For $10,900, Might This 1989 Citroën BX Be Excellent?
The ad for today's
Nice Price or Crack Pipe Citroën is almost as weird as the car. The car itself not just weird but damn rare here in the U.S. which might make its price, well, not so weird.
Over the top doesn't begin to describe yesterday's
1987 Porsche 911. No, I'd wager that the proper description starts somewhere around passing the douche bag on the left-hand side, and it goes down from there.
It wasn't so much the heresy of the LS7 installed in its ass, as it was the overall presentation which was sort of like a Friday night at the Black Angus bar in car-form. That would explain the 75% Crack Pipe loss, and feeling of a need for a shower after just looking at the Porsche.
Of course the best way to get over a bar troll of a car like that is with an eclectic family ride, preferably one that held its official debut underneath the
Tour Eiffel. Today's 1989 Citroen BX 16 TS is just such a ride, and one that, while hugely popular in Europe (almost 2.5 million sold) never made its way to the States.
The BX replaced the beloved GS series, which was like the fancy pants CX, only scrunched up and cuter. The styling of the BX was the work of Bertone's Marcello Gandini and is based on his earlier efforts for Reliant – the FW11, and Volvo – the Tundra show car. It should be noted that the Tundra's nose is in my mind what the Porsche 914 would have looked like if it had seen a second generation. Just sayin.'
Mechanically, the BX shared the platform with the Peugeot 405, the two companies having merged six years prior to the car's 1982 launch. This wasn't some sort of badge-engineering watering down of the Citroën brand, however. The BX sported far more expressive styling, a heavy use of light-weight plastics in its body, and Citroën's iconic hydraulic suspension.
This one is a 16 TS which means it has the 1,580-cc XU5 SOHC four. That carbureted 2-valve motor is supposedly good for 91-bhp. Backing that up is a five-speed manual, and there are disc brakes all the way around.
This is also a second-generation BX, the series having had a mid-cycle refresh in '86. That eliminated a lot of the car's funkiness when it came to the interior, and this one is sadly somewhat Peugeot-like.
There is some goofiness still to be had – the fuel gauge for example reads R – ½ – 4/4. Why not 2/2 for full or 2/4 for half? I don't know, I don't speak French. Also the clock is as big as the speedo so when you get pulled over and the cop asks if you know how fast you were going you'll probably answer, I dunno, quarter past five?
The rest of the interior looks okay for a 25-year old car, while the body looks equally decent except for a good sized ding on the off-side rear fender. The under hood shot shows everything to be intact, and remarkably uncluttered for a Citroën. This is a TS, but the seats, badging, and spoiler are off of a fancier GTi model. Those seats, by the way, remind me of those in the Peugeot 205 GTi, which isn't a bad thing.
There's a
video showing the car starting and jacking itself up, and the most important question that arises from that is, do they all sound that way?
The seller notes in the ad that the car has 168,000 kilometers on the clock, and that it has a clean bill of health when it comes to having been imported and licensed here in the States. Yay, 25-year rule!
The only question remaining is whether or not it's worth the $10,900 the seller is asking. Now, in France I'd imagine this car would go for about five hundred bucks, or whatever they are presently using over there as a mechanism of exchange.
The thing of it is, it's a lot of work to buy one overseas, arrange transport, and deal with all the paperwork necessary for getting the car past the Port Authority. This one has had all that already done.
What do you think about this Citroën for $10,900? Is that a price that should have this rare French car easily finding a new owner? Or, do you look at that price and think,
oh the Gaul of it!?
You decide!
eBay out of Connecticut, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Ben Shoer for the hookup!
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