1999 Citroen Xantia Exclusive (formerly VSX) 2.1 turbo diesel

Summary:

Fabulous car - luxury motoring at a family car price

Faults:

Absolutely nothing went wrong with this car during the period I owned it. Fantastic!

General Comments:

I bought this car because I wanted an inexpensive car that would handle high mileage, yet give me great comfort and accessories. The Citroen Xantia Exclusive was *perfect*.

The diesel was amazingly quiet, economical, yet gave great performance in the upper gears - terrific on the motorway.

The ride is fabulous; I've been in luxury cars (Jaguar, Mercedes, Lexus) that didn't ride as well.

The interior was leather, with heated seats (electronically adjustable), electric windows all round, central locking, CD changer, air conditioning and nifty wheel mounted controls for the audio system. In short, an incredible specification at a family car price.

The car *looked* great too; metallic green, Bertone styling, and came with Citroen alloys.

A fabulous motor - if you see one, buy it.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 14th January, 2002

1999 Citroen Xantia LX Estate 1.8i

Summary:

An excellent family sized car that gives a high level of performance

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong with the car.

General Comments:

A very comfortable car. Plenty of leg room in the rear which I think is important and something many cars lack.

A pleasure to drive.

Why doesn't it feature more in the car sections of national newspapers?

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 29th October, 2000

20th Jan 2001, 14:17

Keep an eye on your door hinges - they will fail, also the lights in the dash.

Keep up your AA membership for when the clutch cable comes adrift. Make sure it's AA Relay, it cannot be fixed at the road side.

8th Apr 2001, 17:31

Having owned a Xantia 2.0 SX for 3 years (and 50,000 miles) I have to disagree with the comments posted 20th Jan 2001, 14:17. I have had no problems with door hinges, dashboard lights or clutch cable, perhaps the latter is because I paid attention to a little preventative maintenance.

Kev.

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1999 Citroen Xantia SX 2.0 HDi

Faults:

Driver door dropped on hinges.

Wiper mechanism failed.

Water ingress into gearbox on 2 occasions.

Car was supplied with overtight throttle cable resulting in 68mph top gear idle speed.

General Comments:

A previous Xantia featured all these faults plus suspension failure.

If you need a reliable car to do high mileage, don't touch Xantia with a smelly stick.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 17th December, 1999

23rd Jan 2010, 15:30

Hi.

I have a 2000 Xantia LX HDi 90 that's on about 170k. My local dealer knows 2 doing 400k. No major problems so far. Original clutch, original exhaust etc and I don't drive easy. Engine is as strong as when I got it. Purrs at motorway speed.

Having said that, I'm not rough on a car. I do 5k oil changes instead of 10k (pay an oil changer).

Timing belt changed once @ 100k even though that made me nervous. I will do it shortly now. Before 180k :-)

Bought the car @ 1 owner from a Nissan garage for €7k in 2005 and it's only let me down once; for a known fault, the rear fuel lift pump. Hardly a crisis. A few thumps with the seat lifted got me home. also the pulley was changed along with the timing belt.

The outside temp reading is always wrong but then common sense will always tell you the temperature; if you still have a pulse........

Expertly cared for by the sadly deceased young Martin McEvoy of Laois, an enthusiast and expert. Ex Citroen mechanic, highly trained, who knew them and loved them. He took care of 3 Xantias I owned. If you like big Citroens, just find a mechanic who does also. What cars! Just great. I had a 1.9TD SX, sold @ 157k miles. Stupidly, because I was offered a company Focus. Then after a few company cars, I bought a 1 owner 2.0 16v SX Xantia. Lovely lovely car. I had zero faults, ever, with that car, until the timing belt went, unfortunately for me. 14 valves out of 16 were replaced Ouch. But what a car. Diablo red. And it could move. Quite a light car.

Moral of the story? Take care of Citroens and they'll take care of you. Mine's towed countrywide, been up mountain trails, done everything I've ever asked of it. An utterly perfect car, as every last generation Citroen always is.

Do yourself a favour and buy yourself a 2nd gen Citroen, you'll have comfort, reliability and yes, sometimes even fun.

In reply to 23rd Jan 2010, 15:30

11th Apr 2014, 08:32

Me again.

Finally had to change the ORIGINAL clutch in 2013, after 210K miles. Camwheel the year before.

Such great cars. Coming up to its 14th birthday in a few weeks and it is going like a train. Will be getting some much needed 'mechanic love' in the next few weeks; to bring it on another few seasons. This car will see 20 years easily. Maybe not with me; it's hard to say.

1999 Citroen Xantia SX 1.9 turbo diesel

Faults:

Rev counter stopped working. Dealer replaced but new one stopped working after 2 days. Fault was traced to sensor, this was replaced.

Rear wash wipe: pipe disconnected.

General Comments:

The most comfortable car I have ever owned. I do 50k+ miles per year.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 10th September, 1999

28th Feb 2002, 15:00

Citroen Xantia SX 1.9TD.

Purchased as a business car in August '01, I'm self employed and require a reliable car. First few months were okay but since the New Year I've had a number of problems:

> Clutch cable link x 2.

> Rear spheres have gone.

> Accelerator cable broken.

> Radio remote - volume changes the station.

Having read the other comments, do I just have a bad set of wheels. The car is a 1997 (P) with 86,000 on the clock, I want to enjoy it but I need a reliable car.

Sorry for the negativity.

Cheers.

14th Dec 2002, 15:14

People seem to misunderstand the fact that spheres don't "break", they wear out, like everything else on a car. You can't fault a car because it needed new spheres. It's like saying the it needed a new oil filter!

13th Nov 2003, 08:24

Can anybody tell me where to find the rev count sensor on a xantia 1995 model... T D lx.