Talking B____X

stuart_hedges · Post by **stuart_hedges** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:44 pm

Take the BX! I liked the ZX I had too, but I'd choose the BX on a long run any day of the week. It's a much more relaxing drive, and there's more space.

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:04 am

Philip chidlow wrote: bottles of wine, sauces, tins of duck, jars of this and that

Not to mention spare parts...I found a great scrapyard in central France a few years back, spent a blissful hour or so removing a heater transistor board and two perfect (albeit faded) rust free doors from a valver, only to find that the owner of the scrapyard had earmarked them for his BX. Mind you the missus wan't too pleased, muttering something about wanting to sightsee or some such daftness.

stuart_hedges · Post by **stuart_hedges** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:40 am

That too.

One of the reasons it was so easy to run my CX in France was that I had easy and cheap access to spares from scrapyards.

Once I got back to England I found I couldn't afford to run it and sold it.

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:26 pm

Travelling in France: 95 RON is £1.08/L, higher Octane - if it's available is around £1.19. Diesel is around the 99p mark.

BX vs ZX is petrol vs diesel and the difference is £108+ against the BX.

Combine that with the fact that the ZX has lower miles, is younger, has less to go wrong (well, you know what I mean) and is cheaper and easier to repair if something goes wrong, and really it's not a difficult decision, much as I prefer driving the BX.

Rather surprisingly both my daughters prefer riding in the back of the ZX too.

On the other hand the AA charge exactly the same for 5* cover for the three weeks.

Anyway, it's better for the BX not to be put through all the rigors of a holiday at it's tender age

I will do plenty of trips around the UK in it though! That fuel differential above would look rather different with UK prices: it drops to less than £78.

Way2go · Post by **Way2go** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:40 pm

Philip chidlow wrote:Travelling in France: 95 RON is £1.08/L, higher Octane - if it's available is around £1.19. Diesel is around the 99p mark.

Curious! A few years ago it was a good plan to get on the ferry with a near empty tank & fill up in France. Petrol here is £103.9/L. When did it become more expensive to buy it in France?

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:56 pm

I was going by the AA's average figures, which puts petrol at (UK National average) £1.06.9 p/L. The average in France is £1.08. Maybe the strong Euro has something to do with it. I went to get €250 today. It cost me £205.46. Last year it would have cost me £186

(Average diesel in the UK is £1.14.8 and in France 98p.)

I mention AA 5* - for both cars it's the same. But I didn't mention how much: £130.

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:08 pm

Citroën got a slating from a well-known poncey design critic in this month's Car magazine. DS = great, everything after = abandonment of Citroën's design principles. Typical, eh?

The C6 and C-Crosser come in for stick as does Citroën's (admittedly) appalling marketing campaign that results, as he says, in the perception that Citroëns shout out (in varying measures depending upon model): 'I'm poor!", " I'm old", and so on....

Well, there's one thing for sure a BX shouts out "I'm poor", but that's not all, it shouts out "I appreciate good design when I see it", and "I am doing my bit for the environment", and "I don't care what you lot think!"...

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:00 pm

Apologies if I'm stating something you already know, but I usually try and get at least one fill up in Luxembourg when I'm going through Eastern France. I think the price difference has reduced in recent years, but it is currently about 1 Euro a litre (for diesel). Back in 2004 I remember paying the equivalent of 40p/litre!

Terry Brooks · Post by **Terry Brooks** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:51 pm

Philip chidlow wrote: .............he says, in the perception that Citroëns shout out (in varying measures depending upon model): 'I'm poor!", " I'm old", and so on....

Well, there's one thing for sure a BX shouts out "I'm poor", but that's not all, it shouts out "I appreciate good design when I see it", and "I am doing my bit for the environment", and "I don't care what you lot think!"...

My Citroens [BX & 2CV] only shout out one thing ...........
FCUK YOU

.....I DRIVE THIS 'COS ITS DIFFERENT .....AND I DONT GIVE TINKERS TOSS WHAT YOU OR ANY-ONE ELSE THINKS

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:38 am

Couldn't agree more, Terry!

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:40 am

mat_fenwick wrote:try and get at least one fill up in Luxembourg when I'm going through Eastern France.

Good tip, although I tend to holiday in Central, Western and South Western France. I did pop over the border to Spain once to fill up, but now I imagine it wouldn't be worth it.

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:55 pm

Got out again in the valver this weekend and each time this car grows on me more. It got well muddy as I had to park in a field in the slushy snow. Inside needs a clean now too! Oh well, another excuse to get out there and fiddle with the car. Should get my new bespoke HT leads tomorrow.

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 11:25 pm

It's what, 11:18 pm and finished today's work. Ho hum.

Got an e-mail today from a mate who bought a farm in the Czech Republic, close to the Austrian border. He's in Cornwall doing something and was wondering if I could meet up with him at Stansted en route back home. Can't do it as it happens... but got me thinking:

If I was to drive down and see him.... how far's that? Could I do it in my BX? I have a free few days in October... I could even combine it with a visit to a mate in Bruxelles.... mmm a plan is forming in my mind.

Well actually it's about 720 miles from Calais. It takes me down autobahns and across some lovely countryside. (Sounding good)....

So total mileage for the round trip - plus a bit there - would be say, 1770 miles. Easily do-able in a half decent BX I would've thought.

Fuel? Close to £300 by then maybe. Sh*t, I knew there was a catch

Terry · Post by **Terry** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 12:11 am

My first trip to Czech back in summer 98 nearly didn't happen. Within the hour we were to leave Swaffham for the Channel Tunnel, we couldn't find the map I had carefully notated. Turned the house over - nothing.

My mother's Czech nurse, who's family I was to stay with in Hranice, saw my leather jacket, held it up and there...printed on the acetate lining something I hadn't noticed before......a diagrammatic map from Kent, through Europe, but, Hranice was half way down the left sleeve.

Now, tearing out the lining of the left sleeve was as good as sacrilege, but...got Chunnel tickets, insurance..I'd spent the bucks so...out came the lining.

That map served us through Europe, across the Czech Republic to her home town of Hranice, a journey we did in just 24 hours.

The only difficulty came when the nurse, then my co-pilot said, 'turn left Nurembourg!' She didn't know just how many left turns there were around Nurenbourg!

We never found my mapbook. But that trip was in a TZD, which ended it's life with 249,000 on the clock. Very many of them mine.

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 9:14 am

Maps printed on jacket linings.... very James Bond