Faults:

Water Pump sprang a leak.

Upper engine mount snapped in half twice. Adjusted design and is now fine.

3rd gear syncro is on its way out (wear and tear really)

General Comments:

I love this car. I've only owned it for 2weeks, but I can't see myself getting rid of it! The mileage above was covered in just one week! Aimlessly!

It is something different, something fast to surprise your average Merc, BMW or even the mighty mundano!! The engine is awesome, as is the noise!

Supremely comfortable, loaded with gadgets and most still work! Build quality is patchy, but expected of an old French car.

Handling is good. Leans a bit more than the average sporty saloon/hatch because of the hydraulic suspension. But it leans to a point, then is fine. Grip in dry is superb, but hairy in wet (possibly tyres?) Car is very easy to position, and corners can be taking swiftly and with good control as suspension virtually eliminates bump-steer, with a slightly tail happy lift off oversteer vibe going on!!

Brakes are mind blowing. ABS works well, if not cutting in slightly too early.

The body can look tatty if not looked after, and the car does need to be loved. Ignore it and it'll ignore you when you tell it to do something, like start for example!

I will endeavor to keep this car on the road. It is full of character, and is different! Most people will look and either laugh, ponder or totally ignore it! At least it gauges a reaction in a boring world of lookalikes! You do get the odd occasion where someone has owned one, been in one and comes to ask you if you'll blast him around the block to reminisce!

If people weren't afraid of something different, we'd all have moved on a hell of lot by now.

Faults:

Lots of hydraulic suspension parts needed replacement over the last 10 years. Latest was front height corrector (£160+VAT), due to a leak. Now needs a rear height corrector (about the same cost again).

Alternator needed replacement 2 years ago.

Lots of silly little electrical problems. E.g. dirty contacts caused cooling fan to stop working; rear wiper stopped working some time ago, still investigating.

Since I bought the car the engine has been misfiring at exactly 2200 rpm, running fine at every other speed. Number 2 spark plug gets carbon-fouled 2000 miles after replacing.

Drinks 2 gallons of oil between services!

General Comments:

Very comfortable and luxurious for the price, and very good performance too.

The insurance group is quite low for such a high-performance luxury car. But the running costs due to hydraulic system repairs and oil consumption put a slight dampener (I now use a cheaper oil which is also thicker, and therefore less of it gets burnt.)

Faults:

Cambelt snapped after 40 miles - ended up rebuilding engine.

A few leaks and lots of service parts - expected on a 100,000 mile car.

General Comments:

The Citroen BX 16v is a very different creature from the standard Citroen BX range, even the 8 valve GTi. The main difference is that the comfort of the car is more compromised for better performance. The engine is harsher, louder, more powerful, etc... The ride is also stiffer and better damped. However, the car is still very comfortable and the performance gains more than justify the drop in comfort.

The 16v suspension spheres, which provide the damping and stiffness, are unique to this exact model. For myself, I feel the suspension setup is perfect for a fast road car with the ability to control oversteer with the throttle. Also the steering is free from the usual non-constant assistance to steering rate ratio that you get with most modern cars. This allows the driver to smoothly operate the steering.

The car provides a very unique driving experience which is very unlike anything else I have driven. For this reason I have grown very attached to this car and have never considered getting rid of it even when it has gone wrong or been inconvenient to keep.

The worst thing about this car is that it can very easily look scruffy it a few pieces of plastic trim are damaged.

Also the interior isn't brilliantly well made, but for what you get it is a very cheap car and this is the sacrifice you have to make.