A farewell, goodbye, adieu and au revoir to my car.

"Tentacle, Dutchman, drives French" (Tentacle) 02/28/2014 at 04:47 • Filed to: None

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We're about to part ways... Our lovely Vert Hurlevent (Gust-wind or storm wind green in Citroën lingo) 2001 Citroën Xsara Coupé 1.6 16V and us.

We became a thing on November 15th 2008. You had just under 80k km on the clock. Now it's 28th of Februari 2014, and tomorrow you will leave with someone else. Your odo now shows a few kilometers past 237k km. One and a half km-ton. A few thousand more, and it'd be a mile-ton too.

You have a few road scars. Some were not my fault, some were, even though I couldn't do anything to prevent those. You're covered in road grime now, and that's how you'll be sold too.

You never let us truly down. Sure, once you engaged Limp Mode. You had to cool down because I didn't quite use the proper mountain descend techniques. But you were fine after that cool-down up high on that Austrian mountain. You threw a CEL only once because the cold made the electric throttle body misbehave. That didn't even have to be fixed, only reset.

The worst of it was a lit up STOP sign once. That was a one-time malfunction triggered by -15°C (5°F), which caused one of the 3 thermometers to register too high. You thought the coolant was too hot. But your heater worked and the fans were working so we idled you in the freezing cold for 10 minutes, the thermometer behaved again, and all was fine again.

On petrol we once averaged a whole tank at 18,1 km/liter (almost 43 US MPG) together. After you had the LPG surgery, we didn't quite get those numbers again, but that's to be expected when running liquified propane gas.

Why do you have to go? Well, you were there to transport our firstborn home. And then she got a baby brother. Your three doors have become too unpractical. Truth be told, 240k km comes up, so you're in need of a new timing belt and a new water pump. You also need new brake discs, possibly new shocks and, well, sorry, your airco had a leak too, remember?

Adieu . Or perhaps Au revoir . You'll find a new owner and because you're being advertised on a Citroën Enthousiast forum, you'll end up in good hands. We may even see each other on the road again.

Here's one from earlier in our relation. Back when you lost a chevron and you had a replacement grill for a while.

Merci-bien for all the kilometers together.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Tentacle, Dutchman, drives French 02/28/2014 at 05:58

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Family had a pre facelift xsara 1.4 5door. Painfully slow but handled good was fairly comfortable and has to be the most reliable car ive known of, not a single problem in over 3 years.

Pitchblende > Tentacle, Dutchman, drives French 02/28/2014 at 06:02

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No matter how great the car you are replacing it with, there is something sad about saying goodbye to a vehicle that has got you through so many miles (or kilometres). After 18 months I don't think I yet have the bond with my current transport than I did with my old battered and just about to cost me bigtime car.

duurtlang > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 02/28/2014 at 06:17

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The late 90s was a good era for PSA. My 14 year old Peugeot 406 coupe has been absolutely bullet proof as well. Too bad the cars introduced early this century weren't as great.

Tentacle, Dutchman, drives French > duurtlang 02/28/2014 at 06:56

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Rumour has it that the Xsara had excellent reliability because of homologation tricks with regards to WRC.

True or not, but the Xsara scored really well in customer surveys with regards to reliability. Much more than other cars from the PSA Citroën stable of the time.

Sn210 > Tentacle, Dutchman, drives French 02/28/2014 at 06:56

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I know how you feel! It will pass with time
What are you getting next?

Tentacle, Dutchman, drives French > Sn210 02/28/2014 at 07:07

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2011 Citroën C4 92 hp 1.6 HDi

See http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/got-a-new-car-…

Sn210 > Tentacle, Dutchman, drives French 02/28/2014 at 07:11

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Awesome, I like it! I just made a similar upgrade like you to a car with the "Business" package. Dual zone AC, heated seats, all things that I can't live without now

duurtlang > Sn210 02/28/2014 at 07:28

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Are those heated seats useful? The heated seats are the only faulty equipment in my car, but I can't say I ever missed them. You can't miss what you've never experienced though.

Sn210 > duurtlang 02/28/2014 at 07:32

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I love them. This winter in New England has been brutal; it's only 10F out right now. Looking forward to sitting on non-10 degree leather. I can imagine how much of a pain in the ass it is if they're faulty though (pun intended).

duurtlang > Sn210 02/28/2014 at 08:52

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It's a weakness in the seat heaters themselves, both have failed before I got the car. The electrics work. I'd have to disassemble both seats completely, which is something I certainly won't do. But given our temperate climate I doubt they're as nice as they are for you in your much colder climate. I do have winter tires, but because it hardly even froze this winter let alone snow (5 cm, once) I question the usefulness of winter equipment here. It's been an unusually mild winter though, I'll have to admit that.

It's almost 10 degrees here too. Celsius. That's about 50 degrees Fahrenheit I believe.

Sn210 > duurtlang 02/28/2014 at 08:57

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Yeah that sounds like the effort outweighs the benefit. I'm jealous of your winter, but not of your seats!