The Citroën BX Is A Weird Normal Car! (1989 BX 14E Leader Road Test)
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
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Citroën are brilliant at radical engineering and striking styling (see the DS, 2CV, SM and CX), but less skilled at making money, causing bankruptcy and ultimately, Peugeot’s takeover. They wanted to make the firm profitable, so commissioned a family car that retained the Citroën charm, weirdness and hydropneumatic suspension, but was practical, economical, reliable and appealed to the mass market. The BX was the result, sporting hydraulic suspension, single-spoke steering wheel and drum gauges from the GSA, blended with diesel engines, Peugeot switches and long service intervals to appeal to the fleet market. Does a “normal” Citroen make sense? Jack went for a drive in a base-spec 14E Leader…
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Thanks to Alex for loan of his fantastic BX.
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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:03 Why Peugeot Bought Citroen
2:44 The BX! Styling History
3:21 Mechanical Underpinnings
3:40 Interior - Weird But Normal?
4:03 Suspension & Ride Comfort
5:39 Handling
6:19 Brakes
7:00 Engine & Performance
7:29 Facelift - Even More Normal!
8:04 Popular In Britain
9:25 After BX - The Xantia
9:53 Why The BX Is A Classic - Авто та транспорт
Calling Marcello Ghandini "some guy at bertone" is like calling Abraham Lincoln "some guy that got assassinated". The BX was probably the best car in it's class for years.
… A BMW 318 cost about the same as the BX in 1989. I would have probably gone for the BMW. But the quirky BX is definitely interesting and unique.
I’ve thought for a while that the follow-up to this, the Xantia, and the closely related 406 represent ‘peak conventional car’ - they all got a bit too big, too fussy, too many gadgets, rather ungainly and too complex after this era.
@@NewtonInDaHouseYo What do you call about the same? These base model Leaders were about 8 grand.
@@clivet3252 In Germany, the BX and the base 318i cost the same at that time.
@@NewtonInDaHouseYo but what spec?
This car was bought new in 1989 by my mother. Didn’t drive from 2011 to 2019. Still had original manual and less than 23000 miles from new. Nice to see it rolling again
@@tobiascat6173 I wish you many years of pleasure with the car. It’s very nice to see it still active, and if it is indeed to be your last car I hope it does a wonderful job for you. All the best, keep rolling 🤜🤛
Hi, I'm the new owner of this lovely car. I had a BX 14 TGE back in period for 4 years and loved it, then traded up to a Citroen Xantia. Now retired, I couldn't resist it and bought it from KGF Classics. It's a credit to your Mothers ownership and after recent care and recommissioning is in beautiful condition. Be glad that it's in caring, safe, capable hands. It will be cherished. kind regards.
Rolls Royce isn't fatuous at all. I think that this was the era that RR were using Citroen's suspension system under license.
Great review. I feel lucky to have one of the 250 still registered for the road as my daily driver . A 14RE which I will never sell. Life is too short to drive boring cars.
Enjoy it!
Great video. With suspensions getting harder and tyre sidewalls getting thinner for the last 15 years I think people are starting to realise what comfort has been sacrificed. Bought myself a last of the line MK1 C5 last year for this reason. Only about 200 left on the road here in ROI.
I have very fond memories of The Citroen BX. ( 1990 ) A lovely gold colour with the most comfortable beige material covered seats. The indecaters you would never get use to, had to turn them back off after turning! Otherwise a car that sold well and rightly so.
I had a BX and a Xantia - loved them both. Had a few 2cv’s and a 1972 Dyane before those, they were wonderful. At the end of the 70’s I had the use of a lovely, old, green Ami 8 estate…now that was good.
It’s not true that Citroens only sold in France… 60 odd thousand GSs in the U.K. and I know they had strong demand throughout Europe…
Had 2 G reg BX's origonally a 16TZS. and then later a 14TE both were great cars and Iif I could find a good one (no rust) at a sensible price I would love to buy one again.
I had a really rusty and clapped out 1987 bx19 TRI break. It was great and VERY 80s. White outside, 3 tones of BROWN inside. Seat heaters, power streering run off the hydraulics, and electric windows. Strong and willing engine the 105 hp fuelinjected XU, super brakes, sublime ride. But i spent many many hours changing every bit of rubber in the suspension setup (piece by piece as they broke - it had all dry rotted everywhere). What killed it off was when corrosion perforated the rear suspension arm to the point it bled green from a hole in the middle of metal itself.
Really like these, everytime i see one on the road i turn my head to look, you rarely see these on the road these days.
One of my teachers had a BX. Every day he was told by us that someone had stolen one of his windscreen wipers. He always claimed it was for aerodynamics that it had only one wiper. ‘So why’s it shaped like a brick?’ We’d ask. Kids can be cruel and, as it turns out, completely wrong 😂
Ofc, they 're completely stupid you see
Yeah, they're totally wrong... OK, a Cx of 0.34 (or 0.33 depending on engine and tires) is not that great by modern standards but the car was pretty low and narrow so its SCx was excellent, far better than the value of many current cars.
Nice to see some French cars on this channel! My dad had a few Peugeot 505 in the 90s: A diesel saloon, a diesel estate and a PRV V6. Parts weren't easy to get in the pre-eBay era here in Québec, Canada.
They absolutely nailed it with the BX wonderful cars 😍
This video has made me realise that no-one in my family has ever owned a Citroen (though my dad was given a ZX to drive to a work meeting, and my grandfather really wanted a DS but went with a Ford Corsair 2000E instead). Yet we've had masses of big Peugeots and a couple of Renaults, really appreciating the former's toughness, reliability and practicality. I think that from the mid 80s to early 2000s, Peugeot had a valuable sector of the market, as they sat above Fords and Vauxhalls but below BMWs and Mercedes, while having gallic chic over Volkswagen; reasonably attainable luxury and style.
I remember the dad of a girl at my primary school had a white BX like this one and, before driving a group of us to a birthday party, he demonstrated the suspension moving up and down at his daughter's insistence. It blew our tiny minds in the early 90s.
I had a BX 19 TRD, the diesel version, after the facelift.
Nice car, very comfortable, fast enough, reliable.
The drawbacks were the rattlings inside and the small plastic grey windows behind the back windows (specific to the higher trims) peeling, after only a few month.
I'm on my fourth BX now and I must say they fit me like a glove.
Funny, you mention the brakes. Being used to the linear response of hydro-pneumatic Citroëns, it took me some time to brake smoothly on cars with vacuum assisted brakes of “normal” cars. And I had to drive more carefully over bumps, because the suspension of the BMW I’m using these days is rather… let’s say honest about the road condition ☺️
I had a 1984 BX16 TRS. Fantastic car - absolutely loved the ride. Only slight fly in the ointment was the lack of power steering. But other than that a lovely car to drive
I had a 1989 BX19 GTI for a while and it had power steering. I thought all BX versions had, since it's all the same system, suspension, brakes and steering.
The perfect car for today’s potholed roads.
Very comfy seats! You missed that crucial point
Interesting timing on this video release, as this very car is now for sale at KGF Classic Cars, who released their sales video today. Lucky so and so that gets to own this!
Agreed!
Dad purchased a lovely looking Silver (“Pearl Grey”) 16RS - F251JVJ. A beautiful car, a real head turner when we had it 1 August 1988. However it was a complete dog. The 1.6 lacked any get up and go. Dad sorely missed his (owned from new, 1 Aug ‘82) Mk2 Cavalier 1.3L. Granted, she only had a 4 speed manual but was far, far more responsive and enjoyable to drive and had a much nicer sounding engine. Dad often remarked that on the Heads of the Valleys road leaving Abergavenny that 4th was too low, and 5th too high. “Magic carpet ride” was so poor that drinking over cattle grids caused the dealer fitted Blaupunkt stereo to spit out whatever tape was playing by year three. At the first (12 month) service there were no less than FIVE oil leaks found despite not being driven hard. She even broke down once as a connection under the bonnet lost contact. You couldn’t even just wipe the rear windscreen with just a sweep as only had one button that would always use the washer jet. She drank too much and even the wheels were re sprayed as they were rusty within months and the wheeltrims didn’t hide the rusty rims. She really had to go when we lost all confidence in her. She would sometimes violently jump out of first gear with a loud bang and this was obviously not safe when joining busy roundabouts.
It’s a lovely looking machine but ours was such a Friday car… we really wish we’d just bought the brand new red 5 door Toyota Corolla instead or the Rover 213 like we once hired with the lovely Honda 1.3 engine.
Surprisingly dad traded her for a brand new ZX 1.4 Reflex in 1992 and that was superb. Exceptional. We later traded the ZX for a 1998 Xsara that was also a letdown. We haven’t bought one since however nice the Xanta looked.
Never bought another French car since and no intentions to ever again.
A few taxi drivers I know had BXs back in the 90s. They were gutted when it was time to move them on as they made their shifts a pleasure.
I had a BX diesel, then three Xantias 😊😊
Enjoyable video but maybe slow down the narrative a little - it's a little hard to keep up sometimes
One of my favourite Citroens. I did have a TZD Turbo in the early 2000s and it was a great car. I paid almost nothing with it. 2 cars I missed are both Citroens, the TZD Turbo and the rare ZX 16v. Loved.owning both.
Had 2 of these in the late 80s. Both diesel the latter an estate. They were good cars. A friend has one of the last GTI's still. Quite a quick car.
Sorry to correct you but the CX, GS/GSA sold amazingly well in Portugal and Spain
I owned a 1.4 RE reg E410NSC in the early 90s it was my 2nd car coming from an Allegro auto as my 1st car, I really felt the bees knees in it , great design features and the that suspension, of course it was not a particularly reliable car, suspension was trouble free but electrical glitches and frequent oil leaks drove me to insanity, the central locking only worked on one side of the car and the electric windows worked when they felt like it in typical French style , the worst part of the car for me was the engine and manual gearbox they shared the same oil so gears were whiney on hot days and on very cold days in winter it was impossible to get the car into and out of first gear until you had let the engine run for at least 20 minutes stationary to warm up the recommended Duckhams hyper grade oil, the car always ran lean and you had to drive with the choke out all the time, this was an issue that not even the local Citroen bods could fix, it had a new distributor and leads and carburettor and still ran like crap the car had less than 40000 miles, what killed the car was one of the conrods gave up and punched a hole through the block. at that point I gave up on it and bought a Sunderland built Nissan Bluebird 1.8 GS that was luxury , I swore I would never have another Citroen again and I have stuck to that . The BX was cool though and the red Venetian paint made it very sporty to look at and I enjoyed it for the 1st few years until the problems started.
Your commentary, good sir, hath swayed me to the BX even more. We are sure now to make plot to acquire one.
Stunning! Great review
Thanks for great review. Friend has recently restored one of these, also in white.
I owned a series 1 BX 14 E. A great basic car with just enough of the Citroen quirks. I still miss it sometimes. Luckily I nowadays “have to do” with a XM. Correction: Ghandini later explained the BX and Tundra where parallel designs but that the Tundra seemed earlier because it was unveiled earlier as a study versus a fully developed production car.
I had 2 BX cars, a GS Pallas and a Dyane over the late 70s and early 80s. I would have loved to have had a Traction Avant big 15 or a DS 20.
Ha, ha. I also bought that extra reflector between the rear lights! 🤩
My pre facelift 1.6 TRS was a hoot, I loved it even though it wasn't ageing well
An excellent car - I had a BX16RE followed by one of the last of the BXGTis....on balance I have to say I tended to prefer the RE, the GTi was good but the 'K'-Jetronic system could be a bit problematic and the extra power tended to actually lessen the refined feel. The RE had to go with a big mileage, but I have fond memories of both..especially on long French road trips...
Thanks for a most informative video.
My pleasure! -Jack
This design begins with the mid 1970s Triumph SD2 prototype, which had a marked Citroen look to it, but less angular than the BX
Another good video 🚗🚙🚘⭐️⭐️⭐️👏👏👍👍👍
I’ve driven all models , excellent cars .
I nearly bought one similar to this, but got scared and ended up with an Escort. Often wish I had after....
No mention of the height adjustable suspension or the lever inside to do it?
LAMBORGHINI DESIGNER
Incredible but true
Brilliant cars - a friend had a 19TRS auto - in almost every way it made the Mk1 Punto I had at the time look a bit crude!
Loved my bx gti
So did I - a 1986 8v pre ABS in White.
Great Cars Citroen BX’s I wanna own all them in Petrol & Turbo Diesel’s
I've owned a number of Citroens including a BX diesel estate which I really enjoyed. My favourite Citroen was the C6. I'm all electric now and my first BEV was a 2004 Berlingo with lead acid batteries.
BX is great car. Thank you for a video
Thanks for watching!
I have a bx19gti 1987 lovely
Great car!
i love the BX
The 80s' Prius... Prove me wrong!
Wondering how these cars are fatal rot or unobtainable component wise.
Cosmetic is not so important.
This car is for sale by KGF Classic Cars
The leader 1.4 is probably one of the poorest BX versions...I got my 1.4 KAT still in daily use and in PERFECT condition and if you can survive the greek summer with no A/C i have no fracking complaint....
The base spec loveliness though!
the mud flaps... so british..
The Citroen cars are not "quirky" or the BX was not a "weird" car! On the contrary. They had many features not found on other cars. And they were designed with the highest technical standards. So please use a decent language when you talk about the Citroens!
My Citroen BX, was the most unreliable car that I ever owned, by far!
Bxs are well known to last quite long but they need maintenance... My father ran 2 of these and they spanned 15 years of trouble free motoring. The diesel one was a marvel. Very reliable, quite quick even as it was non turbo... I'd own one anyway of the week
Who is this imposter, I mean where is the regular tearm ?..I thought I was watching another channel by mistake !...😢😮
Jack's been part of the team for a while, but is now a permanent fixture in the videos (as well as Phil, Joe, Jeff and Paul :) )
A bit harsh! He did a fine job!
I thought he did a great job too
A horror of a car this BX. The inside is like a grey trashbag.
The interior certainly isn't as good as the pre-facelift. Exterior is still striking though