If you’ve been reading my Blog, thinking “Gawd, he does go on about diesel Citroen BX estates a bit much” then I’ve got really bad news. For the first time in my life, a car I’ve sold is coming back home. It’s a Citroen diesel BX estate. Sorry.

She’s not home yet – transport is underway and she’s currently somewhere between Ramsgate and here. I’m expecting a delivery on Monday. Why am I so bothered about a BX estate when I already own one? Well, Bex (as she is now known – not named by me) is a bit of a special motor really. I bought her to undertake the BXagon challenge in 2009. This is one of those rallies where you drive your cheap banger abroad – not a proper banger rally as most participants loved and cherished their cars and weren’t the sort to put silly adornments over their bangers. Then there was us!

Bought for a banger rally, but kept – and now returned!

Team Green Tiger – myself and a friend called Matt – bought our car the month before the rally, by which time everyone else had fully fettled their cars. A hasty service and check-over was carried out and we were soon on our way, clocking up over 3000 miles by driving around the perimeter of France – taking in bits of Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany (in one350 mile day), Switzerland and Spain as we did. We also drove over a 2000m tall mountain. In a blizzard. With cooling pissing out through a holed coolant pipe. It was certainly an adventure – a very enjoyable one.

After the 12 days of that, I became rather attached to the car. After all, she had transported the two of us and our belongings in absolute comfort, while delivering 48mpg. It was huge fun on the twisty mountain roads of The Alps and The Pyrenees but also excellent at munching motorway miles. It would be madness to sell her. So I didn’t. She became my daily driver. After six months of ownership, I calculated that she’d cost me about £1000. That included purchase and fuel! Ok, so keeping her in fine fettle did eat up more money. She needed rear arm bearings, a cambelt change, an alternator, a hydroflush to cure intermittent power steering and a pair of tyres. I clocked up about 15,000 miles in 18 months before my usual boredom set in. In a moment of madness, I sold her to a friend – replacing her with a Reliant Scimitar of all things!

After a few weeks, I realised I’d made a mistake. I spent a frustrating time trying to find an ideal replacement but gave up. Nothing matched the perfect balance of a BX diesel estate. I though I’d discovered the Holy Grail when I bought my Mk1 Citroen BX estate, but in truth, that project is a long way from finished. It’s just not good enough.

So, when I got offered Bex back, I leapt at the chance. Sure, she has some mechanical issues that I need to solve, but she’s clocked up over 30,000 miles in 14 months since I sold her, so she’s justified in requiring a bit of TLC. It will be nice to have a fully working BX while I try and get the older MK1 into similar mechanical order.

I can’t wait for Monday.

Scimitar might be quite practical, but it couldn’t beat the BX