On 08/10/2011 16:27, Andy Dingley wrote:
On Oct 8, 4:12 pm, wrote:
The CX was a pain to adjust and only worked for a bit afterwards. The BX
was actually rather good. The Xantia seems similarly effective.

That's one car which you can't tow with a rope or bar (at least if
there's no engine). Not because of the brakes, but because no-one is
strong enough to steer without the hydraulics

Try an XM - you can't even recover those on a beavertail if the
hydraulics have sat and squatted, they're too low at the front. Only
way is to pull them up backwards.

If you have one that sinks tail first (not unusual if it has been used
as a furniture van), then you can't even do this. You have to wait
until the front hydraulics squat and it goes level again, then pull it
up backwards.

If you're impatient and damage the plastic nosecone by dragging it on
board, its something like £800 for a new one. A massive thing, no
repair possible, and it goes from the lowest extremity of the airdam
right up to the bonnet lid.

I think my Citroen days are over. I had a couple of petrol CX 8 seaters
in the late 80's / early 90's when I had a big family to ferry around.
The fuel consumption doesn't bear thinking about at current prices. I
worked in a research lab in those days and a couple of technicians had
all the kit for recharging the spheres, and they were pretty good at
sorting the hydraulics in general. Lovely cars to drive, though.

Mind, I can't even drive my ordinary boring astra estate up on normal
ramps these days for much the same reason: I have to use a pair of sand
ladders to get the angle down.