1994 Citroen Xantia VSX review from UK and Ireland

Water pump.

Union in the cooling system - £8.00 part but cost over £100 due to dealer labour charges.

Suspension - all spheres replaced twice at significant expense.

Glow plugs replaced at 120,000 miles - not surprising bearing in mind the age and mileage.

Central locking system packed up three times - two solenoids and 1 relay replaced. When the central locking system packs up on these it's impossible to lock the car even using the key.

Two rear silencers.

Electric sun-roof jammed in the open position and couldn't even be closed using the emergency manual winding system.

Countless instrument light failures.

Tyres have been replaced numerous times with very low mileages on them due to uneven tread wear, Citroen suspension problems have caused this.

Cassette player developed an appetite for the tapes, Citroen replaced it but the new unit also chewed so I eventually got an adaptor kit and fitted a Pioneer unit.

New wiper motor at 62,000 miles.

Although I only purchased this car at 90,000 miles I bought it from the company I worked for and it had been in their fleet from new, so I knew exactly what its history had been.

The Citroen 1.9TD is an excellent engine, provided it's well maintained this engine will go forever and performs better than many smaller petrol engines yet has still given me an average of nearly 40mpg.

The interior build quality has also been a pleasant surprise, very few rattles and very durable materials, even with 149,000 on the clock it still looks as good as new.

That quality is not reflected in the bodywork however, very soft paint, chips if someone gives it a nasty stare. Poor panel fit and the rubber window seals seem to weather faster than any other material known to man.

The suspension, whilst very clever, makes the car feel like a badly laden canal barge when cornering, and is horrendously expensive if it goes wrong, which it does on a regular basis.

The electrics are awful and no one seems able to fix them without taking the car to pieces. The dealers don't want to investigate problems properly, their answer is simply to start replacing parts until the faulty one has been reached, a horribly expensive method. The remote central locking is prone to failure, the dealers which I have used all inform me that failed solenoids are very common on both the Xantia and the Xsara.

The car is a very comfortable long distance motorway cruiser, when it works, but I'm trading mine in now as the maintainance for the last 12 months has cost me 125% of the cars value.

By the way, don't bother if you're over 6ft 1, I'm 6ft 2 and my head touches the roof lining. Very uncomfortable on long drives.