10th Sep 2007, 04:50
If the car is so ugly in your opinion, why on earth did you buy it? The pug Diesels engines are indestructible, the one used in the 80's and early 90's that is. But Citroens aren't known for build quality, but the car must have been poorly maintained in the first place for you to have the problems that you have had. As a side note, the worst car I ever owned out of mere 10, was the Citroen AX!
14th Sep 2007, 08:22
Well, as for being a "lemon", I have to say I have never felt more like a lemon than driving that car - on several occasions people actually laughed at me in traffic. It is truly a hideous creation. I'm sorry, I know there are some mental fanatics out there, but seriously, take a step back, forget it's yours and you paid money for it, it looks like a sack of crap. The wheels are set too far in on the body, the huge oblong lights, the gormless single wiper, plain unmoulded body panels, ugly as &*&k rear light clusters, silly steering wheel, a gear stick that, let's face it, is too long and has too small a grip at the top, so it actually looks like a nob!!
The car itself actually had a full Citroen service history. It has barely done the equivalent of 75,000 miles. When I lived in the UK, I don't think I ever had a car which had less than 100k on it, and rarely with any recent history, yet they didn't destroy themselves. I think the engines are just cack - diesel aside maybe. Mind you, that's fair enough, cack car, cack interior, cack engine.
I "bought" it because I was owed a few hundred quid by someone who couldn't pay me back, so "sold" me the car instead. Better that than get nothing I felt. In the event though, owning this car was about as rewarding as buying a bag full of air.
If you want further proof, look on www.autotrader.co.uk and see how many are for sale nationally. 1? 2 maybe? That's because they are on the heap.
10th Jun 2009, 10:03
So you ended up with a bad BX - get over it. If you hate it THAT much, why don't you get something else! Like any car this age there will be bad examples out there - I have experience of this - but there will also be good ones if you look in the right places.
31st Jul 2009, 03:08
Sorry but I beg to differ. I didn't just have a bad BX, they are hideous in general. I shudder every time I see one, which isn't often these days thank god.
My ownership came about by accident, and ended in predictable disaster. But some people actually CHOOSE to buy one of these machines. Haven't you ever driven a proper car and seen the difference, have you got eyes that see something that mine don't? I just don't get it, I honestly don't.
15th Jan 2011, 08:13
I am surprised at your comments, and like others here ask the question, if to your eyes it looked so awful, why did you buy it?
I have owned two BXs, (as well as CXs, XMs etc) and it is fair to say that I am a Citroen enthusiast. Neither were particularly solid in terms of build quality (certainly nothing up to German standards), but both were 100 percent reliable i.e. they never broke down or failed to start.
As for the suspension, there are all sorts of good technical reasons why the Citroen design (even simplified variants as appeared on the BX) are superior to any metal sprung suspension: as a starting point have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydropneumatic_suspension
By way of example, loading the car with 4 adult passengers and two weeks of holiday luggage made no difference whatsoever to handling, brakes or ride quality - all remained optimum. No conventional car would be able to pull this off - either they would have been too stiffly sprung to begin with or they would be hopelessly uncontrolled (if not unsafe) when fully loaded.
There is a reason why Rolls Royce bought the licence to use this system in their cars; it works! The hydroactive suspension in the XM is something else altogether, as Gavin Green, then editor of Car noted when he reviewed the car, it is the most advanced suspension of any road car - rides like a Rolls, probably better; handles like a BMW 5 Series, probably better.
20th Dec 2011, 03:15
As I say again, if you read the posts before, I didn't "buy it", it was given to me in lieu of money I was owed, and otherwise would not have recovered. The suspension is just too complicated and unreliable. When it works well, I am sure it works brilliantly, but mine broke. Any many do. That's a fact.
And the looks would curdle milk.
Sorry, I am over my apoplexy about owning this car, but whenever I think back, I feel slightly faint at its shiversomelingly pig ugly looks...
Each to their own I guess!!
29th Nov 2012, 18:09
One must consider that the french are the only car makers with "balls" to experiment with design and technology, otherwise we would still be living in the era of the Model T.
Most car designs are clones of one or two major car makers IMHO.
27th Aug 2007, 12:05
The car you bought wasn't well maintained.
There are good ones for sale and you bought one that was rubbish.
It says more about you than the car. You are a lemon, not the car.