Looking for a new daily drive

[wurlycorner]

yup, there's not many other people who are into constant electrical failure

Sorry, that's cobblers. Between myself and my dad, we've owned 9 CXs over 25 years and that is not a fault that can be aimed at them. Tbh I've had more electrical faults on my 3 ludes in 10 years of ownership than I have had on those CXs.
It is a complete nightmare fault finding on a CX electrical system though, because all the wires are the same colour


It's hardly fair to suggest the bodywork hardly tin-foil either - all the main body panels are thicker than a lude!
There are only a few small bloody annoying areas where it is too thin (front footwells, inner arch area in front of the front wheels). They're non-structural areas so the strength doesn't matter, but unfortunately they're also water collection areas due to being the points where several skins/panels join together so they do ALL corrode and they're a complete and utter PITA to repair too grrr...
Aside from that, they have no worse corrosion problems than any other 70/80's car.
Boot and bonnet lips being other areas that ALL rust (unless you get cavity wax in there early enough).

Oh and metal sunroofs (sound familiar?! )

[Doggo]

^^^ considering I've always loved CX's, why haven't I bought one?

[wurlycorner]

There are plenty of reasons not to have a CX!
They aren't the cheapest car to run and take a lot of looking after now they're getting on.

A good thing about them is that their design is from the age where you can take everything apart and fix it.

A bad thing about them is that means maintenance can be very involved!

The taper roller bearings in the rear arm for example, is a much more difficult job on a CX than it is on BX's/XM's/Xantia's. The design is exactly the same in basic terms but the seals on CX aren't as good, so the bearings get water in and the original ones will fail.
Replacing them is pretty straight forward unbolt type mechanics in practise, but you have to get the pre-load just right on the bearings to stop them failing very quickly or the arm having play in it. On the XM/Xantia this is easy because everything was a standard size so in the rare event you do need to change them, you do literally unbolt replace and re-bolt. On the CX the variance in the length of the central spacer bush and the bores inside wasn't terribly accurately controlled at build (by which I mean it might vary by a couple of tenths of a mm overall across the full number of components in the arm - not much but enough to greatly affect bearing pre-load. So on the CX this means measuring everything accurately (micrometer/vernier) and then assembling the right size shims to suit.
Not such a problem back then because technicians in dealers were generally much more knowledgable/skilful than they are these days (less need to be now).

You'll struggle to find a Citroen dealer now that would dare touch a CX - or if they say they will, then you should probably be too scared to use them at all!

My local Citroen dealer is now a bloody Vauxhall dealer - the parts bloke said he couldn't understand what was what when he was looking at the exploded parts diagram for the suspension on my Xantia because "it's so complicated" ffs I told him to e-mail me the drawings in the end and I'd ring him back and tell him the number of thing I'd asked him for and described in intimate detail over the phone...

So either you need to be a really good diy'er or you need deep pockets and to live near one of the few garages that are actually capable of looking after a car like a CX.

[Doggo]

^^^ Yep, that's it, that's why I haven't bought one! Cheers, Iain +rep

[wurlycorner]

So either you need to be a really good diy'er or you need deep pockets and to live near one of the few garages that are actually capable of looking after a car like a CX.

Actually, there are a few other options;
1. A very optimistic DIY'er
2. A complete raving loony!

[Lovedoctor]

Must it be an Estate? Saab 900/9-3's have a substantial boot with seats up and cavernous with Seats down! I would echo others on the 9-5 estate or if you go older a 9000 hatch has similar boot size to 9-5 estate

[lxstuart]

I'll admit, I've never owned a CX, I have owned an AX and a Pug 106 (near enough the same car) though.
Having rebuilt the front of the AX (my father told me he would buy me my first car when I passed my test, he didn't tell me it would come from an insurance auction) I can say firsthand, those panels are not too thick
Secondly both cars chewed through alternators (common fault on the TU series engine), and would have random things decide to not work for a day or two.

This has quite possibly skewed my opinion of French cars.

[cantaffordannsx]

mazda 6 estate!

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used ... ynew%2Cnew

[wurlycorner]

AXs were very lighweight, down to having glass fibre bonnets and boots, so I wouldn't be at all surprised about the panels being thin too. That lightweight is what made them so (comparatively) fast, economical and well handling compared the ford/vauxhall crap offerings of the time though?

The engines are meant to be bulletproof from what I recall? No idea about other reliability stuff on them though, having not owned any.

Can't say I ever recall seeing a rusty 106 or AX though? (whereas Fiesta's and Nova's rotted like heck of course)

[lxstuart]

Nope, at that point the French had learnt to use galvanized panels, something Honda have sadly still yet to figure out.

When they worked, they were very capable cars, the 106 (I had the 1.5 diesel model) is probably the best car I've driven in the snow. Seriously, it put most 4WD cars to shame.