BXProject

[BrianDamaged]

Ehhh-up!

44, Drive wagons for a living, own/drive this (since yesterday when I picked it up from Suffolk) for daily fun:

Regular Retro-Rides/Autoshite/2CVGB readers will know me anyway, but a big hearty man-hug to those that don't. And to those that do, if that's your bag.

When I'm not here and not at work I enjoy car shows, motorsport (especially rallying), old trucks, buses, tractors, industrial heritage, hot rods, photography, eating and drinking. Especially drinking.

[Bx Bandit]

Hi Brian......or is it Johnny!? Anyways, welcome and feel free to take the piss

[Madcav]

Welcome along dude, HBF here from RR.

[Father Ted]

I cant belive its not butter... hang on wrong forum... I cant believe how much you paid for that, and im just in need of a lugger for a bit too. Bumflakes.

[docchevron132]

Welcome!
I had imagined due to the insessent interst shown to you by a member on BXC that you'd look really VERY different!

[Bx Bandit]

/\ Yeah, he don't look much Lionel Richie at all does he?

Looks like a good workhorse you've got the Brian, although it is too clean I'm afraid. Next we see it, there had better be mud and cow shit all over! Really! Oh, and never wash it either, once every 3 years is allowed mind!

[BrianDamaged]

I did indeed throw a bucket of soapy water over it when I got it home yesterday, but I promise to curb such heathen tendencies in future.

Dad was uttering words like 'mop' and 'G3', whereas I was uttering words like 'Nato' 'satin' 'olive' and 'green'....with a nice 1/72 scale Airfix Dassault Mirage glued to the bonnet with some Humbrol.

Anyway it seems to suffer the usual maladies (gearchange like stirring a knitting needle in a bucket of gritty shit, accumulator clicking every 10 seconds or so) but it drives spot-on, only needs a couple of stabs with the glow-plugs when it's freezing (like this morning), and the brakes/suspension are nothing short of phenomenal. It did 70+ all the way back from Suffolk yesterday without complaint, so it'll do me for the next six months while I save my pennies for a 2CV...

[mickey taker]

fit a xantia accumulator sphere its ftw

[Fish_Botherer]

while I save my pennies for a 2CV...

erm... you'll be needing a few of those pennies then. Nowadays it seems that the price for good 'un (probably rebuilt) would very likely add up to my lifetime spend on BX purchases.

OK - quite a few of the BXs weren't purchased as such, or came with spares worth more than the BX itself, but money has changed hands occasionally.

Nonetheless the current asking prices seem peculiar for a car designed to ride over ploughed fields and not break the eggs inside. I suppose tanks with multi-link suspension fit that bill now and they probably are a mite dearer, and come with extra features like all those modern vehicles do now.

Speaking of eggs, I must go make an omelette with what's in the fridge before I can count the chickens.

[docchevron132]

Tis odd aint it, 2CV prices are still silly, even in this era of economic gloom.
Go figure!

[Bx Bandit]

cult following non? Aren't they doing a new tin snail or has that been binned?

I think the idea of a tank though stinky fish bloke...............

[docchevron132]

It's probably gopna be part of the new DS range?

[Fish_Botherer]

Probably binned, whatever its merits or demerits, in favour of the wanky brand-within-a-brand DS-revival marketing schtick. Did see the retro-2CV pix a whle back. Auto-express even referred to the "upcoming revival of the DS brand" this week. Funny, that - the DS was an old model of Citroen the last time I looked. But who am I to know? Just like Mini used to be a car model and a type of skirt, not a brand-and-marketing opportunity to be exploited as widely and often as possible.

Incidentally, Auto-express have an editorial this week inviting readers to sign a bring in scrappage petition, so they obviously think that what's not brand-new and shiny is irrelevant, so long lip-service is paid to "brand heritage".

Back in the wonerful shiny world of DS brand-dom, the proposed nay, even promised DS3 looks ever so much like a BMW Mini that's lost its C-pillars - with a damn great big set of chevrons slapped on the front.

What will the advertising strapline be? How about "The ultimate driving moschino?" - it does all look about as frothy as a cup of Starbucks' finest/worst. OK - froth=cappuccino really but I beg artistic license.

And what will the DS5 be other than a reskinned C6 with a stronger fashion slant?

But who knows, they might even start to make some money from the whole exercise, something PSA are apparently finding it very hard to do that the moment - even in countries with a scrappage scheme already in place to "stimulate" the market.

[Bx Bandit]

I had to visit the main stealer today to get a few items for the TD and had a look round the showroom whilst I was there. They all left me cold tbh. I might be forced into the new C5 if someone bought one for me but I',m not overly taken. All the C5s that have sold have ALL been springy things!!! Go figure! They've sold four C6s since it's launch, yet sold 60 C1s last month. Judging by the number of C4 and C4 Picassos about they must be doing well too. That C3 Picasso is well, a gimmick in my book and may be bought by tarts and quirky mums but I rekon a bloke would look a right cock driving one !

[Fish_Botherer]

Doc - didn't see your post (probably post-crossing). OK - they do have lower numbers to fill up for the DS range, but my guess is they're going for the BMW/Fiat 500 market first because, well...it's been seen to exist. The retro-2CV is an unknown quantity, and they're probably scared of doing what VW did, or rather didn't, with the RetroBeetle.

Bandit - I took Tom & Jane's garden rubbish to the tip at the weekend for them (a Ka doesn't really work for that), and the Southampton dealer's on the route. We stoppped for a look, and they had the C3 Picasso there. I don't mind the shape, and approve of something that uses most of the space for people, but we agreed it was really an overgrown version of the tall far-eastern miniboxes. Seemed expensive too, in the form they had it.

Not much else of interest, best-value car there was the obligatory secondhand Berlingo. At least you know what it's for.

Can't see that the C4's doing well - it's the only car they're doing that £2000 guaranteed part-ex masquerading as scrappage on. C4 Picasso seems to be selling better to me.

[docchevron132]

/\ all that!
The C4 pickarsehole seems to be selling REALLY well, and I have to say, I rather like them, they drive nice too.
My bro's mother in law has a C4 Grand Pickarsehole with leather pack and all that shit.
It's not bad at all.
That said, I still like the C4 three door thing, the 2.0VTS is a stunning little car if you rag the shit out of it!

[Fish_Botherer]

I'm sure it's nice to drive(the C4 - and prob the C4 Picasso too, which looks about as good as a big MPV can ever get too), but I don't think Citroen in the UK has ever really succeeded in shifting the C4 in plain form in the numbers they'd like.

Shame, because it doesn't have that on-steroids look that every Ford model, for example, has got now - and many others besides. It's just an uncomplicated, classically pretty shape, particularly in 3-door form. That's a rarity now, and it's possibly the only mainstream Citroen model range at present without any strange excrescences bumps, inflations or totally incongruous changes in line half-way. The C3's been around too long to count, and probably will be replaced from the top down (DS3 first to air, if the C3 Picasso doesn't already have the DNA).

A curse on the house of "Funky"!

The currrent C5 now has the ghost of Robert Bangle trying to get out from underneath the bodywork, and that just isn't right for a Citroen and doesn't differentiate from the competition - though that is a game that everybody's too scared to get meaningfully involved in now, unless there's a salami-thin alleged market segment somewhere to chase up its own backside.

Perhaps the end of that last sentence IS the motor industry, now that the finance isn't there to make money from money through the medium of loss-making metal that's been tweaked so much it's tauter than Cher's nether regions must be. Incidentally, anyone on here heard the one Jennifer Saunders cracked about Cher?

"If Cher has another facelift, she'll be wearing a beard."

I digress... But it'll take a Tesla-like-but-less-expensive outfit to upset the applecart in my opinion. Tata for now (the almost-an-alternative for straightened times?).

[docchevron132]

"If Cher has another facelift, she'll be wearing a beard."

I duno what you've been taking mate, but I fucking want some!

[Philhod]

Like I posted last year I've had my Xsara Picasso 3 years now and just love it.

It must be one of the best sellers Citroen have had, in this country, since the BX, despite all the inaccurate criticisms from hacks that probably never drove one.

Also like the BX, it has about the best turbodiesel on the market, under the bonnet, although granted the ride isn't a patch on my BX.

Speaking of engines, What Diesel Car mag has a retro section. Featured car this month was the Talbot Horizon which, they claim, was the first resting place of the 19 XUD described as near immortal. Going on to say that 7.5 million of these units were produced, and was credited with introducing diesel motoring to a huge number of previously sceptical motorists.

Praise well placed, in my view

[David]

Speaking of engines, What Diesel Car mag has a retro section. Featured car this month was the Talbot Horizon which, they claim, was the first resting place of the 19 XUD described as near immortal.

That's correct. 1982 model Horizons were available with an XUD9. I had two of the bloody things. Great engine but a tiring car to drive. Also taught me how to weld, and how to spot a tosser MOT tester a mile off.