Ex-diplomatic Citroen C5

[1duck]

8 hours ago, omegod said:

I used to have a mate with contacts in Brussels, I was offered several LHD armoured Lexus LS400 , I declined as who the hell would you sell them to in Liverpool 😂

I can imagine there's a slice of life in Liverpool who would just die for an armoured car.

[camryv6]

If i lived in Liverpool, i would buy one !

[Bear]

On 27/02/2025 at 12:42, UltraWomble said:

Is it a left hooker?

Asking for a friend.

Think that was answered earlier and it's RHD?

[GR8 PL8 M8]

On 12/03/2025 at 11:24, Schaefft said:

Your friend in Germany is Marvin right? Importing something like a Fairlane is an absolute pain in Germany, I can't quite remember what the problem was but he indeed ended up selling it. He owned a Marauder at the same time, I've met him with his G8 a few years back, looks like a Holden now.

Small world, I know Marvin as well - he's come to the Ace Café Aussie Day meet a couple of times. He's got a ute now as well as the G8. (Anorak correction: his G8 has the front bumper of a Vauxhall VXR8, not a Holden. It's got a mix of Holden and HSV badges though).

I was very tempted by his Marauder when he was selling it, and the US Ford Focus he had...

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

Small world, I know Marvin as well - he's come to the Ace Café Aussie Day meet a couple of times. He's got a ute now as well as the G8. (Anorak correction, his G8 has the front bumper of a Vauxhall VXR8, not a Holden. It's got a mix of Holden and HSV badges though).

I was very tempted by his Marauder when he was selling it, and the US Ford Focus he had...

Haven't seen the Ute but I completely forgot about him selling the Focus. Not a car I'd be particularly interested in but it's at least something different.

[GR8 PL8 M8]

40 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Haven't seen the Ute but I completely forgot about him selling the Focus. Not a car I'd be particularly interested in but it's at least something different.

It's the kind of car that I have to take a step back and think "I'm only interested in this because we didn't get it here", and realise that the novelty would soon wear off and I'd be left with a boring car that didn't justify the additional effort to get parts...

Inspired by that realisation I asked Marvin what UK market car people in Germany/Europe found desirable for similar reasons - unfortunately his answer was a London taxi, which wasn't quite what I had in mind!

[tapir]

@warninglight Have you got it yet?!?

[warninglight]

I wish! Had an update email that the cogs are moving, but no collection date set yet.

 

[jim89]

19 minutes ago, warninglight said:

I wish! Had an update email that the cogs are moving, but no collection date set yet.

 

Zut alors!

[R Lutz]

27 minutes ago, warninglight said:

I wish! Had an update email that the cogs are moving, but no collection date set yet.

 

You'd have been disappointed if the transaction was swift. 

[tapir]

@warninglight I'm assuming there has been no update as you are too busy delightfully traversing the bucolic countryside in your french fancy...

[warninglight]

Theyr'e still at lunch, it seems!

[bangernomics]

So is Edinburgh "Edimbourg" in French then?  Never knew that.  Country names can change with languages but city names usually stay the same.   But I suppose you do get Wien/Vienna.   

Londres as a further example.

[Lord Sterling]

On 12/03/2025 at 00:15, D.E said:

Interesting, I know someone who owns an ex-Australian embassy Fairlane. The British reg was LG52 XVL...

G'day mayte, did ah heeya mah nayme mentioned?

[wuvvum]

On 02/04/2025 at 22:09, bangernomics said:

Londres as a further example.

A lot of Italian city names are changed in English.  Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, I'm sure there are more.

Also for some reason the English sometimes add an S onto the end of Lyon and Marseille.

[warninglight]

French bureaucracy is now being filtered through DVLA bureaucracy.

I believe the diplomatic plates are now removed - but nobody has told me what the new reg is - is there a way of finding this out from the VIN? I have a photo of the latest MOT cert so I have the VIN.

No closer to knowing a date for collection - all I know is that I'll have a ream of forms to fill in, and a £55 fee to the DVLA (by cheque, of course) for first registration - perhaps that means it hasn't got a new reg as yet. 

2 months since I've seen it - I'm imagining it languishing in the middle of Edinburgh. 

MOT runs out at the start of August. Will I have it by then?!

[R Lutz]

I must say, and I'm not being sarcastic, I find this all terribly exciting. 

(I'm guessing its never been registered what what you're saying in the above).

[warninglight]

Yes, seems to be that putting a diplomatic reg on a car doesn't count as registering it in the UK, so it needs to go through all the first registration process, which I'm hoping won't be too painful on a 9 year old car.

[Schaefft]

43 minutes ago, warninglight said:

Yes, seems to be that putting a diplomatic reg on a car doesn't count as registering it in the UK, so it needs to go through all the first registration process, which I'm hoping won't be too painful on a 9 year old car.

Hm, it wouldn't be on a 10 year old car but it might be a different story for this. At least it's something that was sold in the UK. New registrations from the EU now demand a hefty import fee/tax on the value of the car though when registered with HMRC post-brexit, who's covering that?

[Lanciaman]

Maybe you'll have the only 25 plate C5 in the world.... 

[Stinkwheel]

30 minutes ago, Lanciaman said:

Maybe you'll have the only 25 plate C5 in the world.... 

More likely they will do it age related id have guessed, but who knows?

 

[horriblemercedes]

I think so, as there will be plenty of evidence to show when it was manufactured and that it has been used. It would be interesting if it ends up on a 25 plate, and annoying if it gets a Q plate for some weird reason. Maybe if it was a spy car and has had VIN removed and history destroyed or something

[mat777]

On 16/05/2025 at 14:15, horriblemercedes said:

....Maybe if it was a spy car and has had VIN removed and history destroyed or something

On a slight tangent - you jest, but..... There was a fairly infamous crash of a firefighting tanker aircraft in America some years ago, where the wings came off in flight due to what was later proved to be unexpectedly high levels of metal fatigue vs the logged flight hours. It turned out the aircraft was ex military and had spent some time on loan to the CIA, during which the usage/ flight time and maintenance records were suspiciously empty...

[St.Jude]

On 16/05/2025 at 14:15, horriblemercedes said:

I think so, as there will be plenty of evidence to show when it was manufactured and that it has been used. It would be interesting if it ends up on a 25 plate, and annoying if it gets a Q plate for some weird reason. Maybe if it was a spy car and has had VIN removed and history destroyed or something

Maybe it’s VIN matches a French white Fiat Uno that could never be tracked down?

[Macscrooge]

I was wondering about this earlier - after I nearly t-boned a silver example which randomly puled out of a junction in front of me.

[Peter C]

Not related but oh so cool.

[Rust Collector]

4 minutes ago, Peter C said:

Not related but oh so cool.

The first time I saw that picture, it did make me think that Citroen missed a trick with the XM by not making it a saloon with a massive boot. To my eye the proportions look far better.

[St.Jude]

1 hour ago, Peter C said:

Not related but oh so cool.

Le Sports Herse.

[808 Estate]

Will you need to take a box of Ferrero Rocher to the handover.

[sierraman]

11 hours ago, 808 Estate said:

Will you need to take a box of Ferrero Rocher to the handover.

In that pyramid shape that is a sign you have reached the higher echelons of society.