bought myself a Citroen BX!

[CitroJim]

I know what flimsy means. I had an S1 AX for a long while when they were current. They appeared less rigid than a coke can but were far stronger than they seemed...

That AX was a brilliant little car.

[robert_e_smart]

The ax was a well designed car for its time. Funnily enough we are reliving those times where a light fuel efficient car is needed! The ax got a bad reputation for build quality when people failed to see the cleverness of the design until later.

[CitroJim]

I don't get the bad build quality on the AX Robert. Mine was an early 1989 model and was really quite well screwed together as I remember...

Much better than the newer Rover Metro that replaced it... Good car, shame about the atrocious build quality. The Metro gave way to a Pug 405 and I never looked back...

[robert_e_smart]

The metro was a real go kart of a car, a friend of mine had a rover 100 1.3 GTA. A real flyer and great fun in roundabouts.

[CitroJim]

The metro was a real go kart of a car, a friend of mine had a rover 100 1.3 GTA. A real flyer and great fun in roundabouts.

Back in 1986 I had a brand-new Turbo Metro. That car was a real hoot and possibly the best thing British Leyland ever made bar the MG Maestro Turbo . Shame was it was rusty at two years old. I had five Metros over the years between 1982 and 2000 and all were great fun. Interspersed between those were variously the AX along with a Sierra, a Nissan Serena and a Poxhall Chavalier. The last three are worthy of no comment whatsoever on this forum except to say the AX was my car whilst SWMBO drove the others - she was bloody welcome to them

I lost the AX when we split up. It was part of the divorce settlement and for a while I was reduced to a Volvo 340 before it fell apart and was replaced by the last and final Metro and the last and final British car for me.

[robert_e_smart]

The Serena has to be the worst car ever mentioned in club XM off topic action!!! Cavaliers aren't all that bad, they did their job quite well.

[citroenxm]

Ahh the Maestro/Montego Turbos... Very fierce cars.. 150bhp IIRC but a chassis that couldn't handle the power and muscle the torque steer they suffered from...

Jim, what an awfull list of previous's... My french previous has been a little more on track...

First car, Fiat Panda for two weeks,
Fiat Uno for two years
A reg Reno 9 1.4 with a replacment engine. Bought for 100 quid had an engine swap (By a mechanic! Not by me) when I knew even less! That was a nice car!
Y reg Reno 9 as the first one got hit! My fault
Almost a Ren 19 1.9d Phase Two, but got a BX TXD instead
BX TXD.. Crashed and changed for..
Mazda 323.. The older Pre F model shape. A G reg one
Then Brown Visa 17RD
A red Visa 17RD
A 309 GRD 1.9 N/a
Another BX - A black TZD Turbo with Bosch on it.. Was worthy of a car AT THE TIME.
A G reg BLACK XM 2.oi Petrol... My first, base model. Wasnt impressed..
J reg BX D
A H reg GTi 8v
A grey GTi 8v with leather, which nearly went into my black TZD, but then the Xantia came
Then a Black Xantia TD SX Sinker, while with "Her outdoors and long gone" a number of more BX's..
Then another Black VSX TD Xantia... slightly modified ...
Then my first involvment with a HDi 110 ... A grey SX.. Which she kept when we split and I kept the two black Xantias
Sold one black Xantia used the other for a while... then a bit of a blur then..
Got offered another XM.. A V6 Si on LPG in white.. Leathered it, kept it a couple of years..
Changed for another Black V6 Manual Conversion XM... gearbox issues so sold it, and got
my Third my Green V6 SEI auto K120YOG... and the rest is history!

Sorry getting carried away there....

[CitroJim]

The Serena has to be the worst car ever mentioned in club XM off topic action!!!

Yes indeed. it was terrible and its thirst for petrol made even an Activa look economical!

Yes, I was being harsh on the Chavalier Robert. It was not bad really and streets ahead of the Sierra in all respects. It was not a bad towcar either in the days when we used to caravan.

Paul, that's a nice list of cars I'm not even going to make a complete list of mine as I don't think the forum database is big enough...

French highlights though are two Renault 4s and a Renault 5 back in the late 70s and early 80s and then this century a Pug 405D, a Pug 405TD, a 205D and 205 GTi and then many Xantias including three Activas, a 2.1TD, a 1.9TD sinker, a 110HDi and three V6s.

And then I found XMs....

[andmcit]

My first car was a blue 1220 GSpecial which alas, has long gone but I still have
my first ever Cx and Xm (of many!). Scrapped my first Xantia, a 1.9TD sinker in
maroon although TBH, there wasn't a whole lot wrong with it.

The GSpecial was a T reg and a carbon copy of this one:

[citroenxm]

I sat in a GS Estate when I had my Uno, it was at a local at the time "Back Street Junk Mans Sales" garage .. I remember the handbrake in the dash!

I wasnt quite brave enough back then... I knew nothing back then, and little more now.