Good afternoon all - I suppose some of you over there will be waking up soon .
Yes, that's right - another froggie car owner from down under. I should have joined years ago, as this site appears to be the English speaking world's centre for Xantia knowledge (among other things) .
Brief introduction:
Had a couple of 504 sedans in the 80s (living in Canberra at the time), then came to England for a couple of years (90-92), where we owned a rusty 504 Familiale, which was none the less excellent for our needs - did trips up to Peak and Lake Districts, Cornwall, France (twice). On return to Oz, we moved to Armidale, and had nothing to do with French cars until 2006, when we bought a 307 Touring Wagon (only new car we've ever owned).
As it was my wife's car, I got jealous and bought a 9-year old S1 Xantia TCT. I had never even heard of a Xantia, but joined Aussie Frogs after buying the 307... After 3 years/75k km, we sold the 307 to fund a kitchen reno (that's a renovation, not a Renault), and I picked up a low km S2 605 (still had the Xantia). Only 48 605s were sold in Australia, & I was warned by the experts on Aussie Frogs that it would be the most unreliable car ever made, it would blow head gaskets etc etc., but it was more less local, and low mileage (c. 70k km).
Suffice it to say that the 605 has now clocked over 200,000 km and is still going strong, however too many things went wrong with the Xantia - it failed rego in about 2013, and has been parked. About then we acquired a 406 D9 SV, and an S2 Xantia wagon, which went to my son for 4 years but is back home now. Then in 2016 I flew to Adelaide, and drove home an Activa (S2, TCT). Unfortunately there were a few problems needing resolution, and once the South Australian registration ran out, I put it in a shed, but now in lockdown I've been reading CitroJim's How to's on subjects like repairing Activa rams, and am getting motivated to do something about it!
Thanks for reading - I know that when I get serious with this Xantia, I'll find lots of answers here.
Another Aussie new member
Moderator: RichardW
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- (Donor 2022)
- Posts: 355
- Joined: 28 Apr 2020, 02:18
- Location: Armidale, NSW, Australia
- Lexia Available: Yes
- My Cars: 605 V6 SII
406 D9 SV
Xantia SX wagon SII
Xantia Activa TCT (unregistered) - x 219
Another Aussie new member
Last edited by Armidillo on 02 May 2020, 10:26, edited 1 time in total.
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- Donor 2023
- Posts: 13745
- Joined: 01 Apr 2012, 09:47
- Location: Reading
- My Cars: C5 Mk2 VTX+ estate.
- x 3008
Re: Another Aussie new member
Hi, and to the Forum. Once you have got it working properly have a lot of fun in the Activa. It may not be the quickest car around, but it still holds the top spot on the Scandinavian Moose test.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_test
https://www.hotcars.com/sweden-moose-test-cars/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_test
https://www.hotcars.com/sweden-moose-test-cars/
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
C5 2.2HDi VTX+
Yes, I am paranoid, but am I paranoid ENOUGH?
Out amongst the stars, looking for a world of my own!
ex BX 1.9
ex Xantia 2.0HDi SX
ex Xantia 2.0HDi LX
Ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
Ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
C5 2.2HDi VTX+
Yes, I am paranoid, but am I paranoid ENOUGH?
Out amongst the stars, looking for a world of my own!
- white exec
- Moderating Team
- Posts: 7445
- Joined: 21 Dec 2015, 12:46
- Location: Sayalonga, Malaga, Spain
- My Cars: 1996 XM 2.5TD Exclusive hatch RHD
1992 BX19D Millesime hatch LHD
previously 1989 BX19RD, 1998 ZX 1.9D auto, 2001 Xantia 1.8i auto
and lots of Rovers before that: 1935 Ten, 1947 Sixteen, 1960 P5 3-litre, 1966 P6 2000, 1972 P6 2000TC, and 1975 P6B 3500S - x 1752
Re: Another Aussie new member
Hi, and welcome to the forum.
That's an intriguing list of cars there, not least the 605, which was pretty sparse in UK ("an expensive 405"), let alone your even smaller numbers. Citroen seemed to keep a bit quiet about some of their models after the initial launch, and certainly when it came to facelifted S2, and I think Xantia (and XM) were two of them.
On numbers, you probably know this site, which details for UK what's still taxed-and-on-the-road and SORN'd (off road) by maker and model:
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/browse
Includes (taxed/SORN'd) for Q4 2019:
605 37/100
XM 184/635
Xan 944/2400
Xan Activa 11/55
Xan V6 32/62
(some model inaccuracy due to the way licensing records are entered)
Look forward to lots more posts, and photos!
That's an intriguing list of cars there, not least the 605, which was pretty sparse in UK ("an expensive 405"), let alone your even smaller numbers. Citroen seemed to keep a bit quiet about some of their models after the initial launch, and certainly when it came to facelifted S2, and I think Xantia (and XM) were two of them.
On numbers, you probably know this site, which details for UK what's still taxed-and-on-the-road and SORN'd (off road) by maker and model:
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/browse
Includes (taxed/SORN'd) for Q4 2019:
605 37/100
XM 184/635
Xan 944/2400
Xan Activa 11/55
Xan V6 32/62
(some model inaccuracy due to the way licensing records are entered)
Look forward to lots more posts, and photos!
Chris
-
- (Donor 2022)
- Posts: 355
- Joined: 28 Apr 2020, 02:18
- Location: Armidale, NSW, Australia
- Lexia Available: Yes
- My Cars: 605 V6 SII
406 D9 SV
Xantia SX wagon SII
Xantia Activa TCT (unregistered) - x 219
Re: Another Aussie new member
Thanks for the welcomes!
That's very interesting information on the numbers. Really quite surprised that your Activa numbers are so low - that is certainly motivation to get mine back on the road! Am quite certain that there would be more Xantia Activas still registered in Australia than 605s, but as far as I know we can't get hard information from our governments.
Because the colonial governments (now referred to as states) run separate registration systems, we would have to add up numbers from 8 separate systems. This would be fine, except that few (if any) make that information available. Looking at my state (NSW) I can get total cars registered by brand, but not broken down into models.
As far as photos go, here's one of our 504 7-seater wagon outside the place we were renting in Wallington (Fareham). The boy shown in the picture now has a son of his own who is almost the same age as our son was then!
I got the red panels off a car at the wreckers - the donor car was probably in better nick than our blue one!
Cheers
Alec
That's very interesting information on the numbers. Really quite surprised that your Activa numbers are so low - that is certainly motivation to get mine back on the road! Am quite certain that there would be more Xantia Activas still registered in Australia than 605s, but as far as I know we can't get hard information from our governments.
Because the colonial governments (now referred to as states) run separate registration systems, we would have to add up numbers from 8 separate systems. This would be fine, except that few (if any) make that information available. Looking at my state (NSW) I can get total cars registered by brand, but not broken down into models.
As far as photos go, here's one of our 504 7-seater wagon outside the place we were renting in Wallington (Fareham). The boy shown in the picture now has a son of his own who is almost the same age as our son was then!
I got the red panels off a car at the wreckers - the donor car was probably in better nick than our blue one!
Cheers
Alec