Citroenmads Citroen blog.

[Citroenmad]

Welcome back. You don't have to own a French car to be a member of this forum, just being great company will do.

Thanks! Well I'm not sure about the great company but I shall try my best

Wot 'ee said!

Be nice to catch up at the Northern if you are around.

No idea of the dates yet but usually late May to early April.

I'm hoping to be at the Northern Rally, hopefully with a Citroen ... likely from the family fleet rather than my own but we shall see!

Its been a while since I've been on here!

I used to be on here such a lot, does anyone still visit here from old?
...

Pretty much everyone who was here last time you were Chris, apart from Addo and I've not heard from DickieG for aeons. Otherwise it's as you were...

Hope you're well.. I have a Japanese motorbike and a Czech car at the moment...

Michel is Northern_Mike... Buyer of your V6 and C5

Thats good to know, thanks Mike and its good to see you're still on here too. I note as is Jim, though I more catch up with his active life on Facebook these days.

I shall stick around, maybe I'm on the look out for another car too.

Since my last postings, I've had all manner of things. BMW 3 Series Touring, Skoda Octavia Scout, Toyota Yaris, Peugeot 107, Volvo V70, Citroen C3 (I missed that one!?), Passat GT, Golf GTD, VW Up! TSi, SAAB 9-3 Wagon and a Golf GTi, to name a few. Ranging from new to 15 or so years and usually three at a time ... you know me!

Currently the fleet is quite German and a little Sweedish, but I figured as I'm still welcome on here, I would add to my blog ...

Along with Citroen I've always had a soft spot for VW group cars, MINIs and Volvos - so in my time away from here, thats pretty much what I've been buying.

I've always had a huge soft spot for the early MINI Cooper S, its compact and well stanced body, go cart handling and its supercharger whine, I had thought about getting one for a long time. This one is actually my second first generation MINI Cooper S (R53), I had a 2004 model in Grey with a white roof before this one - a higher mileage car with fewer options. Once I knew I really did like driving the R53 (code for the first gen Cooper S) I set about looking for my ideal spec in good condition. This is the one I found, one of the very last R53s before the body changed and engine went to a turbo unit - a 2006 Astro black with black roof Cooper S. It is fitted with just about every option from new, including electric panoramic sunroof, full black 'Lounge' leather with front seat heaters, multi-function steering wheel with cruise control, mechanical limited slip diff and Sport+ suspension, air conditioning, chrome pack and the CHILLI pack - xenon headlights with washers, sports seats and suspension, 3 spoke steering wheel. I've had it coming up to a year now and have no plans to sell it on yet. It does have a few modifications too, upgrades shockers, grooved discs, reduced super charger pulley and I've also changed the wheels to ones from a 'Checkmate'.

I don't tend to use the MINI a great deal, it usually stays in its garage and comes out just on nice days. Though I have taken it on a track day, which was excellent fun! I've also had it to a few shows, one being last years Goodwood Festival of Speed - a long long drive for me at about 600 miles but the MINI proved to be a surprisingly comfortable motorway cruiser.

This is my second MK7 Golf, I had a GTD a couple of years ago and now have this Match Edition DSG. I can throughly recommend one, it is possibly the ideal daily driver for me. Without going into too much detail, they just do everything so very well; from the interior ergonomics to the ride and handling and general feel of the car. I get on very well with the driving position of these and it has been a favourite since I first drove one. I especially like them for the standard adaptive cruise control feature, which makes any journey even less tiring and its partly why I've had two of these and a Passat in between. I chose the DSG this time which works superbly with the adaptive cruise control, and its very refined with superb gear changes, without really impacting on the fuel eocnomy, which is excellent! I went with the Match Edition as it has all of the spec I like, heated seats, android auto, adaptive cruise, auto everything and sat nav. It has so many great features that just make living with the car so easy. So this takes up the bulk of my mileage, which is still somewhere near 25k a year.

So the Volvo then, I like the early 2000's generation of Volvos, when they were still Volvos, built like tanks with proper Volvo engines. This was my first Volvo which was an excellent car. Though this one had approaching 200k miles and the clutch had just started slipping, so rather than spend £1000 on a car which was worth as much, I sold it on as I don't really need an estate. It did survive this snow drift episode fairly well, this was 'The Beast from the East' last winter and the old 'Battle Bus', as it became known, certainly got some battering then.

Then there is the current trusty Volvo, a 2003 S60 D5 manual SE with winter pack, which I set about finding once I had rehomed my V70. This was essentially the same car in every way as the V70, just the saloon version with less than half the mileage. It's a well looked after car and as you would expect from a Volvo, everything still works, from the heated seats to the headlight wipers and the ice cold air conditioning. This generation of S60s/V70s is the pick with the D5, as they started trying to make the engine better on emissions, it somehow got worse on fuel, so these earlier ones are the best. I'm getting 51MPG on average from this, which, from a 2.4l 5 cylinder engine, I think it pretty excellent! So this is proving to be my winter hack, doing mostly long runs and interchanging with the Golf week on week. I must mention that the seats in these things are some of the most comfortable I have ever come across in a car, infinitely adjustable electronically, with long squabs and a reclining base, the driving position suits me perfectly! It's better than sitting in an armchair.

Well, there we go, sorry to provide non-French content but I am, at least, up to date!

In actual French car related news, its kind of business as usual with my family. My mum has a Grand C4 Picasso 2.0HDi Exclusive with the proper auto box, EAT6 - a nice car and totally different to the previous EGS gearbox. My sister has a 2016 DS4 Prestige - a lovely car with an excellent spec list - though quite a hard ride! The 6-wheel C15 and Traction 6H still remain as part of the family. The Traction underwent an engine rebuild by a specialist last year and along with many other bits and a few upgrades, now means it runs better than ever. Unfortunately my dad is not in the best of health and so the C15 gets very rare use and the Traction is garage bound, but for the odd local show last year.

[Citroenmad]

Hi Chris

Good to see your keeping well!

D

Thanks Dean, good to see you;re still on here too. I'll have to have a look back through your blog ...

[Deanxm]

I wouldn't, its 60 odd pages of Meh........

Still got the XM but now its got a V6 PRV engine in because i'm mad, then i got bored and bought a 30 year old Talbot motorhome, probably confirming the madness.

The next 10 pages will be about rust, welding and trying to get the thing to run right so it's not likely to improve either.

D

[bxzx16v]

I'm still around Chris although I've not had anything French since the 406 V6 coupe nearly 4 years ago , since then it's been 2 Landrover Freelander 2's . The first a Td4 which sadly got written off by a twit in an Audi , the second an Sd4 auto which I absolutely love , your fleet has certainly been varied . Love the Volvos btw .

Mark

[Citroenmad]

It's over 4 years since I last updated this blog!

I'll do a proper update at some point, I've had quite a change round of cars, but my signature is now up to date.

Hopefully I'll get a writeup and picture of each one on here soon.... Do we still need to use an external photo upload site? I think my Photobucket account has now expired!

[mickthemaverick]

Hi Chris, you stopped posting just before I joined so not read your blog yet. I'm looking forward to it. You can upload pics now straight into your text by using the attachments below, then the 'add files' button. Browse and pick your photos to upload, add your captions in the boxes on the right then put your cursor where you want each pic and click the corresponding 'place inline' button !! Shimples!

[myglaren]

Nice to see you back Chris.

[Citroenmad]

Hi Chris, you stopped posting just before I joined so not read your blog yet. I'm looking forward to it. You can upload pics now straight into your text by using the attachments below, then the 'add files' button. Browse and pick your photos to upload, add your captions in the boxes on the right then put your cursor where you want each pic and click the corresponding 'place inline' button !! Shimples!

You'll need a very large cup of tea to get through all of this blog

Thanks for the advice with the pictures, I did attempt that and got an upside-down image of my Saxo ... some further playing around is needed!

[Citroenmad]

Nice to see you back Chris.

Good to see that you're still on here, Steve!

[mickthemaverick]

Thanks for the advice with the pictures, I did attempt that and got an upside-down image of my Saxo ... some further playing around is needed!

That can be a nuisance but I find if you open the picture in Paint first and resave it the right way up, it always works fine then!

[Citroenmad]

Thanks for the advice with the pictures, I did attempt that and got an upside-down image of my Saxo ... some further playing around is needed!

That can be a nuisance but I find if you open the picture in Paint first and resave it the right way up, it always works fine then!

Ideal, thanks! I'll give that a try!

I have checked my Photobucket account, it now wants to charge me 5.99 dollars a month, I don't think I'll be using that again!

[myglaren]

Thanks for the advice with the pictures, I did attempt that and got an upside-down image of my Saxo ... some further playing around is needed!

Happens with a lot of mobile phone photo's.

I upload mine to a laptop and use the image viewer to correct them.
Open in the viewer, top them over (rotate right/left) then put them back the way they were and save them, then insert into your post.
My Motorola phone does this but the Huawei doesn't.

Photobucket and many other image hosting sites are a dead loss.

[CitroJim]

Great to see you back Chris

[Citroenmad]

So I thought that I would go backwards with my update here ... mainly because I occasionally (every 4 years it would seem!) enjoy coming on here to reminisce about my past Citroens and their adventures, and less because I think anyone wants to read any of this!

So I'll start in June/July 2020, when I finally realised a life goal of mine ... to own a Citroen C6!

Ever since the launch of the Citroen C6, back in 2005 (when I had been driving for just 1 year), I had admired the C6. The flagship model of my favourite car brand, I loved the styling and how Citroen were still set on persevering with a large executive saloon, when it was obvious that it was never going to sell in any volume. I was fortunate enough to drive a C6 on several occasions at various Citroen Car Club events, and I was hooked! I knew that one day, I would like to own one. Years came and went, opportunities to buy C6s were there but I didn't take the plunge. Hearing all too many horror stories of costly repairs and endless problems, I had put it the idea of having a C6 to the back of my mind, but I still wanted one.

After the 2020 lockdown had eased up, and it was apparent that I was still in employment ... I came across my 2007 Citroen C6, a 2.7HDi V6 Exclusive in black, with black leather interior and the TGV rear seating (lounge pack). I wouldn't ordinarily choose a black car, its one of my least favourite car colours - though quite 'presidential' and executive looking on a C6 - but this C6 was being sold by someone I knew. Right at the very start of this blog, I said I'd bought my first C5 from Ben Cowell, someone I'd known through the Citroen Car Club and have kept in touch with. Ben was now selling his C6 ... Ben hadn't owned the C6 for all that long, but I knew it was a good example, had been looked after by the infamous B.L Autos (C6 Specialists) and was a known car. So, I bought it!

Here it is:

I kept the black C6 for a year, mainly using it for long journeys and a holiday to Dorset. It was largely problem free for that year, and whilst the £615 per year road tax and similar insurance took a while to get used to, I thoroughly enjoyed that year - owning one of my all time favourite cars, at last! But, it started to develop a slurring/aggressive gearchange and needed a new auto box valve block. There was also a LDS leak developing from one of the front struts ... and I'd only intended to have it for about a year, so I moved it on. Thinking I'd ticked off C6 ownership, I probably wouldn't have another C6 again ...

Moving on from then, I've had quite a few cars come and go ... but nothing French ... so lets stick with the Citroens here ...

I then had a change of job - In 2015 I had started working as a trainee sales Executive for a family owned Citroen dealership, perhaps my dream job, or so I thought it was at the time! Since then, I had worked my way up to Sales Manager and had nearly 7 years at the same place. I loved the job, but it became my life, long days, 6 day weeks and very little spare time. I decided I needed more time for my life, and less spent working. So as of September 2021 I'm now in a Civil Service job role, in the Environmental Sector, which at long last puts my much time spent at University to good use!

My change in job gave me more time to get back into what I'd enjoyed so much before starting in the motor trade, cars ... and specifically, Citroens! After a while, the motor trade somewhat hardens you to cars, and they become just another part of the job, rather than something to enjoy. I'm not hugely keen on current Citroens, too much time being around Puretechs with wet belt issues, BlueHDis with failed Adblue tanks/pumps and the general poor build that they are going through, has put me off. So I got back to some slightly older and more well proven Citroens ...

The first Citroen I bought, having left working at a Citroen dealer, was a simple MK1 C3. I'd always found these appealing, their rounded shape, faired wheel arches and funky interior always looked interesting to me. I bought a red 2008 C3 Exclusive 1.6 Auto (an AL4, none of this SensoDrive business!). It was a lovely little car, low miles, great colour and a nice spec. I added cruise control to it, which took just a few minutes, and it was about perfect for what I wanted at the time. The 4 speed auto box didn't make it the most refined, or frugal, thing in the world, but it was likable and with the well proven 1.6i TU 110hp petrol engine, it went quite well too.

I then acquired another Mk1 C3, this time a very late run out but lower spec car - 2009 C3 VTR 1.4i manual in silver with 49,000 miles. This one was very local to me, and very cheap, owing to some rear end damage. I bought it in September 2021 and still own it! It was £145 to buy, yep, £145 when used car prices had gone mad! It had MOT, history, low miles and working air con ... it was even quite tidy when I got it. After a while I sold the red C3 auto and and kept this, which became my daily car for almost a year. It's been on loan for the last 6 months to a friend, but it is about to return to me in the next few weeks. In a lot of ways, I prefer this lower spec, smaller engine and smaller wheeled C3 over the higher spec red one. Its supple on the road, the little 1.4 75hp TU engine is very sweet and it has all the spec I want - aircon and ... I added cruise control to this one too. Like I do with all of my cars, I've tidied it up and looked after it, its still going very well.

I then bought a very down at heel C1. It too had been in the wars and had a battered front wing, which I swiftly changed for another in the right colour. I think I bought it because I enjoyed our new C1 Splash so much in 2010, and wanted to live with one again. This was a 2011 1.0 'VT' 5 Door - as basic as they get, with manual windows and no central locking ... but weirdly, with air conditioning! I later found our that Air Con was never an option on the VT, but a batch of VT C1s had been registered to a fleet company in 2011 and they were all special orders with Air Con ... this was one of them. I kept it 6 months or so and moved it on, in much better shape than it was when I bought it. Keeping the faithful silver C3..

Probably enough writing for one post ... I'll get onto the rest of my current fleet next time ... There's another C6!

[bxzx16v]

It's good to have you back Chris and look forward to hearing more about your fleet.

Mark