1995 Citroen ZX Avantage 1.9 diesel
Summary:
Very cheap to run, excellent car
Faults:
Rear brakes seized 2 weeks after I got it, fixed them and the rear bearings too. Front discs warped made the steering wheel vibrate under braking, steering linkages (normal wear). Heater leaked, had to take out the whole dashboard to change it, used the opportunity to changed 10 dashboard light bulbs. Crappy stereo cassette is gone, installed a Sony Cd stereo.
General Comments:
Unbelievably cheap to run.. On a trip to Cordoba I averaged 17.5 km/l at 120km/h.
Very comfortable on both front and rear seats, the sliding rear seat is very practical too. It has not got power steering, but it does not need it.
Mine has Peugeot 306 alloy wheels and they look great.
After I fixed the front end, almost all the noises are gone, except the whining air blower (it only whines at minimum speed).
The engine is great, has over 200000 km and uses very little oil, normal for a diesel.
The gearbox and clutch are excellent.
It has not got a turbo, but again, it does not need it..
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 14th March, 2007
24th Mar 2011, 20:00
299000 km and still going. Since the last update, I replaced the timing belt (60000 km), and a couple of days later, the left cooling fan, which wasn't working properly, finally seized in the middle of a traffic jam. The radiator cracked and lost all the coolant.. luckily, the cylinder head didn't warp. I replaced the radiator with a Chinese one (US$ 85), the cooling fan (US$ 70), topped her up with premixed coolant, and now the car runs great like nothing happened..
The only annoying noise left is a humming noise from one of the CV joints, I think the right one.. or maybe the intermediate roller bearing from the right axle.. or one of the hub bearings.. or all of them.. it's difficult to know.
This is a great car, I commute 45 km round trip to work everyday at 90 km/h and still get 16 km/l. The aircon works fine, but started to make fizzing noises like it's low on gas. I think I'll keep her a couple of more years.
31st Jul 2009, 07:03
Since last review, the car has 270.000km now, I had to change the heater radiator AGAIN (I used an original replacement this time and paid attention to the coolant/water mix).
On another trip to Cordoba the ZX averaged 16 km/l at 120km/ average, and used about 1 liter of oil every 1000km. The oil consumption goes up traveling at high speed.
I also fixed some oil leaks in the engine: cracked oil breather hoses and the rocker cover gasket.
About a year ago, crossing a railroad, the left trailing arm´s torrington bearing seized. This affected that wheel´s camber angle. The solution was to swap the rear axle with a reconditioned one ($600: about 120 euros, did the work myself).
I´ve been considering selling it and getting a Xsara, but I´m still amazed at how well the car goes even with this mileage. It´s the best car I've had in my life.