Where it all began

[JayW]

My dad's fault too (sort of) but for a completely different reason! When i was (also) about 10 (1986-ish) we were walking to the local shops when i saw a black GTi parked up, we passed it each time and i mostly noticed it because it was (i suppose at the time) brand new and looked so different to all the other cars about. Anyway, back then GTi's were still in their infancy and i remember commenting to my dad about it beig a "GTi" but he insisted it was a "GT8" (due to the bubble type font used on the badge) and i remember getting told off for arguing the point. So that always stuck in my mind.

Fast forward 10 years and a friend of mine had a mate called Gary who turned up at his his house while i was there in a black P2 16v and it brought back the memory from above. At the time i didn't know much about them and having always grown up on cheap Frauds had never given it a second thought. But, when Gary left that day in the biggest cloud of rubber smoke and with the noise (oh god, that sound), i knew i had to have one!

2 years later, in 1999 i bought a white 16RS which was shabby and disppointing so quickly got rid of it.

Then i stumbled across this grey 8v GTi next to a friends workshop, it had beeen chopped in as the owner though it was going to dramatically fail it's MOT so i bought it for £50 after which it sailed through it's test without major fault. It was a bit rough round the edges, but it got me hooked!



This was in turn replaced by the much nicer GTi Typhoon which I absolutely loved, sadly, with the cost of kids i had NO choice but to let it go and it was taken off to Belgium by it's buyer, never to be seen again. Still to this day remains the only car i truly regret selling.

Thus brings us via a couple of cheap BX trollies (including the Hurricane) to the Valver.

By 2004 Fortunes had changed and Citroen ware selling off some of the "museum" stock from Slough and i'd been outbid (at 4000 bloody quid) on a red P2 16V RHD early in the year.

I was ferrying the family around in a 3 year old Daewoo Nubira Estate & I wanted a little something for me to play with. Purely coincidently, flicking throught the local rag there was a very brief ad reading "Citroen BX GTi - No MOT - Offers". I rang and spoke to the guys wife (who was clueless and rude) and she told me to come down a few days later when he was home from a work trip.

Drove the 50 miles with a mate, prepared to tow back a bag of crap and as i pulled onto the guys driveway my eyes lit up like a kid in a sweetshop. Not only was it a GTi, but it was a 16V, and a P2 and in white, despite being covered in dirt & moss it was stunning. This was the day i truly learnt the art of pokerface!

The chap had bought it 6 months earlier to use the engie in a kit car he was building before realising he "couldn't" nrun it as RWD so had changed his plans and no longer needed the BX and it was seriously in the way.

I jumpstarted it, took it for a quick spin and immediately started wondering how much it was going to cost me.

Back on his driveway we started talking money and he did the usual "make me an offer" crap that frustrates me. I said i had no idea of it's value and it'll probably take a lot to put it on the road again so i (very jokingly) said 50 quid and he said "OK, 50 quid for the car and £100 for the tax sound ok?" Erm, yes, sounds reasonable to me!

Tyres, brakes and minor fettling saw it on the track at FCS'04 3 weeks later with a full MOT. Damn i love that car!



In total i think i've owned 18-20 BX's over the years and i'm certainly not getting bored of them!

[TizzyD]

Parents are to blame with me. Big Citroens have been apart of my family since before I was born and go as far back as I can remember. Before my sisters and I came along Anne-Marie had a red soft top TR7, there's a Standard 10 in the background too

Tolly on the dash and Ginny in the footwell.

In '87 my dad got his first BX - a brand new White 19RD - for motorway commuting to London, its first day at home


In the late 80's the arrival of my two older sisters forced the sale of the TR7 and Anne-Maire got a Citroen Visa 10E, which ended up being dubbed the Citroen Supermarket


Last shot of the white BX before being traded in, in '91 for BX number two - a Silver 19RD


19RD upon arrival in August '91


Went to Wales in it.


Me and my sisters


The silver one was traded in around August '97 for BX number three - a Forest Green 19 TZD - this is where AM's love for those 'Z' style wheel times began.


The green TZD was written off in a car accident in June '98 and replaced by a silver 19 TGD which had a bad head gasket, can't find any pictures of it at the moment.

By the start of '99 AM needed a bigger car to cart three kids around in so the Visa was traded in for a white BX 19 TGD (Daisy). Last shot of the Visa which had got 96K on the clock.


The silver TGD was traded in for our first Xantia in 2000 and the family went to Spain for the first time the same year.


Me age 9 in the Euro Tunnel


13 years on and 130K under AMs ownership Daisy is still going strong and I've only had mine 6 months but they have been 6 brilliant months

[Caffiend]

Love this thread and reading everyone's stories

Mine - well, growing up in an all-female household with a mother who didn't drive (father was into old Triumphs but spent most of my teens working overseas) meant that although I recognised different makes/models of cars, they were really only just metal boxes on wheels until I got a job at an independent Citroen garage in Bristol in early 1991 when I was 20. I fell instantly and uncritically in love with BXs - because they're just so elegant. I didn't pass my driving test until late that year and my first Citroen was a Visa. I was very fond of it, but it was a terrible shed.

When I met my (now ex) husband, he had a Rover 214 as a company car (boring). Roll on a couple of years and it came time to replace it: those were the days when tax on company cars was based on their list price so I persuaded him to have a look at getting a Xantia - and we rolled around in a 2.0 turbo diesel one of those until he was made redundant a year or so later. Sometime during late 94 the Visa had been scrapped and replaced with a Renault 5. Anyway, ex bought a Hurricane. It was his car, but I drove it at every opportunity and considered it mine in spirit. Sadly, none of the pics I have left show the registration - it was J something OAX I think - so don't know where it is. That was "the one". I still miss that car so much ...

Ex insisted on selling the Hurricane in about '98/99 and getting a Xsara (rather than selling the R5, giving me the Hurricane and buying a Xsara), which made me even more resentful against the R5 (poor thing, feeling almost sorry for it now). By the time the Renault blew up in summer 2002 - spectacular HGF - we were separated (not because of the Hurricane sale although it was a close run thing ) so replacement was my choice and I bought an E-plate 19RD hatch in Venetian pink. I was doing a LOT of miles at the time - commuting from Cheltenham to Bristol and using the car for work, so must have put 30 or 40K on the clock in the year or so that I had the car. Unfortunately, I picked it up at "the phase". You know the one: the one where lots of things annoyingly break. Nothing major, but really started to add up. It spectacularly failed its second MOT in my possession with rusty suspension pipes and steering faults, and the clutch was also u/s, so as I was then working in London and really not using it much, decided to scrap it, although there was some agonising over that decision ... Hindsight is always 20/20 eh? - if it had been a turbo I would have kept it. No pix I'm afraid

My aunt and uncle persuaded me to buy a 16v Escort from a friend of theirs, which was just a car. It was all right ~shrug. Replaced with the Xsara in 2006 - again, a head over heart decision: I really wanted a BX, but I wasn't doing high mileage (what with working in London and using the train and all) so decided a more modern car would be "sensible". Again, the Xsara was all right - bit dull, you don't get the turbo kick that you do with a BX. Made redundant early 2009, got a job locally later that year, and discovered the BX club. Didn't join for a couple of years, just kept an eye on the for sale threads, events, etc and finally got around to signing up in 2011 when I knew I could 'get serious' about buying the car of my dreams. Unfortunately, Hurricanes are a bit thin on the ground, so "settled" for a TZD on 29 Feb 2012 and the rest, as they say, is history ...

[Tim Leech]

I must have a traul through the picture box and find some of the old BX's we had

[citsncycles]

At the risk of being thrown off the forum, The main reason for the first BX I had was that it was the closest thing I could afford to what I really wanted. If it wasn't for the hydraulic system I wouldn't have bothered!

I family friend back in the 70's used to visit in his CX Pallas, which looked like something from the space age next to our Wartburgs. When I passed my test in '89, I was into vans, and bought a Mk1 Bedford CF panel van that I turned into a custom camper van and used for daily transport for 7 years. After that I was getting bored with it and decided I wanted something different, so ended up with a late model H van, which I fitted out internally while keeping the outside original, complete with military markings. I very quickly realised that due to the parts availability it wasn't a practical daily driver, so supplemented it with a Skoda Estelle, then a Rapid, then at the suggestion of a friend a 2CV.

A string of A series Citroens followed as daily drivers, including an AZU van, Dyane, and an Ami 8 Estate, interspersed with other vehicles, although I kept returning to the double chevron.

By this time I had a 40 mile daily commute and wanted something that didn't need such regular servicing, which was when I remembered the CX. Needless to say, I couldn't afford a decent one, so looked at the alternatives. At the time stories of rampant rust and camshaft wear scared me off the GS range, so I bought an '89 BX19RD estate, which turned into a love hate relationship, as it was brilliant when I wasn't throwing large bundles of cash at it. In the end it was replaced by a 1973 Dyane and a 1956 Land Rover, the combined running costs of which were actually less than the BX.

Several years down the line, I was working closer to home and more experienced in car repair and parts sourcing so decided to find a GS. 6 months later I bought my green break, of Classic Challenge fame, and have run hydraulic Citroens ever since. When the rear subframe failed I needed another car in a hurry and because if my tastes, rather than buy the locally advertised ZX I ended up on a train to London to pick up a BX 14TGE, which I ran for a year before selling it onto Harley when the GS was fixed.

During that year I made lots of new friends on here, so decided to stick around. This eventually ended up with my aquisition of Timex, so I have to say that my real love of BX's is probably all of your faults!

[MULLEY]

Dad was to blame for my interest in cars. I have very fond memories of the White DS Super 5speed that we had in Switzerland (LHD), when we came back to the UK it came back with us, eventually it was scrapped & dad managed to find a late 1975 DS23 Injection Electronique in a non metalic pale blue. That was the best car in the world as dad would blast along the Norfolk fenland roads at high speed, overtaking anything that got in his way. I'm convinced that he was famous for his driving in that part of Norfolk for how bloody fast he was compared to the locals dawdling about, haha....

For some reason dad also bought a pale blue Dyane6, again this was good fun along Norfolks roads with the vinyl roof down doing 60+mph, i once saw 85 on the clock, blimey, it felt bloody fast. It failed its mot at some point & sat on our drive rotting away, dad was supposed to do something with it, but he never did. A local lad who had a farm up the road got it for free, no idea what happened, but i never saw it on the road again, i think he might have used as a runabout on the farm before being laid up to rust away.

Then another move to Switzerland forced the sale of the DS23, i told him he was mad & was very upset at seeing JVS950N being driven away by some idiot (I refused to speak to Dad for a week as i was that upset that he could sell the family car). Who managed to crash into our fence on the way out, i was furious, our lovely car was damaged & it had only gone a few feet. I never saw that car again, it'd be work over £20k now if sat in my garage.

He replaced it with a brand new MK1 16TRS silver hatch, with the alloy wheels that aren't speedlines. Compared to the DS it looked all angular & ugly, was slower, not as comfy & basically i thought it was a step backwards. I like the dash & the green led rev counter, but apart from that, never really liked it that much.

That was then replaced by the car that he still has (provisionaly given to me, gawd knows when i'm going to get the bugger back on the road) a white CX Gti Turbo 2 saloon. This was & is superb, i just remember the amount of room inside, it looked so modern with a turbo boost guage, turbo written on the steering wheel & looked fast stood still. I still remember dad taking me & my brother out for a spin the 1st time, the acceleration felt superb & that engine sounded so great. Compared to that BX, it felt like a spaceship, thats when i thought dad had made the right choice this time. Interestingly, he'd test driven the BX 16V as it had just come out & he thought it was great & he scared the bejesus out of the poor salesman as he flew up some mountain roads. He chose the CX as he felt it was just a much more comfortable car & would be great on long journey's, well he wasn't wrong & CX prices have started to rise

I bought my 1st BX, the Anthracite Gti 8 valve called Haggerty (H Plate) about 8 years ago, compared to my wifes x reg clio sport 1.4, the extra grunt & comfort was a revelation. We had to drive all the way to Glasgow to pick the car up, it was purchased off e-bay for £330. I knew bugger all about maintenance, i could put air into the tyres, top up the oil, & top up the coolant & windscreen wash. That was it, little did i realise how much money i'd spend on the bleedin thing, but i've still got fond memories of that car. I drove it as hard as i could for the time i had it, when there were some issues i parked it up on the drive for 5yrs before eventually re-commissiong & then selling for £950, a result, but in no way did i get back how much i'd spent.

When i parked up Haggerty i needed something more economical & there was nothing interesting that i wanted, so i bought the Blue TZD Turbo off Tim for £400. I think this one lasted about a year before i spotted some damage on the camshaft & that was also laid up & is still currently on my drive. Some work has been done, so i'm hoping this year my mate can give me a hand & she'll be back on the road in fine fettle. I think she's got about 103k on the clock, so these day's thats low mileage, its also been good to see BX prices on the rise, so even sat still she's been going up in value

So at one point Haggerty & the Turbo D were both off the road & sat on my drive. I was well pissed off, 2 cars, both of them needing work, by this stage i'd learnt a few things from Ken so could do some stuff, that's when i decided to bid on my current white 19TXD hatch, again via e-bay which i won for £260. She had 79k on the clock, i've run this one for 6yrs & whilst quite a bit has been done, luckily my skill levels have improved & i've had some great help from the forum, club members & some who i now consider to be good friends even if i don't see them for a while. I've got a nice big blog on the TXD.

So that's how it all started, i think its just a citroen thing & the BX just fitted the bill & was certainly cheap enough at the time.

[Paul296]

What an absolutely brilliant thread!

My BX obsession had absolutely nothing to do with my parents. In our house, cars = Ford, Vauxhall, Austin or Rover. Food = meat, vegetables, (boiled to f***), gravy.

Consequently, Citroen, Renault, Alfa Romeo (etc.) was analogous to, garlic, 'herbs', 'spices', ANY bread that wasn't white, sliced and in a polythene bag or ANY cheese that wasn't orange. i.e. foreign muck that was most likely poisonous and CERTAINLY the work of the devil. Further, if God had meant us to drive foreign cars and eat foreign food he wouldn't have invented the English channel to clearly demarcate that which was 'clean' from that which was 'unclean'!

Anyway, for some strange reason I never cared much for dreary, post-war, British insularity and always fancied something a bit more exotic and continental. Like for instance the French exchange girls that appeared annually at our comprehensive school with drain pipe jeans, Pink Floyd records, pouts and absolutely no trace of virginity whatsoever: brilliant! There was of course as much chance of me getting a slice of that particular action as my Dad buying a G special, or indeed a Chinese takeaway (i.e. never).

Anyway, fast forward to 1998 when my current 'ride' (and my first car incidentally), was a rather down at heel Peugeot 309 that looked - to be fair - rather like a litter bin on wheels. As a struggling artist and art history lecturer my students simply laughed at it, while the other members of staff assumed that - rather like Nicholas Cages Crocodile skin jacket in 'Wild at Heart' - it represented a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom. It didn't however, it represented the fact that I was poor.

Anyway (again), as a result of a rather lucrative commission I found myself in the happy position of being able to purchase a new (well, new for me) car. At that time, I didn't really know that much about cars except that there were two kinds: 'pretty' and 'not pretty' (thinking about it, not that much has changed). To supplement my salary I used to run an adult ed. life drawing evening class and in between periods of trying to think of something polite to say about the students 'drawings', I used to engage in polite conversation (like you do). Anyway (again) one of the students happened to mention that her Dad was selling his car and perhaps I'd like to go and have a look. She said, 'it's a Citron BX'. I thought, ' oh for God's sake, not one of those red, faded, French bits of plastic with the crap suspension that will inevitably break down, cripple me financially AND your drawing's shit as well'. I actually said, 'oh OK, that's interesting, thanks, I'll go and have a look. Mmmm that drawings coming along nicely isn't it?'

Anyway (again), I trailed over to New Milton in my duck egg blue 309 to see the BX, just out of politeness really. As it happened, it was a 1992 16TGS Athena in absolutely stunning condition: I bought it for a grand there and then, after a very short test drive. I loved that car, and until I got my Hurricane I didn't think I'd ever be quite so devoted to a particular car ever again. The staff and students at College still thought I was a complete nutter of course and asked - with varying degrees of politeness - why exactly I'd bought . . . THAT! The answer is obvious: the Citroen BX is a symbol of my individuality, my belief in personal freedom, and as well as being beautiful, it is the best way I can think of, of giving the finger to 'new car culture' with all it's attendant waste, hubris and general bollox.

[mat_fenwick]

He's back...and on form!

[docchevron]

Ahh, you must mean this bad boy!

good lord! I owned this one, briefly. Bought it to replace TFB when a blind taxi driver wrote it off.
Didn't feel like a valver should on the way home in it, and it quckly developed a rather unpleasant banging from the rear suspension complete with back end steer.
Back home I discovered why pretty quickly when I jacked it up and the rear subframe fell out.
It was a bit rusty! I then took the decision to make 1 car from the 2 I had.
Aside from *most* but not all of the shell, all of that car lived on though.
It's engine was rebuilt and now powers a well known car in the midlands.

[mat_fenwick]

Jazz? Have to get Vanny to put his story on this thread; he's been into them for 'a while'.

[docchevron]

indeed, and the vanstermeister holds the accolade of having the first BX dedicated website!

[Vanny]

And we think the first 1.9TD (by about 1 month).

I might add my story, but not right now, bed is calling!

[Dollywobbler]

Ahh, you must mean this bad boy!

good lord! I owned this one, briefly. Bought it to replace TFB when a blind taxi driver wrote it off.
Didn't feel like a valver should on the way home in it, and it quckly developed a rather unpleasant banging from the rear suspension complete with back end steer.
Back home I discovered why pretty quickly when I jacked it up and the rear subframe fell out.
It was a bit rusty! I then took the decision to make 1 car from the 2 I had.
Aside from *most* but not all of the shell, all of that car lived on though.
It's engine was rebuilt and now powers a well known car in the midlands.

Eep! That's a bit scary. Not sure I ever went underneath that car... I still knew sod all about BXs back then.

[docchevron]

And we think the first 1.9TD (by about 1 month).

ahh yes of course!
Just infront of Hooligan.

Ian, it was a shame really. I already had the black P2, so my plan had been to put the diesel donkey in LMR, but the arse end was soo pickled I broke the car since the shell on TFB was, at the time, in exceptional condition bar the front end that got wiped out by the cabbist. Took a weekend to pull it out so I carried on with that one.
Once I'd started to cut the shell up on LMR the extent of how bad it was became rather apparent, but it hid it well, it looked like a really tidy car until I cut beneath the surface. Everything off of it got recycled though, right down to the clips that hold the front to rear HP pipes.

[RobC]

indeed, and the vanstermeister holds the accolade of having the first BX dedicated website!

Just to be pedantic, surely the first bx dedicated website was the 'Citroen BX DIY website' (from Hungary I believe, but in very good English. Not sure if it's still around) and also the original BX16v.com site. Both of which existed in 1999 (and probably earlier).

Associated with these was the old Q&A Forum, and folk such as AlanS (RIP) and Anders were a superb source of polite and useful advice for me in my early years of BX ownership.

Ahh, memory lane...