Driveaway a Xsara

Ripped from Drive.com...

Driveaway pricing for Xsara 5-doors
By Chris. Gable
Wednesday May 1 2002

Citroen has given its 5-door Xsaras driveaway, no-more-to-pay pricing.
In fact, the from-$25,490 ticket price hasn't changed on the cars but now on-roads and the rest are part of the deal.

All versions of the Xsara five-door come with remote control central locking, climate control air conditioning, power steering, remote boot opening, electric windows, electrically operated and heated door mirrors and six speaker CD audio system.

Opt for the 102kW 2.0-litre version and you also get standard fuzzy logic automatic and ABS anti-lock brakes.

Engine choice apart from the 2.0-litre is the standard 83kW 1.6-litre four, now peppier, we're told, and capable of propelling the five-door from 0-100kmh in 11.0 seconds. Top speed is a theoretical 195kmh.

Transmission choice in the 1.6-litre cars is five-speed manual or four-speed automatic.

The 2.0-litre engine and fuzzy-logic automatic is said to shave almost 1.5 seconds off the 1.6-litre car's 0-100 time and launch the five-door to a theoretical 210kmh maximum speed.

The new five-door no-more-to-pay prices are $25,490 for the 1.6-litre manual; $26,990 for the 1.6-litre automatic and $31,490 for the 2.0 automatic.

The three-door Xsara Coupe already also comes with driveaway pricing.

I can't help but wonder what the VTS is like.....There have been a few road reports saying Xsaras are a very tidy handling car.

The only thing i've read on the VTS dismissed it as only a poor man's 306gti6 without really explaining why.......

Anyone driven one?, impressions?

An alternative to the clio sport in some respects?
________
Buy E Cigs

OK, here is the text of an article I wrote for the NSW Club Mag:Well, how good is the Xsara VTS?

During a recent holiday in New Zealand, Debra and I were lucky enough to have use of a 2000 model Citroën Xsara VTS. This is the coupe with the 124kw engine and the suspension to match.

Being a regular driver of “real” Citroëns, I was a bit uncertain how I would find a Citroën with standard suspension. Well was I in for some surprises!

Being 191 cm tall, I usually find that the roof of a car is quite close to the top of my head. The headroom in the Xsara was fine for me. The seat height adjuster was at its lowest height setting, and I would think that someone near 2m would fit OK in this car. However, being a small car and a coupe, the rear legroom is limited. But who has a coupe and carries rear passengers? The back seat is for coats and cameras!

The seats were very comfortable and supportive, with good side bolstering and lumbar support adjustment – it does pay however for guys to remove their wallet from their pocket and put it in the handy bin in the armrest due to the shape of the seat base. One criticism of the seats though (driver and passenger) is the velour material. I wasn’t a fan of leather seats as they are usually too slippery for my liking, so I thought the velour would be great. However the velour in these seats is fairly plush and turned out to be what Deb and I both referred to as “crutch grabbing”. You would get yourself comfortable in the seat when you started your journey, but the seats would grab your jeans or pants and not allow any movement and your body would move inside your jeans and next thing you know you would have to lift your bum off the seat and squirm around a bit to get comfortable again. I know it sounds strange, but it was a problem!

The engine and gearbox combination was superb. That 2l 16v engine is an absolute delight. The car LOVED third gear and it seemed to be the gear for all situations – driving in traffic around town and giving that “get up and go” when overtaking traffic on the highway.

The handling of the car was fantastic, very predictable understeer on corners, which was easily corrected and used by backing off in the corner. I suppose a great use of the rear wheel steer effect of the suspension. The fact that the car had alloy wheels and suitable low profile tires certainly helped also. I did notice though that the ride was a bit firmer than my aging BX Tri and nowhere near the softness of a well-gassed DS. (This was written before the trade-in of the BX on a 1996 XM Exclusive.)

The ABS brakes were brilliant. Finding yourself surprised by some of the “high quality” NZ drivers as you come around a corner or over the top of a crest meant that we both had a chance to experience the “right foot massage” effect of ABS. Remembering to stay on the brakes was a small but not insurmountable challenge.

The fuel economy was about what we expected – considering that the car is fairly low geared (about 3000rpm at 100km/h in 5th). So we returned about 12l/km. (Note that as this is a French car club, I refuse to convert to imperial!) The car runs on PULP (premium ULP) to get the performance required, but the price difference in NZ is only about 5c/l so it was not that painful. The PULP was usually around 90c (NZ) per litre.

Luggage space was quite good. As some of you may know, from seeing us unpack at Cit Ins, Craig and Deb are the world’s worst packers. We were somewhat challenged this time as Qantas forced weight restrictions on our bags, but we were under those limits. The boot of the car comfortably accommodated a large and a medium-large suitcase, plus a backpack and other sundries picked up along the way. The rear seat split folds (1/3 2/3) and the seat bases flip up to give a fairly long flat luggage area. We did not use this feature. Interestingly, the seat backs can be locked from inside the boot for additional security. Another nifty feature is the small clips attached to the rear seat back that allow you to connect the seatbelt buckle to them when folding the seats to prevent that search for the seat belt end.

The interior appointments are fantastic for a car this size. Of course, there was a Blaupunkt stereo with CD player that had many features that could be preset and remote controls on the steering wheel. The steering wheel was height and reach adjustable and leather bound. Twin dash airbags were installed, as were airbags in the outside base of the front seats to assist in side collisions. Interestingly, the passenger side dashboard airbag can be disabled with a key switch in the side of the dash. This is essential when carrying young children in the front seat. All retractable seat belts in the car are height adjustable – front and rear.

As I have size 11 feet (any smaller and I’d fall over) I found some difficulty moving my left foot quickly from the footrest to the clutch. The width of my foot meant that if not careful, I could get caught under the clutch pedal. The throttle pedal was of your typical Citroën curved metal plate on a stick, and this continues to be an excellent arrangement.

There are lots of storage pockets on the car. Flip top bins in the door armrests, map pockets in the doors and rear map pockets on the side. The glove box was a reasonable size and would take Deb’s SLR camera and the small digital camera when required.

The climate control air-conditioning was very good. It really was set and forget but you do have to turn on the air-con compressor with a separate switch.

One feature that we both liked was that the front window switches are on the centre of the dash above the radio. Very handy to the steering wheel and this means that either person in the front seat can control either window. This was a boon when one was driving and the passenger was madly grabbing a camera to take shots of passing mountains out the window! Probably not what the designers had in mind but it worked for us. That there was no duplication of window switches was also very clever.

The rain sensing wipers were a little hard to get used to. Sometimes it seemed that they came on too early and other times too late. After a while we were OK with this. One day we seemed to drive into light mist and within seconds it was heavy rain. The wipers just went into overdrive and kept the windscreen very clear. As you drive out of rain, the wipers just stop, no thought required from the driver. Just as well some would say.

The headlights and driving lights on the car were very good. Not of the Xenon discharge type but still excellent. I just wish that modern car designers would incorporate the driving lights with the high beam switch. The driving lights do assist the view, but if you forget to drop them, some other drivers get a bit annoyed. The height adjustment dial on the headlights was also handy when the rear of the car was loaded up.

The horn was your typical “get out of my way you idiot” French sound. Not one of these wussy ‘beep beep’ numbers. I like that!

All in all, a great car and a great way to travel 2800km in 15 days. I knew we were onto something when Deb (aka Lead foot) said “You know, I’d trade my (V6) Magna on one of these, we must talk to Greg and Bill when we get home!” Remember that this is the same wife who is desperate to renovate the house (hello Lotto?).

Would I buy a Xsara VTS? You bet!

OK - you got all that?!
clown tongue shy evil evil evil evil

Excellent write up, thanks for posting it ckeller!

I think I need to go test drive a VTS

wonder if the drive away deal applies to them too
________
The Cliff Condo

Yeah, but does it have that funny UP 'n' DOWN suspension?? Any 'proper' sightrone after about 1950 should have that.... tongue

Thanks Craig,

Thats a ripper of a road test, had me teary eyed, was about to sell up and buy one when can we expect your follow ups, BX, CX, Xantia, XM, C5 your now nominated resident roaming reporter wink

Cheers
Chris

Wow guys! Thanks for the comps!

You just supply me the cars and I will test drive them. I will be putting an article in the Chevrons (must speak to the editor nicely) about Bob Dircks' C35 Diesel truck soon.

I suppose I could write some guf about the XM too and reminisce (sp?) about the BX.

Ooh, I feel all Peter Wherret (quick where's me frock?).

Bet I could probably write something less biased than those nobs in the current car mags. Anyone seen this month's Wheels with the article on C3?

my 0.02

The C3 article did say the car was a decent drive...
....only that the quality of construction and materials stank on ice......

Which is hardly beyond the realms of possibility, being early cars of a new model.....

we'll see when they get here

they seemed fairly impressed with the Laguna too....renault's really getting some good press lately......hope they are actually selling some cars
________
The Legend Condos Cosy Beach

I've seen plenty of Renaults around Wollongong - which is surprising as there isn't even a dealer here I think.

All power to French Cars!! Now if we could just get Peugeot drivers to wave......

shy