As the lovely Jaguar disappeared down my street with its new owner at the wheel, it could only mean one thing. It was time for the twelfth, and final car in this saga, the December car, a 1995 Citroën XM.
Now then, you may well remember that back in June I was on the hunt for a Citroën XM, in either flavour,
hatchback, or estate as I
think that they are both equally beautiful, and interesting. I had
fancied one for a long time, and to be honest I have promised myself one
since they came out in 1989! Infact, in 1989 I was so enamoured with the
idea of buying one that I bought a coffee table type book all about the
Citroën XM, there it is look, still on my coffee table...
But sadly the beautiful XM eluded me, and I bought it's smallest sibling, the Citroën AX instead! (By the way, if you happen to be
the same type of anorak addict as me, and you're wondering what the ISBN is
for the book so you can get yourself a copy for your bookshelf it is:-
ISBN 2-85120-315-0)
As interesting as the Citroën AX was to own and drive, it still didn't scratch the itch of having a Citroën XM very well. So I continued to browse fleabay, and various other sites on a daily basis throughout the year looking for a Citroën XM. I was starting to get desperate, and by October I was starting to casually browse car sales sites on mainland Europe looking for one. I really wanted one, having the AX only made the itch to own an XM even worse, so if it meant taking my pick up and a trailer to Europe to get one then so be it.
Finally, just in time to be the last car of the year this one showed up, a 1995 Citroën XM with a 2.0litre petrol engine, and 154972 miles showing on the odometer. As I didn't read the fleabay ad correctly, and thought it was only in
Hertfordshire, I bid on it, and for just £500.13 I won it! I then read the ad more thoroughly and found it to be not in Hertfordshire as I had thought, but in Herefordshire instead. Oh well, thats only twice
as far away then. Never mind. So, once more I
asked all friends if they could give me a lift. But, no, it would appear if
my lift getting privalidges have been revoked for the year. So, the
train it was then. To my horror it was £137 one way. Didn't they undersdtand, I only wanted one seat, not the whole carriage! Worse than that, it's a five and a
half hour journey. I decided to try my friends again! Finally I managed to convince my Brother that he needed to drive me for two hours
rather than let me and my two little Monsters sit on the train for five and a
half hours so that we could collect the beautiful Citroën XM that eludes me no longer. Ofcourse there was no fuel in it when I collected it, obviously the previous owner was not of the same caliber as the previous owner of my Citroën AX, and so here's the first fill shot:-
I'll admit that it is a little scruffier than I'd hoped, but it's solid,
the interior is very nice, and it's got twelve months MOT on it, so it
can't be all bad! Mind you, I would have thought that the previous owner would've atleast waved a soapy water filled sponge over it before I came to collect it too, but all in all I think I'm pretty happy with it. 
So then, that'll be another of my dream cars
purchased. I wonder if perhaps I should dream bigger, but I honestly thank my lucky stars that my dream cars are
Citroën XMs and stuff like that, it makes acheiving my dreams so much
easier on my dwindling bank balance.
I'll admit that the Citroën XM probably isn't on everybodys wish list, and its not really as nice as the Jaguar, but that being said it still feels quite special to me. I had worried that as this is only my second Citroën experience I was concerned that it would feel like peasant motoring at it's finest much like the AX. But thankfully it does not. I've got a full complement of guages on the dashboard, big comfy seats, and the ride is smooth and qiuet. I don't feel so much like a peasant taking my goat to market, but more like an executive off to the board room. I had been thinking if this XM might be a case of "you shouldn't meet your heroes" but it's not at all, I am quite pleasantly surprised, and I think I'm gonna like this.
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