I bought my first XM new shortly after they were first introduced.
That was my first mistake.

I should have looked much more closely at the tea leaves in the bottom of my breakfast cuppa that day.

All of the signs and lots of little gods were definately against me, but I thought I new better.

I actually kept the car for 5 years! I kept thinking that, having coughed up another wad of money for yet more parts, it must be right now, surely.

Eventually I saw the light (to be honest I'd seen it before, but by now it was burning holes in my retinas). I almost begged a bloke to take it off me and felt guilty about taking £350 off him.

A few weeks ago the MOT ran out on the old banger I was running around in, so a decision had to made. Do I risk a swingeing £40 on an MOT that it will probably fail, or should I look for something else?

A quick browse round Ebay motors turned up a couple of likely choices with long MOT's but they all eventually sold for more than I wanted to part with. A Ford Mondeo that looked tidy seemed likely to go the same way so I didn't even bid. I was most upset when it failed to reach it's reserve. Had it been a little closer to home I'd have chased it up.

Then, bored one evening, I pointed the old browser at Ebay and had another look. I found a Citroen XM that looked and sounded reasonable and had a full 12 months worth of test. I cursed at it and almost left it, but ... no reserve, 12 months test and a bid of only £150? Just for the hell of it, I placed a bid. I didn't expect to win with a bid of a miserly £250 as surely anything with a full MOT is worth more than that?

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when the email arrived to tell me I had won the thing.

At least all seven of those little green spheres had recently been changed. It had done more miles than the Starship Enterprise, but it was on it's second engine so it shouldn't be too bad. Various dashboard warning lights come and go as they feel fit, but all XM's do that. Both door locks had been given a good seeing to by the local scum bags, but the interior is in surprisingly good shape. So at least I felt comfortable as I rattled and wheezed away from the bloke's home.

By the time I got home I was beginning to remember some of the good points about an XM. Once you get used to driving something almost as big as a modern aircraft carrier they realy are a nice car. That wierd hydraulic suspension gives a very pleasant ride and French car seats have always been ace. The thing was fast, smooth and comfortable and didn't drink too much fuel. Most things seemed to work other than the radio into which some dope had entered the wrong code.

So life didn't seem quite so bad after all.

Come back in a day or two and I'll bring you up to date, and maybe even tell you some of the horrors from the first one!!