another xantia

[Frenchy]

Hate weekends, too much time on my hands and always seem to get into some sort of trouble. It doesn't get better with age, just different.

There just happened to be an auction on about 80 miles from home and not having been to one for several years decided to attend. There was quite an eclectic mix of vehicles plus one that looked quite promising from it's photograph on car and classic. (That was the first mistake)

Went along (second mistake) and entered into the friendly banter and camaraderie, wondering who was interested in what.

I had picked out 4 cars which may have been of interest and written down my top bids so as not to get too carried away.

The main one of interest was green, moss encrusted, sad and unloved, semi flat tyres, unlike the photo which tempted me in the first place. At this point I wondered why I had bothered but decided to stay and have a coffee.

Along came car number 7 The green, Sorry Silver Xantia 2.1 td estate with 36K on the clock and my hesitant very low bid won, so today I had it transported to my local very strict mot centre for a laugh and it passed with no advisories. The only thing we did was replace the window wipers because they were stuck on the screens. The tester said it was a very old brand new car, it has only covered 9 yes 9 miles in the last 4 years.

It has been booked in for a timing belt, water pump, thermostat and rear ride height corrector and is my son's birthday present as his current xantia is not long for this world.

Looking forward to being a passenger.

[ragger]

Sounds better than a poke in the eye with a pointed clove of garlic!

[Stickyfinger]

Top job.....there are diamonds under dull paint and dirt

[CitroJim]

Well bought Sounds like a proper gem!

[wurlycorner]

Look forward to some pics!

[Frenchy]

Really? (BX forum avatar) spent 2 days washing and weeding his new Xantia which has greatly improved it's appearance.

It isn't the prettiest car because of all the small dings and scrapes which look more like misjudgements than accidents.

I had booked an appointment with Doug at Westroen Manchester for Monday morning to have all 6 spheres changed because of the front being solid and the back sinking 5 seconds after switching off and also tick over at 2 seconds. Had a rather slow slow bumpy trip there and magic carpet ride back.

The car doesn't feel as though it has been run in, it's very tight and obviously hasn't been opened up. There is no smoke, it's very smooth and as quiet as this engine can be, Doug was impressed and told me to keep it.

The brakes were changed for green stuff pads and dimpled and grooved discs which means that the pedal only has to be pressed the depth of a rizla paper to bring it to a stop. I can honestly say that in all my years of driving I have never used such good brakes.

Handling was amazing as was fuel consumption. Very hard to guess accurately as it was it's first outing but covered the 350 miles on about £35 of go juice.

Overall extremely impressed. Only observation, the seats are not as comfortable as the HDI. How much of a mission would they be to change over? Anybody done this?

[Stickyfinger]

Seats are dead easy to change....

[van ordinaire]

You're a braver man than I but one to be applauded.

Your account makes for an interesting comparison with similar tales on my Cadillac forum of choice. Our revolting colonial cousins seem to have a morbid fear of older low mileage cars. They regularly insist that, as a staring point, you have to drain, flush & replace ALL fluids & fit new tyres, hoses, belts & seals throughout.

[Frenchy]

Make that woman, we can also be petrolheads, have met a handful at meetings albeit few and far between.

I also prefer buying slightly higher mileage cars which have been maintained regularly and kept on the road. Trouble is with these low mileage cars they have sat around quite a bit, often in garages with concrete floors, it has been known for these vehicles to have rusted more than one in daily use.

They usually also need recommissioning, age related failures rather than wear. Most of the rubber components will not have been changed during their lifetimes, neither will the fluids hence hardened parts which split and give a hard bumpy ride.

We are working our way through it slowly but you have to be prepared to spend a little on these cars to replace all these old components.

Front seats are now in with the wiring loom located under the carpet ready for the final connection. He left the seat in the correct position in the hdi before removal so that it is right for him.

I can no longer drive it being only 5' 0", maybe that is the idea!

The rear seats didn't fit so a few days taking the leather off the saloon, reshaping the foam on the estate and fitting the leather to it. The estate bolsters are flat, armrest, location points and seatbelts are all different. Only have the door cards to change from cloth to leather and then I think we are almost there.

All together not too difficult.

[van ordinaire]

Take that as man, as in mankind as (a) I was paraphrasing "You're a better man than I, Ghunga Din" &, (b) "you're a braver person than I" just doesn't "sound" right.

The female of the pertrolhead species is, indeed, so rare that It's wonder we survive but, I should imagine a woman bidding at an auction is even less often seen.

The fact remains, you are braver than me: I have nothing but respect & admiration for your foresight, determination &, undoubted, abilities, as I would have for anyone who had that particular tale to tell.

The circumstances of your acqisition of this car make a great start to a blog - why don't you join some of us on that "page"?

[xantia_v6]

We can move this topic to the blogs section of the forum if you wish. I would recommend that, as the sale/wanted section of the forum has auto deletion of old topics.

[van ordinaire]

We can move this topic to the blogs section of the forum if you wish. I would recommend that, as the sale/wanted section of the forum has auto deletion of old topics.

Has to be Frenchy's decision!

[Frenchy]

Yes that's absolutely fine by me

[van ordinaire]

Welcome to the bloggers' guild

[ekjdm14]

Welcome to the bloggers' guild

Indeed, welcome... Just be careful, these Xantiae have a way of growing on you and you may find you need one for yourself too 36k is amazingly low mileage, must be a difficult decision whether to keep it as a timewarp or give it the use it was made for?

Personally, I'd want to do some driving and enjoy it but maybe set a self-imposed limit of somewhere like 65-70k to retire it from regular use.

Out of interest, what sort of state were/are the spheres in?