I have owned five Citroens,stating many years ago with a Light Fifteen big boot model. Then after many years,two Bx16 valves and two XM`s. The 16 valves were mad,totally mental automobiles. Both of mine were in fantastic condition,and I wish I still had one. They were both capable of going 65 mph in SECOND gear,and if you were prepared to floor the throttle in any gear,you could travel around like a demented maniac!
Very fast and a loud beautiful engine note. Handled like a dream and very comfortable.
One of them broke it`s pump belt and it cost me £4.50 to fix it.
BX19RD estate. Bought a year ago for 50p, needed some small fixes and a service but not much. Came with pile of spares. It's just passed it's MOT again with NO work required. Indestructable almost free motoring. It's like the Top gear truck, it just keeps going (albeit with slightly milder abuse)
Citroen BX19RD Estate (1.9 non turbo Diesel). Current mileage 72000 - as of November 2002. Had from new some 13 years ago. Few cars today can touch the superb ride that the suspension affords the car. Has been unfairly criticised by those too tame to breath, let alone dare to venture. Powered steering has lots of feedback and at no time looses it 'feel'. Fuel consumption in town (London) at least 44M.P.G and more on a sedate run. This version is non turbo and therefore 'burning rubber' is hardly an option! Providing one doesn't forget the lack of pace then no untoward experience is likely to befall the driver. However, it does have enough torque for two people to be have been carried, swiftly, all over the hills of North Wales without comparative ease. (My American friend who I travelled with said she loved the car and was real disappointed when I intimated that I might sell it and get another newer type car.)
Downsides? Much as I love the car, I must advise the reader that after 1989 the steering, brakes and suspension are all powered by the same hydraulic system: and just a small leak from one of the innumerable flexible pipes can quickly render the car undrivable and in need of a tow truck as the suspension lowers the car from normal ride height to that of virtually touching the ground.
Finding a good repair shop that doesn't charge massive amounts of money to do practically nothing is not easy. When in Cambridgeshire, once, I even had a car tyre depot refuse to balance the wheel on the car as " it's a Citroen, mate: we don't do them."
Parts. I suppose what I have paid out in parts over 13 years has amounted to nothing more than a pittance.
Regrets? Je ne regret rien, Edif. Well, perhaps I rue the fact that I didn't go for the turbo version when buying the car.
after working on Citroen's for ten years i have seen a lot of what goes wrong with them and i have to say they are not as bad as most people think, ok the diesil's are prone to head gaskets and the occasional timing belt failure (mostly due to bad or lack of servicing) but the petrol engine's will go for ever if the oil is replaced at the correct intervals. I have owned 5 different citroen's, 3 zx's and 2 bx's and all of them have been very reliable only one has broken down due to a burnt out coil (BX 16v) all of the others have only needed the usual service items such as disc's, pads n such like. Basicly there is no other car you can buy that will give u the luxury and comfort, ie electric everything and POWER from the petrol engine's for the same money. In my opinion the best Citroen to go for is the ZX 1.9i or 2.0i as both of these cars have the comfort, power and style of even the newest cars on the market. Lastly things to look out for when looking to buy one are ZX- rear sub frame mounts, disc's (judder), brake flex hoses (persish on cars over 5 years old), split handbrake cables and front lower arm bushes. BX- radius bushes at rear, front lower arm bushes, ALL of the brake and susp pipes although most will now have copper pipes which will last for ever!, all disks and burst susp sphere's (very hard susp). AX- front discs, front lower arm bushes and rear shoes (rubbish hand brake and foot pedal travel). Xantia- front lower arm bushes, ball joints (front), h/b cables, front brake flex hoses perished. and all citroens are prone to drive shaft (c/v) boots. You may here yourself saying after reading this "jeese citroen's are rubbish" but beleive me ford's, fiat's and vauxhall's all require the same sort of stuff at the same intervals. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest,
I gotta an E-reg BX14re. Supposedly just 76bhp, but the way she pulls away.. who knows. its got 138000 miles on the clock, and I've known these cars to do nearly a 1/4 million miles before collapsing. A fair few miles to go yet then...? It's only a 1.4 but then I have beaten in pace a 1.8 sierra sapphire.
The styling outside of this car is great, and the comfort of the seats and the suspension is great. When you sit down the seat wraps around your back, and then the suspension goes over bumps and hole without noticing them.
Yeah.. the suspension needs work, but nothing a little care and attention - if in working order - won't prevent.
All in all this car is great and is really only an enthusiasts car - i've only just found out the wonders of this carrecently - but my next step is a 1.9 8v maybe a turbo - depending. Or if money is no problem an Xm. Wow what a great car - all of them...
Technologically advanced, square weird-machine. Pneymatic suspension and powerful engines made it a real prestige car. Shame that the steering wheel looked like a book holding a hula hoop. Horrible 80s cod-futuristic-ness.
19 TZS Hatchback. 1990. This has to be, without doubt, the worst car I have ever had the misfortune to own! Looks good, in a weird kind of way, but the one I had was lousy. Nothing worked the way it was supposed to! I can't recommend a BX to anyone other than a real fan of the Marque, and no, I won't be getting another one!
I have had the car 6 months and clock up many miles. Its on 142,000 with full service history. It is such a pleasure to drive, it will sit on the motorway with ease all day. I also took it to one of the stages of the Network Q (Rhondda) in 2001 so the suspension came in useful. It will be a shame to see that car go when its' due but at least I have the 16 valve 4x4 to look forward too.
1.9 diesel. Has been totally reliable for nine years. Change the hydraulic fluid every 30 000 miles, and the green spheres...front every three years, rear every five. There are plenty of enthusiastic non-franchised Citroen service people about. Rear arm bearings? I replaced two with reconditioned bearings for less than £30 each. There are plenty of cheap (good) places that will look after your car and lots of cheap parts, eg mail order.
Most of the comments hee seem clear: buy one which has been 'pre-neglected' and you'll pay the price of the other guy's mistakes. Get a reasonable one, though, and they're fabulous - last forever in the right hands, carry anything, cheapest possible way to get ABS for safety...
The 16v motor is a breed apart, and largely should be avoided: the injection's weird and the engine very highly tuned.
The absolute best model is the 1.9GTi 8-valve - motor from the 205 1.9, married up to that lovely hydraulic suspension and brakes, with Bosch injection (not the nasty Marelli fitted to the 16v!). You see a good few of them still around, expecially from G,H & J plate era, because if reasonably well cared for they soldier on forever. 1.9 8-valve GTi's actually have longer gearing than the 16v, so where the 16v is screaming away at 80mph, the 8v is just settling into an infinite lope.
Things to watch out for: the 1.9 engine in Peugeots & BXes of D to F plate era suffers from crap metal used to make the heads, so check yours is either later, or has a replacement head.
Injection can be sensitive to tuning, manifested by wobbly idle-speed while warming up - normally this is because someone's strayed away from real french Eyquem spark-plugs. All older BXes will suffer from two failings at the rear, one due to neglect, the other due to passage of time. The neglect problem is radius arm bearings (look for knock-kneed wheels, visible from the back), and the march of time is seized rear brakes: BX rear brakes are discs, and don't even operate until there's a real load in the boot - there's a pressure splitter valve which mixes feed to the rear suspension spheres, and if it's just front seat passengers only then the car doesn't even use the rear brakes.
To keep them happy and bouncy, you should adjust the suspension all the way up and all the way down a half-dozen times every few months, (flushes the system) and squirt WD40 into the inspection holes at the top of the front struts. Don't be afraid to take the hydraulic reservoir out and change the oil, either: all you need is WD40 to clean the filters and kitchen towel to wipe out the reservoir before refilling it.
LHM leaks are becoming common now as the 'stock' of BXes ages - most often it's just a low-pressure return hose perishing, and can be fixed for peanuts by a specialist. Treat alternators as semi-disposable.
G reg bx17 diesel bought for £400.00.V.G.C.,but no powered steering so you need strong arms! Contrary to popular opinion parts are very cheap and readily available if bought online from specialists,i.e. german,french ,swedish or euro car parts.50 mpg but a bit slow.Very reliable; only breakdown so far was the clutch operating arm breaking; apparently a known weak spot. Modified replacement cost a tenner and took about 5 mins to fit.Cambelt,on the other hand, takes forever to change and you need 3 hands with ten 8" fingers on each,or it seems like it at the time.Ride is superb,as is towing and load carrying,and suspension hydraulics are extremely reliable;as a system its been around longer than the macpherson strut,and is a lot less complex than it appears to be.Its only when you get back into a normally suspended car that you realise how superior it is, even for a 10 yr old car with 170.000 miles on the clock.The best car i ever bought.
My car is a 1992 BX Millesime. It is nine years old now but its performance is still very good on the road. With good service these Citroens have very long life...
I purchased a 3yr-old BX Diesel with automatic gearbox, and 8yrs later sold it with over 150,000mls on the clock. The autobox coupled to the non-turbo'd 1900cc engine were a good combination, and made it an extremely easy car to drive.
This car worked hard over the 8yrs, carrying bricks, cement,sand, gravel, paving stones in the boot without any complaint! I did most of my own maintenance, only trusting a garage to replace 2 exhausts, 1 suspension leg and 1 head-gasket/head re-grind. The latter was necessary at 100,000mls, which I understand is not unusual. Apart from that, most things lasted much longer than expected, especially tyres, batteries, brakes, and exhausts.
The only reason for selling was that it was getting old, starting to rust, and major components had yet to totally fail. We also fancied a change for something more up-market and with performance, and bought an XM Turbo. Big mistake!! We got the performance, but always had hand in pocket to keep it running - that's another story!
The Citroen BX was the forerunner of the current Citroen Xantia model, in some ways it's easy to see the resemblance: slightly oddball styling, and powered everything. The angular styling hasn't done too badly over time. It still looks as weird now as when it was new! Some parts are obvious age related giveaways, like the huge and obvious rough molded bumpers but all in all there are many worse looking cars than this (see Austin Allegro, Pre '94 Skodas, Fiat Multipla and the mother of them all, the Ford Scorpio)
Interior Getting into the car, you notice the obvious design flaw of most French cars from this era: they appear to be made from tin foil and cardboard. The doors have a real flimsy feel as you pull them open and vibrate shut with a tinny rattle. I'm not saying they are not designed and built well, it's just that they feel like they have been made from the thinnest possible materials.
The Citroen interior is a bit like a sixties sci-fi film, guessing at a Bauhaussian future that never arrives. Thinly padded cross cut seats, acres of stark dark flat plastic, miles of uncovered metal, rubber lever gaiters and a multitude of unmarked scattered controls and switches you may be able to live with; woollen trim for the seats you probably couldn't.
The one area of Citroen design that has not improved recently though is the steering wheel, the single spokers of old are a design classic which probably won't return in this age of air-bags - Shame!!
Engine Transmission.
The engine in this one had me fooled. As I was coerced in semi darkness into an already running vehicle, the fuel tank showed half full and it was starting to rain, I didn't have time to inspect the tail badge. With the windows down it sounded a little rough, like a diesel but with the windows up and the car moving I wasn't quite so sure. This thing had almost electric pace with a real mid-range surge. First thing on arrival at destination was to check the badges, yep a turbo diesel. Perhaps the aforementioned flimsy build is the secret here, maybe the car's so light due to the paper thin metal that it has a huge power to weight ratio. Maybe it's just the lack of all the interior trimmings and power everything that gives it such a turn of speed, maybe my normal car is just so slow, either way it's a nice reminder that performance isn't just about pure BHP
Whilst the Citroen BX engine may shine, the Citroen BX gear-box does not. The stubby lever with shiny lollipop gearknob looks promising, but it's about as indistinct and rubbery a shift as a gear-box can be; changes are best avoided as long as possible and then executed slowly with precise application of brute force.
Ride & Handling In this pre Citroen Xantia model, the fluid suspension shows why it was either loved or loathed. Around town the car floats over bumps like they don't exist, but on the motorway it floats along feeling slightly out of control, giving me, at least, a rather queasy feeling when cruising at speed. Given more time you could probably learn to love it and the comfort it brings to this car.
Unfortunately, the BX rolls and understeers too much to be described as a good handler. The steering is finger light, which is great round town but doesn't have much feel and is too lifeless through the bends, but still it's reasonably sharp if you trust the tyres to keep on gripping.
The big fan club for these seems to be with middle-aged caravan club members. The self-leveling suspension is the main reason for this of course and it's doubtful that you could buy anything used with self-leveling cheaper than one of these.
Brakes. The brakes are the infamous insensitive Citroen items and whist they do work (very well when pushed) they are somewhat on-off, especially at slow speeds in traffic, which combined with the soft pitching suspension can lead you into a superb jerking kangaroo stop, which does not please your passengers too much .
Buy One ? The suspension worries people most but despite the perceived complexity, it really shouldn't be that much of a concern as it is a well-proven and tested system and is well catered for by a host of garages nowadays.
There are quite a few of these still knocking around, and they seem to vary from rusty shed to immaculate original shed with prices ranging from a few hundred pounds to some really almost exotic levels (well a rather optimistic few thousand anyway). To buy one you really need to be a Citroen lover who can't afford a Xantia, but if you're looking at an expensive one , I'd suggest you look at a cheap Xantia instead of the delightful Citroen BX.
I like my 2nd-hand BX 16TRS (1985). It was cheap, but well looked-after. If you maintain it (get with an enthusiasts' club), you will have no problems. The older they are, the more rattles - it's a fuel crisis car; there are plastic components, but NO RUST. French cars tend to be built with the driver in mind, a bit of luxury and intended to last. It's Citroen suspension! And Citroen style - all that light. You have to love them!
I run 2 BX diesel estates in my business which carry a lot of weight with no problem and occasionally tow a trailer. These Cars are litterally hammered but well maintained and although a little slow handles superbly with weight and on rough bumpy bendy roads. You get a lot of car for a little money if you are prepared to maintain them. Apart from a few minor breakdowns over the years they are good but on the downside they need to be maintained by a good citroen specialist mechanic (not your average garage as you will pay dearly!) I can't think of any other car that would replace the versatility of the BX apart from the Xantia
I had a 16V BX from new as a company car. Fantastic performance, great Q car, plenty gadgets, certainly upset the usual hot hatch brigade. Unfortunatly totally unreliable! Delivered new with no syncromesh on some of the gears, the suspension failed, the paint fell off, a door handle failed, engine management went on holiday. After 7 months company got rid of it as a liability. You have been warned!
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