to you for $400 (201 GBP - 252 USD) This was better than I had visualised. Then he told me that he has a spare car for parts, better still.

I have always loved working on cars, and as these are so different to anything I have worked on I'm looking forward to understanding it.

What a great find...and so cheap.

A late V6 Exclusive is a really relaxing drive. It's nice there is a parts car, as XM are incredibly rare in Austrailia. You are unlikely to suffer a host of problems we do, as your climate discourages corrosion of both the body and hydraulic pipes and valves.

I hope this is a car to keep, not just to move on.

This car isn't going anywhere without me Dieselman. In fact, I'd still have the vast majority of my rare and highly sought after cars if it wasn't for one thing. Women! One would sell them one at a time without my knowledge because she needed money, though I never had a clue where the money went. Years later she did tell me that she was very sorry she treated me so badly and did the most terrible things to hurt me because I treated her so lovingly; just as my previous ex's had done prior. But the one who hasn't contacted me to say sorry, though she did move out 5 months earlier saying that she wanted to kill me because I treated her so lovingly, was the last one who came home on the 24 June 2017 whilst I was out and locked the gate. I heard a few days later her plan was to kill me (witness heard her speaking on the phone) so she could sell my cars to fund her trip to Europe. If she had simply told me she wanted to go I would have happily sold cars. "Here's more money, stay as long as possible." Of course the cops didn't want to know about it because its gender based laws in Australia and when I google mapped the property, they were all gone.
So knowing that I can't have a woman in my life, and I'm certainly not going to play a game of treating them badly for their own benefit, my XM will not be departing.
Of course there is a positive to losing my incredible car collection, along with my motorbikes and huge 70's & 80's stereo collection that day. It removed my regret of all those other cars, motorbikes and stereos I had lost or sold prior. For if I had managed to retain them, I would have lost them on 24th June 2017 also. And I would not have fully understood Australian women. Knowing that you never, ever tell them that you love them so that they work really hard to prove that they are worthy of love, but once you tell them they either freak out or you're not worthy any more and its time to move on to prove they're love worthy to anther man.

As you live in a hot country, keep a careful eye on the front strut top mounts, as the structural rubber perishes and tears, causing a catastrophic failure where the top of the strut and sphere spring upwards, bending the bonnet.

There should be a small gap between the top of the sphere and the rail above it (which should not have an upward bend).

They should look something like:


You don't want them to look like this:


There is a company in Lithuania ( https://elastomer.eu ) who can re-manufacture the strut tops replacing the rubber with a polymer that should last a lifetime.

I saw my first XM in the dealers workshop just after the launch in Singapore. I was mesmerised by it, but did not buy until recently (a year or so ago) when I bought one, sight unseen, from Bangkok and brought it north to Chiang Mai - it's been a steep learning curve, both for me and my mechanic friend, and much of what we have learned has come from knowledgable and friendly people on this forum. You're very welcome, so when do we get to see some pictures please?

The OP's tale sounds almost incredible, n'est pas?

karuzin wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:16 pm

So knowing that I can't have a woman in my life, and I'm certainly not going to play a game of treating them badly for their own benefit, my XM will not be departing.

...

White Exec wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 14, 2020 7:12 am

The OP's tale sounds almost incredible, n'est pas?

Absolutely...what are the chances of just finding a cheap V6 Exclusive going begging locally...

And a spare car a short drive away which which is allowed to be stored where it sits Dieselman

Thanks Xantia_V6. When I work out how to post photos, I will do it.