Xm advice

Post by **myglaren** » 08 Jun 2008, 20:00

My son-in-law to be is interested in purchasing an Xm and we would appreciate any advice regarding the purchasing and care/pitfalls of Xm ownership.

I have had no contact with Xms other than to drool over them.

Any responses gratefully received.

Post by **CitroJim** » 09 Jun 2008, 16:40

Steve,

I've moved this to the Citroen forum for a better response perhaps.

Have you looked on Club-XM? They have a buyers guide there

Their forum is down at present by the looks of it though..

The XM in the eBay link looks very tasty 8)

Post by **myglaren** » 09 Jun 2008, 17:30

Thanks Jim.

It does indeed look very good on the surface but I know very little about Xms and the potential buyer knows less.
There will be no opportunity to survey or test drive the car as he lives 1,000 miles away from where it is located.
He's a reasonably competent DIY mechanic but unfortunately doesn't have much time to allocate to such activities as he travels quite a lot with his job.

He has asked my advice as I have owned several Citroens and tend to big them up whenever the opportunity presents itself (translated as bore the pants off anyone within shouting distance:) ).

He was really impressed with the C5. I'm sure that example will be fine, just need a bit of reassurance from anyone with intimate experience of them.

ken newbold · Post by **ken newbold** » 09 Jun 2008, 23:34

Club-XM is up and running ok tonight.

Post by **myglaren** » 10 Jun 2008, 00:51

Thanks for the heads-up Ken.

MikeT · Post by **MikeT** » 10 Jun 2008, 10:19

myglaren wrote:There will be no opportunity to survey or test drive the car as he lives 1,000 miles away from where it is located.

I'm proably the last person to give advice on this but personally, I'd leave it. That's an awful long way to go to take the car back should anything happen. You got to ask, why did the previous buyer bring it back?

Maybe I'm being picky here, but what sort of car dealer doesn't understand "immaculate"? There is no scale of immaculate according to year. It's either mint or is it's not.

Post by **myglaren** » 10 Jun 2008, 11:53

MikeT wrote:
myglaren wrote:There will be no opportunity to survey or test drive the car as he lives 1,000 miles away from where it is located.
I'm proably the last person to give advice on this but personally, I'd leave it. That's an awful long way to go to take the car back should anything happen. You got to ask, why did the previous buyer bring it back?

Maybe I'm being picky here, but what sort of car dealer doesn't understand "immaculate"? There is no scale of immaculate according to year. It's either mint or is it's not.

That was my primary concern, that and they offer no warranty.
He would have it shipped to where he is, which would be a not inconsiderable extra cost.
The car does look clean and well looked after.
In it's current location there would be no concerns as far as corrosion was concerned, not sure about running it in a dusty environment though, WRT the hydraulics.

Where he is the primary problem would be the long winters and roadsalt.

So hard to decide when an inspection and road test are unavailable.

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 10 Jun 2008, 12:03

hi Myglaren

it's odd when he say's

'When One Of Our Satisfied Former Customers Wanted To Buy Another Car From Us, We Agreed To Take The XM We Had Sold Him In As A Trade-In'

then

'This Particular XM Was My Dads Personal XM'

anyway, probably nothing wrong

Monterey is quite nice if I remember .

Post by **CitroJim** » 10 Jun 2008, 12:29

Although rust will not be a problem Steve, it would be wise to give the strut tops a good check as the XM ones, I believe, suffer from the same weaknesses as the Xantia ones.

Whilst they don't rust like they do here, the rubber can deteriorate in the heat. Our Antipodian cousins have had strut tops fail from the rubber bits failing.

Post by **myglaren** » 10 Jun 2008, 13:13

citrojim wrote:Although rust will not be a problem Steve, it would be wise to give the strut tops a good check as the XM ones, I believe, suffer from the same weaknesses as the Xantia ones.

Whilst they don't rust like they do here, the rubber can deteriorate in the heat. Our Antipodian cousins have had strut tops fail from the rubber bits failing.

Yes, thanks Jim. I did spot that post but had forgotten about it.
The drawback is that he won't know until he gets it, by which time it will be a headache.

Although I would like him to get it because it promises to be such a nice car to own, I think it would be advisable to pass this one over as there is no opportunity to check it over and there are those somewhat inconsistent statements by the vendor, as jgra1 so rightly points out.

The first statement I put down to someone who is not particulary proficient with his words. The second makes it look as though they haven't a clue what day of the week it is.

Caveat Emptor being the overruling principle here, I believe.

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 10 Jun 2008, 13:47

As I've literally a shed load of Xm's, I've found to my cost and annoyance
that their autoboxes go pop very easily...

Yes, I know some folk out there seem to get theirs showing 400k miles
but I've rarely seen one get past 120k!

There's a few thoughts about why they do let go and either it's something
to do with your style of driving an auto, where the oil pump can actually
feed too much pressurised fluid through a restricted oilway burning it out,
when the car is held in neutral with the engine running a lot of the time

OR

poor/incorrect/insufficient maintenance of the oil used

OR

simple wear on the clutch bands that take up the varying drives leaving
you with a car that can reverse but not go forwards!!

Andrew

Post by **myglaren** » 10 Jun 2008, 13:57

Thanks Andrew, this is new information altogether and something that I hadn't considered.

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 10 Jun 2008, 14:19

Mind, the Xantia autobox is virtually the same (it isn't exactly) and these
DO do pop too...

Andrew

MikeT · Post by **MikeT** » 10 Jun 2008, 17:21

Re the previous owners, it seems to me that it originally belonged to his Dad who didn't want it anymore (why?) and sold it through his son's dealership to a customer. Said customer (he says "former satisfied..."!) then brought it back to swap (he says Trade-in) for a different car (again, why get rid especially if he was satisfied?).

Post by **myglaren** » 10 Jun 2008, 18:29

Yes, agreed. There are various bells ringing now.
May be being too cautious but I have advised Mike of the likely disadvantages of this purchase and linked to this thread for him to see your advice first hand.

Shame as the car looks a good one, but the proof of the pudding and all that.
I should have posted a poll, perhaps?