Harrison's Garage - XM

[High Jetter]

Not heard much from you lately, everything ok?

[rob88h]

Thanks for the thoughtfulness!

I moved house recently and it turns out the bargainous house price directly correlates to the amount of work (and time) it’s requiring 😆. Who knew?! Couple that with a big project at work, my one year old, two year old and a couple of spaniels and I’ve ended up with a shortage of free time. 

Cars are getting a look-in though. The new commutes are adding a few hundred extra miles per week, so I’m keeping on top of basic maintenance at the very least. Here in my new oil changing spot:

Plans are afoot to buy another car shortly. But for now we’re just hammering around in the Focal and the Volvo.  

[rob88h]

Rare exotica. And some Ferraris. 

[rob88h]

Time for some catchup

#64 - VeLOLsolex

I like my motorbikes to be as close to being a bicycle as possible. Until recently I had a trio of Raleigh Runabouts which I had convinced myself to sell due to moving house. However, I dragged other “none essential” items such as beds and sofas to the new house, so why I didn’t keep hold of the bikes is a bit of a regret already. Needless to say, the vacuum in my bike life has been partially refilled quite swiftly by this Velosolex.
It's a non-runner, but it is pretty complete. I’d love to ride it and use it for popping to the pub bakery, but the plan for it is to sit in the project pile indefinitely until such a time as I can work on it. See you when I retire in 30 years little buddy.

[Aitchbee]

On 25/06/2025 at 22:45, rob88h said:

Rare exotica. And some Ferraris. 

Now that is one brilliant shot!

[rob88h]

Many more happy motoring miles later and the Volvo was sounding quite fruity again. Here is the mighty £25 repair performed by Kwikfit. 

It’s still holding tight, so I had to look and listen for the problem elsewhere.

In the mythbusting words of Adam Savage, “There’s your Problem!”

This is the third time in as many months that the exhaust has needed attention for various reasons, so I think it is finally time for some new parts. My phone dialling hand reached out to the Kwikfitters who, unfortunately, corporately, could not source a replacement exhaust system (and aren’t allowed to fit ones provided by the customer). This was Friday the 11th July and a Kwik quick solution was required as the car is in constant use…

On Saturday 12th of July: 

The National Lotto bonus ball was 14…

[rob88h]

#65 – Citroen XM SX

With the “It could be you!” hand pointing down at me from the sky I suddenly had a Citroen XM to collect and at £13 this solution* was much cheaper than a new exhaust for the Volvo.

This is my second ex- @Rust Collector Citroen, having collected the BX Leader almost 2 years ago to the day. I’ve put in an order for a hedgerow stored BX estate for collection in July 2027. Some traditions are worth keeping and dealings with Rust Collector is becoming one of them.

The XM made it home without incident and has been chugging around merrily for the past week (600 miles already!).

It’s a good car – a testament to Rust collectors hard work and determination and there’s a little bit of guilt that (so far) I appear to be reaping the benefits of his labour. It was mentioned that he got a few thousand miles pleasant motoring out of it when it was working for him, so I hope he got to enjoy it, in parts. 

To demonstrate the XM is a good car, here it is parked next to a big mound of manure to demonstrate that it is in fact not a pile of shit.

Furthermore to this finding I took it to the Bromley-not-Bromley Car Show and received only positive comments (to my face) about it.

[Stinkwheel]

Good to see the old bus is giving good service and looking as it always did, great.

Reminds me of the time i was driving south from Doncaster having just visited XH558 at its over winter 2014 servicing. Got messed about by an idiot in a Merc on the motorway, who proceeded to just sit in the outside lane with a green XM following him (at a safe distance you understand) up to about 115 ish at which point i decided the nearly 250k mile car didnt need this kind of treatment so i backed off and moved over. Good times.

[Rust Collector]

1 hour ago, rob88h said:

It’s a good car – a testament to Rust collectors hard work and determination and there’s a little bit of guilt that (so far) I appear to be reaping the benefits of his labour.

Don’t feel any guilt at all mate, someone being able to see the benefit of the work is the best possible outcome for me and it’s been a huge relief for me. I would’ve been gutted if it had of given the next owner loads of shite immediately.

For what it’s worth, I reckon putting miles on it is what it needs, it always seemed happier when it was being given some decent length runs. To put it into perspective, 600 miles is about 20% of what I did in a year! 

[rob88h]

1 hour ago, Stinkwheel said:

XH558

If you close your eyes - and then squint with them closed, I think the XM is the Vulcan Bomber of cars… Low, flat, wedgey, complicated, green and usually broken. 

If you have any nice old pics of M935 DGC, feel free to share them here. 

[High Jetter]

8 minutes ago, rob88h said:

If you have any nice old pics of M935 DGC, feel free to share them here. 

Last year:

[Stinkwheel]

2 hours ago, rob88h said:

If you close your eyes - and then squint with them closed, I think the XM is the Vulcan Bomber of cars… Low, flat, wedgey, complicated, green and usually broken. 

If you have any nice old pics of M935 DGC, feel free to share them here. 

I will see what I can find, might be some somewhere or other 

[mk2_craig]

Simply Good indeed. Well played!

But which is the real #64 - bike or car? 

[rob88h]

8 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Simply Good indeed.

Haha, I was wondering if anyone would notice I modified that picture. 
Good spot on the numbering too, I’ve corrected it. XM is vehicle number 65!

[Brigsy]

Good win this. The old hydractive citroens are great.

Used to love loading my old xantia up to the roof and the suspension levelling itself.

[Rust Collector]

On 28/07/2025 at 15:52, rob88h said:

To demonstrate the XM is a good car, here it is parked next to a big mound of manure to demonstrate that it is in fact not a pile of shit.

Furthermore to this finding I took it to the Bromley-not-Bromley Car Show and received only positive comments (to my face) about it.

The picture of it by the muck heap really shows off one of its best angles. One of the things that regularly brought me back from the brink of despair was the fact that it’s such a striking thing to look at, it really feels special. I’m not sure why, but one of my favourite things was looking in the side mirrors whilst driving and seeing that step up on the rear quarters, it’s quite a strong aesthetic 😅

Glad to see you got it out to the show, Land Rover shenanigans meant I didn’t end up having time to get out at the weekend sadly. That was another thing I quite enjoyed about the car, was that it would elicit a surprising amount of interest from people. When I was getting it ready for you to collect, some neighbours from further down the road walked by and said hello, then carried on to say that they’d been hoping to catch me at some point as they’d owned an XM from new which they got from the Eastbourne Citroen garage - they then traded it in for a Xantia apparently, after it started doing XM things that the main dealer couldn’t get to the bottom of 🤣