A forum for new members to introduce themselves to the rabble already onboard. Not compulsory!
Tell us a little about yourself, lie if you have to but keep it to just an introduction, not a car discussion.
I live in Northern Thailand. On the 9th December I flew with a friend to Bangkok, purchased a one previous owner Xantia and drove it the 700 odd kilometres home the same day. The following morning it was passed over to a friendly body shop as It had suffered a number of involuntary contacts with the infamous Bangkok motorbikes. They were told I needed it by Christmas, it was returned to me in fine order on 22nd December.
This is the first opportunity I've had to post a few pictures - hope you like it. The interior is immaculate and the engine bay hardly looks worked. There are few minor issues, but my mechanic will start on those in the new year.
Model is the Thai Version of 'exclusive', can't get an accurate VIN Check but seems likely 1995, first registered Jan 1998
That is a beautiful looking Xantia. Treasure it, you are a lucky person.
James ex BX 1.9
ex Xantia 2.0HDi SX
ex Xantia 2.0HDi LX
ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
ex C5 2.2HDi VTX+
Yes, I am paranoid, but am I paranoid ENOUGH?
Out amongst the stars, looking for a world of my own!
Thanks for the help with the pictures, I'm pleased to see them online. We owned a BX during our time living in Singapore so I'm not unaware that I may ace some French Foibles over the coming months but I di admire the Citroen style. My first choice would have been an XM so I tested a few that were on the market. The 2 litre did not seem as responsive as I remembered it in the 90's, a diesel is just not me for a fun car and the V6 I loved. Then I watched some videos of work on the beast and came to the conclusion that I could not afford to put mechanics of my adopted city of Chiang Mai on such a learning curve!
The front bumper seems to be only on the Thai version of the Exclusive, which here gets THE bumper, a leather interior and some faux wood cappings and an automatic 2 litre engine. Nothing regarded as Exclusive or Executive would ever have a manual shift here.
If someone could help with a VIN I'd be delighted, I followed the links on another thread and what came back suggested it had been manufactured in 2005. VIN is VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff].
I can't make sense of the engine number either 10HJP 13003742.
I wonder if these are special runs for assembly in this market or maybe even pert produced here?
Hi Stickyfinger,
I bought the car, now I'm starting to find out what parts supply is like!
Ebay is my friend already from experience with the Lotus, at least there are a lot more Xantias around both in country and world wide then there ever were Lotus Elite or Eclats. So that's a head start.
I'm looking mainly eBay UK, France and Germany at the moment without really needing too much to buy as yet. I'm waiting for a nice chap from this forum to come back to me with postage costs for a couple of cosmetic bits from a car he's breaking and then after the New Year the Xantia will go back to the workshop for a complete run through. Then. no doubt, I'll be asking for things.
There has been a distributor here for many years, so we got a couple of hatchback struts for the Xantia delivered up here from Bangkok, they were ordered one afternoon, collected from the bus station next morning.
Anything more esoteric, I don't know yet. We do have good machine shops and metal workers here, they've made everything from special bolts to a manifold system to take an Eaton supercharger to remodelling bits of cabin trim like door pulls and seat mechanism covers by reproducing the original plastic in Stainless.
The Thai friend I mentioned owns his own garage/workshop and likes working on classics. His personal speciality is producing looms for cars from which the electrics have long vanished, so we're not short of skills and pricing is reasonable. The most expensive labour rate I know (so expensive that few people use them) is £9.50 an hour, my chap charges about 12 quid a day if one of his guys spends all day messing with fiddly bits on a classic, I think he pays them about £10.
The minimum day wage throughout Thailand is less than the hourly rate D Cameron & Co are proposing as a living wage. My Caddy is paid a £2 a day retainer by her course, I tip her £6 and she goes home happy.
Incidentally prices for what the Thais call 'ancient cars' are somewhat higher than you may expect. The asking price of a 1996 Xantia is over 2 thousand. A good XM about 4 and a break 6k or more.
VIN,
Whoops, You're right.
Comes from typing quickly at the end of a busy day when the light is fading, missed out a B, full number now reads
VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]
Mea Culpa.
Downloaded - Brilliant - Thank you!
I wonder why it has a warranty start date 0f 01-01-1990?
Is there any way of finding the date of production please?
Or have I missed something, only had a first brief scan
The RP/ORGA number of yours will likely start with 6 or 7 and will be four digits and two letters. For instance 6224CJ. Ignore the letters as these identify the factory where the car was made.
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
Saraphee wrote:Downloaded - Brilliant - Thank you!
I wonder why it has a warranty start date 0f 01-01-1990?
Is there any way of finding the date of production please?
Or have I missed something, only had a first brief scan
My pleasure.....have you signed up to Citroen Service ?
Do you see many of those bumpers/sill covers on the cars in Thailand ? I may be interested in getting a set shipped if they are available 2nd hand/found
