Got the very expensive but comfortable and air-conditioned South West Train down to Bournemouth to pick up my new toy. Good 150 mile run back home, apart from the wing mirrors folding themselves back at speed. It's smooth, comfortable, the interior's in good nick and the mechanicals seem good with just 45,000 miles on the clock. There are a few bits of rust here and there, but nothing major. She's going to be my everyday car so we'll see how it goes... I love the C-Matic gearchange too!
16-8-03
Tightened up those wing mirrors (after a good WD-40ing), put in a stereo that works, and drove to Bristol to see my grandma. When I tried to move it though, it wouldn't start - just a click from the relay but the starter motor didn't turn. So, either a dead battery or a dead starter motor.
17-8-03
Went out to the car to fetch the leaflet with my breakdown cover details and decided to give it one more try. Bingo, it started! That dead battery/starter must have had one last kick left in it. Drove straight home without stopping. Stopped and started it a few times on the drive and it started no problem. Hm... I HATE intermittent problems! Going to put a known good battery in and see what happens.
21-8-03
Didn't get round to putting a battery in - I decided that the one in there was good, for the simple reason that the headlamps managed to stay on even while trying to start. So (having accidentally phoned the previous owner) I turned my attention to the cables. I cleaned, copper-eased and replaced the battery terminals, but couldn't reach the damn starter motor because it's hidden behind exhaust manifold, radiator, heatshield or engine, depending on which angle you go from. Any ideas?
31-8-03
I went to visit some friends in Canterbury the other day and stopped at the local off-licence to get a bottle of wine to take with me. When I got out of the car, I saw LHM pouring out from underneath. I leapt back in and drove home as fast as possible, praying I'd get there before running out completely and losing brakes, suspension and steering.
Closer inspection proved that the LHM pipe had split where it joins the pump, and also at the top by the LHM reservoir.
Some phonecalls revealed that special LHM hose is like rocking horse shit - but more expensive. I needed it in a hurry, so in desperation I asked the rather wonderful Chris Salter if I could nick some hose off Deirdre and he said yes. So that's what I did today... it's quite a bodge-up, but it seems to work. Put some patches on the slightly holey exhaust as well.
2-9-03
The plan always was to take the CX to France with me when I start my new job there. However, I was being hopelessly disorganised (well, working so hard in my old job that I didn't have time to do it, actually) so only just noticed that the MoT and tax ran out at the end of this month. With just two days to get it a new MoT (necessary for the tax, see) I tried and utterly failed. Well, not too seriously, but it won't be coming with me.
It failed on rusty hydraulic hoses, a badly adjusted handbrake (well, it is a CX), front suspension balljoint, front tyres and a bit of welding to be done at the base of the B-post. Nothing catastrophic, but too much for two days.
So, the spaceship's been abandoned at the long-suffering P Wells Engineering in Chelsfield (01959 532525) and my rather wonderful father will deliver it to me, fixed and MoT'd, when he comes to visit me in Nancy at the end of October. Can't wait to be reunited with it. And me? I'm getting the Eurostar.
25-10-03
Dad arrived in Nancy today in the CX. The poor bloke's had no end of trouble with it, having to get all the work done for the MoT and then having to replace the LHM pump and the starter motor as well. However, he has put a lot of love into it too, going wild with the filler and white paint. He's done a superb job on the rust holes in the doors and elsewhere and it looks and goes very well now. He really enjoyed the drive across and I think he was sad to say goodbye to the old girl. Now I'm looking forward to driving her again myself, but I can't at the moment because of a minor contact lens problem...
9-11-03
A picture for your delight and delectation - collected the old girl from her parking space the other day and finally got to drive her! Out into the Vosges mountains, to admire the scenery and enjoy the empty, winding B-roads. Great fun.
21-11-03
Thought I'd go to Luxembourg for the day last Saturday, but no: battery was dead. Finally got a new one today, €89 from the Renault dealer at the end of my road. It would have been far cheaper from an out-of-town supermarket, but of course I couldn't get to an out-of-town supermarket because my battery was flat. Maybe that's how they can advertise them so cheap - no-one actually buys the damn things.
26-11-03
Went to Metz for the day last Saturday, and as I was coming back I noticed that the left indicator seemed very bright. Inspected it on parking: the plastic lens which covers the indicator and sidelight had come off. It should have been glued, but I guess the glue lost its stick over time. The other side seems OK. I went to the scrapyard in Vandoeuvre today and got another lamp unit for a mere €13. Fitted it, but the plastic clip which holds it in place snapped. Just as I was cursing the thing, the wife of a friend of mine who's interested in radio-controlled planes came by (bad style that: friend interested in planes, wife came by. Well, I was parked outside their flat). She suggested the strong tape he uses to fix the plane, and went to get me some. It's a pretty monkey repair, I know, and I'll fix it properly before the show season, but the tape's clear and invisible to the casual observer.
9-12-03
I've known for a little while that the rear windscreen leaked, as a lot of CXs do, and that the interior of the car was quite damp - it tends to steam up a lot. Today, though, was the first freeze - ice on the outside and inside of the windscreen. Took me 20 minutes of scraping, with the heater and fan on, before I could see well enough to drive off. It runs really badly in the cold weather, too. Is this normal for CXs? The G-series was never great in the cold, but the CX has a completely different engine.
12-12-03
Bit of an update on the spaceship's recent comedy breakdowns. It's cost my dad a fortune - now time for some light relief while it's with me!
Firstly, the third and hopefully final reason why it doesn't always start. A new battery and starter motor should make it pretty willing, but no. The final problem is a little bullet connector which keeps coming adrift. Without it, the car runs but doesn't start. When I put the new battery in I realised that it was because the battery wasn't properly battened down, so its movement was pulling this little cable free. When I put the new battery in, I tightened it down properly, although the bolts were extremely difficult to get to.
Guess what? It still happens. Because the battery moves about. I rather suspect that the tray has completely rusted away underneath it, and I'm waiting for the battery to fall out of the bottom of the car.
Finally, that rough running in the cold. It was horrible - backfiring, cutting out unless you gave it loads of choke... not much fun in an automatic, which you can't really nurse along by slipping the clutch. Anyway, I noticed today that the crankcase breather pipe had fallen off. I've put it back - I'll let you know on the next cold morning if that's what was causing the problem.
13-12-03
Arrived in Saint-Dizier for the Christmas party at the school where I used to work, but when I got there my "new" indicator unit had gone. I think I heard it go on the motorway, but assumed it was just a stone. Very annoying! I'd washed the car a couple of days previously and it was raining on the way, so I guess the adhesive on the tape wasn't very waterproof. It hasn't even left a trace of sticky gunk on the chrome.
5-1-04
More comedy breakdowns. I fear my car is developing a sense of humour. Or perhaps she just doesn’t like being neglected.
I went home to England for the Christmas holidays so I left the CX at one of the places where I work, behind locked gates and safer than leaving it on the road here in the town centre. I took this photo of it covered in snow...
...then got in and discovered that the battery had entirely died in the last two weeks. So: there really is something in the car which is draining the battery. Was the old battery actually okay and the new one a waste of €90? I’ll never know. Anyway, some very kind colleages tried to jumpstart it off a Rover 214. It still didn’t start, until we found an air leak from a cracked rubber pipe. Funny - I’ve never had that problem on the Rovers, but my Citroens do it to me all the time.
Finally, having cut the leaking pipe and re-attached it at a non-cracked bit, the spaceship burst into life and rose up into the air. I let her warm up, then drove to the nearest petrol station, as I’d left her nearly empty. You’ve guessed it - not enough juice in the battery to restart after I’d put petrol in. The cashier brought me a big battery and jumpleads and sent me on my way. I did notice, though, that some sparks jumped across when he put the jumpleads on - something left on, or a short circuit? It supports the theory of the battery being drained. Anyway, after that, the radio didn’t work any more. Very bizarre, that. When you take the face off the red light underneath still flashes, so it’s getting power, but when you put the face on it doesn’t show the time, like it should, and you can’t switch it on. Random.
I drove around for a bit to charge the battery, then went back to the scrapyard to get a new indicator unit. The guy very kindly gave me a free one, as the old one had broken, despite the big sign saying that they don’t give refunds or exchanges (reasonably enough, on second-hand parts). The sidelight is a bit temperamental, of course - dodgy bullet connector. Another Citroen trait.
When I parked up I disconnected the battery as a precaution (more difficult than it sounds, given that my spanner roll had got wet and then frozen solid in the boot) and succeeded in striking sparks on the terminal, so either something's switched on which shouldn't be, or there's a short-circuit somewhere. The spaceship will be going to an auto-electrician, very soon!
12-1-04
I tried to drive the car last Thursday, only to discover that the battery was dead again, despite the fact that I'd disconnected it. At this point, I was still blaming the car - I reasoned that if it wasn't charging properly, there maybe wasn't enough charge left in it to start. So I wandered round to an auto-electrician to book it in for a test to find and fix the problem. The mechanic there very kindly told me to check the new battery first, as there are a lot of faulty ones about, and he didn't want to take my money for no reason. I bought a battery charger from them (I wanted a new one anyway, so no great loss) so that I could charge the battery up and then find out if it lost charge even when not connected to the car.
Went home. Hoiked the battery out of the car. Carried it home. Plugged it in. The fuse on the charger blew. I went out and bought another. Same again.
So, I took the charger back to the shop, saying that it didn't work. They were extremely surprised, saying that no-one had ever brought one back before. They tried it on a new battery in the shop and it worked fine. They gave me a supply of fuses and told me that there must be a short circuit in the battery.
So, on Saturday I got a friend to jumpstart the CX and drove it back to where I bought the battery. I told them it was faulty, that it lost charge even when not connected to the car, and that it blew the fuse on my charger. They refused to exchange it without testing it, and that all the mechanics had already gone home. I parked the CX across their lifts and went home.
Today, Monday, I went to pick it up and sure enough, the battery was faulty. Just goes to show - it's not always my cars which are knackered, sometimes it's the new parts that I buy!
Oh, by the way - the stereo works fine now, it had clearly just decided to take the day off. Very odd.
14-1-04
I did something I'd never done before today - bought a part from a main dealer. Ages ago, I was topping up the radiator expansion tank when suddenly the pressure cap, which I'd been holding in my other hand, went "ping" and the important "pressure" part disappeared into the engine bay. I've been looking for another since, but I keep being given the wrong one - the classic type which would go straight onto the top of a radiator with a quarter turn, rather than the screw-on plastic one which goes onto a CX expansion tank. Finally got one from the Citroen dealer in Houdemont today, for the princely sum of €5.94. Not bad. I'm going to get them to replace the accumulator sphere, too.
Having treated it to something new and nice, of course the spaceship decided to mess with me on the way home. I was braking for a red traffic light, when suddenly an awful noise started. I was going to pull over after the light turned green to investigate, but when smoke started pouring out from under the bonnet I pulled the key out of the ignition and popped the bonnet. To my surprise the engine kept running. I grabbed the fire extinguisher, but by the time I'd got the bonnet up the smoke had stopped. A sorry sight greeted my eyes: the starter motor was running continuously, and the feed wire to it was occasionally slapping against the rotating part of the alternator, striking huge white sparks off it. The smoke had been the insulation burning off the wire. I grabbed some spanners, disconnected the battery, and pushed the car out of the traffic.
The idiots at the Renault garage who replaced the battery hadn't bolted it down. It had moved across and allowed the starter feed wire to slap against the turning part of the alternator, which stripped the insulation off it and caused a short circuit -the big starter feed wire and the small wire which goes to the solenoid run together in the same rubber sleeve. I looked at it forlornly for a bit, then set to work. First I cut the rubber sleeve away. Then I pulled the smaller wire off (the rubber insulation had melted to that of the larger wire), and reconnected the battery, just to see. All seemed well - no sparks. So I wrapped electrical tape (which I just happened to have in the glove box) around all the exposed bits of the starter feed wire (which was a bit blackened, but not broken). The small solenoid wire had broken - or, more likely, melted. I twisted the ends together and wrapped electrical tape around that, too, then reconnected everything, bolted the battery down, and turned the key. All seems well.
I don't really want to have to replace the wires, as the starter on a CX is completely inaccessible. But I will buy some insulating sleeves, a connector and some cable ties, re-make the connection where I had just twisted the broken wires together, insulate everything properly, and make sure that all the wires are tied down so that they don't hit the spinning alternator again.
A Jobsworth award and a very big wooden spoon to the gendarme who told me to switch my hazard lights on while I was frantically trying to disconnect the battery (the Renault mechanics had tightened that up all right) with smoke pouring off the wires, big sparks flashing past my hands, and the engine turning right next to my head. He then told me off for causing a queue, so I asked him to help me push it out of the road but he just gave me a dirty look and drove off. Helpful bunch, the French police.
15-1-04
I did it again - bought a part from a Citroen main dealer. I even got it fitted in their workshop, too. The power steering has sometimes gone very heavy at parking speeds on the CX, suggesting that the accumulator sphere had seen better days. Today, I finally got it fixed.
I had gone around lots of garages to try and get the best quote, but none of them were willing to do it except, in a reversal of the usual position in Britain, the Citroen dealer. I once went to Burton and Deakin for a GS part and they didn't even know what a GS was - "Is that based on a 2CV, sir?"
Anyway, they had the part in stock and fitted it in about 45 minutes. The sphere cost €84.38 and the labour just €43.62. The hardest part of the job was trying to bill me from their whizz-bang computer system - it insisted on charging me for an hour and a half. They got around it in the end though.
It's made a huge difference - the car rises up more quickly in the mornings, and the steering is finger light even at parking speeds. It takes itself back to the centre more quickly than before, and even seems more positive at driving speeds. Money well spent.
Oddly, most of the other places I went said that the car was too old so the part wasn't available. According to the Citroen catalogue, however, it's the same sphere for all DSs, GS/As and CXs, which takes us up to (I believe) 1989. Easy job, too, taking a Citroen mechanic just 45 minutes. He said it was easier than the same job on a relatively modern XM or BX as well.
I stopped at a Leclerc Auto on the way home to get some electrical bits and tidied up the starter wiring. I've left the twisted-together solenoid wire as it is, as it seems pretty strong like that, but wrapped thicker insulation around everything and run the whole lot through some flexible trunking. I also replaced the positive battery terminal, as one of the screws on the old one had stripped its thread, so all three big fat wires were stuffed into one of its holes - not a pretty sight. I bolted the battery down properly, but I must admit that it's not a very secure design, and rusty to boot, so I wrapped some cable ties around it too. Cable ties were the only battery securement on my Saab 99 and they were quite strong enough.
28-1-04
Time to see if I can stop it raining on the inside. Like many CXs, the spaceship leaks through its rear window - not good for internal air pressure. Anyway. It also means the back seat gets wet, and you get ice on the inside of the windscreen on cold mornings.
I took the chrome trim off from around the rear screen, to discover that someone had already tried to fix the leak by sticking gaffa tape around the screen. Since gaffa is very strong but not waterproof I peeled it off to reveal the fossilised remains of a completely knackered seal underneath. I stripped away with a Stanley knife (messy job) and replaced it with Rubsons sealant, the one intended for cars and boats. I'll let you know the result next time it rains...
3-2-04
388 miles, and (roughly) 80 litres of petrol, €16.70 of motorway tolls, one litre of oil, and a rad full of water, and I'm home from my stay in France!
Not exactly a flawless trip, but not bad at all. I drove the first 315 miles at a legal 130kph with only very short breaks, and it proceeded to chuck the contents of the radiator all over French customs control at Calais. The fan comes on a lot so I always assumed it was running hot, but while re-filling the radiator I noticed that the fan comes on at the same time that the thermostat opens. Is that normal? The fan is an emergency measure which comes on at a higher temperature than the thermostat on all the other cars I've driven. Still, sitting in the queue at customs is the first time I've ever seen the red light on, and the first time it's thrown the water out. That's not bad, compared to my other water-cooled cars. The Saab absolutely depended on its fan and would overheat at a steady 40mph if the fan didn't work (which it sometimes didn't due to a corroded fusebox). There didn't seem to be very much water, but it practically emptied itself - the rad seems small for a 2.4 litre engine.
The other problem is that the steering has gone a little weird. It doesn't seem as precise as it should, and a couple of times the car shimmied to the left and right a few times, like a lorry in a high side wind. Is it possible the mechanic who replaced the accumulator sphere cocked up somewhere?
Only other thing was that the indicators decided to work v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y for about 15 minutes, then they were OK again. French electrics.
Oh, and it still leaks.
12-2-04
Just a couple of simple jobs today - I wanted to change the rotor arm, HT leads and radiator bottom hose.
Put the new rotor arm and leads on, no problem. I hadn't changed the dizzy cap because it looked quite clean. But when I put it back on, it cracked. No problem - I can get another from the local auto shop.
Got the bottom hose off, with the help of a drill to get through the top jubilee clip which had utterly rusted together. Put the new one on. And the bottom radiator feed snapped off in my hand, leaving a gaping hole in the rad.
I cursed my own stupidity for a while, but further investigation revealed that the old hose was fine, so presumably it had been leaking from the rad itself and was going to go at some point anyway. New rad ahoy... and maybe it won't overheat any more now.
16-2-03
I've tracked down a new rad at a Cit specialist in Heathrow and bought a new dizzy cap at the local auto shop, so today I decided to fit the cap and remove the rad so that I can measure it and make sure the new one is correct before I buy it.
Things started well when I sliced my finger open while removing the first hose. A bit of cursing and bandaging later, and I was on my way. The rad is simply held to the body of the car by two bolts - no problem. However, the fans and LHM cooler are bolted to the rad and I decided it would be easier to remove them in situ rather than disconnect them and lose a lot of expensive LHM. Also, I couldn't see where the wires were connected to the fans and I didn't really feel like cutting them.
The fans and LHM cooler are held on to the rad not by bolts but by threaded metal dowels with a nut at each end - the nuts 'twixt fan and rad are completely inaccessible, of course. The top two dowels came off no problem - the nut had stuck on with rust at this end, so it came free from the other end - no problem. In fact, I thought at that point that they were long bolts. But I had a nasty surprise when the for'ard nut dropped off of the bottom one, leaving the fan and LHM cooler still firmly stuck to the rad on that threaded metal dowel. I tried pulling, but the thread held firm; rotation is needed, and the rad won't turn unless I remove the undertray and wings! Same story on the other fan, of course, when I got to that - the top "bolts" came free fine, but the bottom one stuck.
At this point I decided to calm myself by putting the dizzy cap on. I did so with no problems, then tried to start the car just to see if it would. You've guessed it: it didn't start, but it did backfire loud enough to wake the dead and left this stain on the drive:
I'm just home from an area of France where there's a lot of hunting, and I honestly thought that someone had shot the car when I heard the bang. And I could understand why you'd want to - Elvis would never let a car get away with this level of cussedness.
PS: Popped out to the supermarket this afternoon this afternoon to get some comfort food and bumped into John, my favourite purveyor of greasy bits (01689 821382), just as I was stuffing a Scotch egg into my face. He told me not to blame him for supplying shonky parts, and pointed out that I'd described a classic case of "Did you adjust the points gap?"
Of course, these days I've learned enough humility to suggest that I may have reconnected the leads in the wrong order - although I did take care not to.
4-4-04
It lives! It lives! First up: the new radiator was a tight squeeze, as it comes from a later car. Finally squeezed it in though, and connected everything up right - oil cooler, fans etc. Hard as it was, it didn't actually take me two months - I've just been spectacularly busy at work and not in any fit state to get under a car in the dark when I got home.
It still wouldn't start though, until a lot of diagnostic messing about revealed that I'd connected the HT leads in the correct order, but 180 degrees out. Oops. All that backfiring has blown a hole in the exhaust, which is nice. It's not too bad though.
I'm so happy to have it back in the road, and not have to drive the bloody 309 any more! I'm in love with it all over again - great car. I've also made a small modification which has released a few extra horsepower and made the brakes more responsive into the bargain - chucked the driver's mat away.
3-5-04
I was round at my dad's and spotted that he had a multimeter so I thought we'd try and figure out where the battery was draining from. Armed with a fusebox, owners' manual, Haynes manual and a multimeter between battery and positive terminal, we went forth into the unknown land of the electrons. And discovered that both manuals were completely different and both wrong, but that the fault was probably behind the stereo. Not in the stereo because I've used it in both Deirdre and the Fun Bus before with no problems, so it's probably down to my idiot wiring. Will sort it when I have more time and daylight, and less rainwater to lie in. Blowing exhaust likewise.
28-5-04
Still haven't fixed the exhaust, but clever Tim and his funky multimeter declared that the drain isn't nearly enough to empty a battery, so the jury's still out on why it died. Perhaps it wasn't charging very well - I've tidied up the wiring to the battery and it seems healthier according to the ammeter on the dash.
New problems though - it's just started cutting out and misfiring in exactly the same way that Deirdre did before I sold her. It goes like this. The GSA and CX have the same Weber carb, with twin throttle bodies. When you floor the throttle you open the second throttle and theoretically go faster, but actually sometimes badly misfire in my CX. I've been aware of this for a while but put it on the "to-do" list.
Today, however, it started behaving like Deirdre. Driving along, and suddenly there was no power although the engine was still running. I finally coasted to a halt, stalled, and restarted. All was well for a few hundred yards and then the same thing happened again. I discovered then that it was doing exactly the same thing as the old GSA - that it, it was running badly on a normal throttle opening, but absolutely fine on the second throttle body, or with the choke fully out. I drove home with the choke fully out. So, I'm assuming that the carb's scrap, but I'm going to give Chris Salter a bell later, and ask him how he got Deirdre started again. I read in the last Citroenian that she's running, so I need to know how.
12-6-04
Last ditch attempt before spending lots of money that I don't have. Took the carb completely to pieces, cleaned it thoroughly with carb cleaner and a powerful airline, put instant gasket on (it had no gaskets at all before), installed a fuel filter (in case the problem was crap from the tank blocking the jets) and put it all back together. All seems well, but we will see.
10-7-04
Replaced the blowing exhaust flexi pipe at RSR Tyres for a very reasonable £65.
11-7-04
Lydden Hill Classic Car Show. I went to this show last year and thoroughly enjoyed it - there's a parade lap of classic cars in the morning, then the classics park to give a normal static-show-in-a-field while real racing goes on in the background. Last year, I especially remember the tail-happy Escorts flinging themselves around the top bend. Sadly Deirdre was broken down at the time so I didn't get to go around the track myself, but this year I did! There was a bit of traffic on the first lap:
but the safety car thinned the traffic out on the second lap so that I could put the CX's legendary handling to the test. With a remarkably low speed and remarkably little tyre squeal, one can achieve remarkably high cornering angles:
These pictures both taken where those Escorts were waggling their tails last year at probably something around 30mph. Great fun.
The racing was good too - Lydden is the home of Rallycross so we were treated to the sight of Minis dirt-racing. Fabulous.
14-7-04
New Firestones on the rear, £105.75 the pair. The fronts have loads of tread left but are a cheap nasty brand - next time I'm feeling rich I'll put Michelins on the front.
10-9-04
Two months - hasn't it been reliable! And through the time when I've needed it most, too - summer is my busy time at work so I'm glad it's been good. Today was punishment for all that reliability though. I hopped into my courtesy car (the mankiest BX in the world) and headed over to the garage, only to get caught up in an enormous traffic jam caused by an overturned lorry (why? it was the A224 Orpington Bypass, a very straight road). I handed over the money - £320 for for two new front spheres (the recon ones I put on before were hard already), a replacement gaiter which was leaking LHM at the rear suspension, a new mainbeam switch and, importantly, a fresh MoT. Poor but pleased to have my spaceship back, I headed back to work on a different route. This time I was held up behind a funeral procession. I arrived at work 45 minutes late, and my boss sent me up to our central London branch. The trains were all buggered as usual so it took me forever to get back, and I headed straight to Stansted to pick up a friend from the airport. This time I was caught in traffic on the M25 because of an accident on the A2 and was late meeting her. We went straight back to where I work because I had a few urgent things to finish off (not done this morning because of the traffic and late train), then I took her home. Or I would have, except now the CX didn't want to start. Zero. Nada. Lights on the dash, but not even a token effort from the starter. I gave the car a hearty kicking, abandoned it in the work car park, walked home, drove back in the 106 and took my friend and her luggage home in that.
12-9-04.
Time to sort this - I'm going away tomorrow and I really don't want to leave the CX abandoned in the work car park for two weeks. The boss wouldn't like it, and she'd probably get vandalised. Suspect number one: that control wire to the starter motor which got cut during that nasty moving battery incident in Nancy. I unwrapped it from its electrical tape, and sure enough the wire where I had twisted it together was green and brown. The starter motor on CXs is very well hidden, so I cut the wire back just as far as a clean bit, twisted a piece of mains wire which I'd brought along for the purpose around it, put on a pair of yellow marigolds as protection against electrocution, held the other end of the mains wire to the battery, waited a second until the engine kicked into life and drove home.
Thing is, cars knowwhen you're intending to sell them. And then they break down.
12-10-04
I had a really good week with the CX, taking her to Canterbury and Bristol with a friend who appreciates her, doing a total of 467 miles in four days. In that time I did another 400 miles in a mate's 1968 Mercedes 220 to go to a party in Leeds so it was a good "car" week. A fitting way to say goodbye to a car which I bought for its long-distance abilities, as her new owner drove her away today. I was sad to see her go, but it was the right decision: I need something smaller and less thirsty as an everyday car in London. Going to look at a GSA tomorrow.