Yeah, I know. It’s far from unusual for me to still be telling you how marvellous a car is after just ten days. Yes, there’s a chance that after a month or two I’ll hate it. As dangerous as it may be to type these words though, I’m not sure this time. I really do like the XM an awful lot.

Just the thing for a stately home – Newstead Abbey in Notts in this case

Yet I’m finding it hard to get across just why I like it so much. It just ‘feels’ right. It’s a large barge, but it’s not baggy in the bends. It’s has a huge boot and loads of rear passenger space, but is actually smaller than a current Ford Mondeo. Or Citroen C5. The steering may be a little numb, but I love the weighting of it. Shame we never got the fully-blown DIRAVI steering set-up from the CX, but again, perhaps that’s a bit to over-the-top anyway, with it’s super-direct feel and powered self-centring.

The driving position is lovely, the wipers are far better than the BX (two of them and a ‘mist’ function), build quality is pretty good (not perfect) it has a sunroof (which has required two attempts at preventing from leaking) and I love the way it looks.

The only flies in the ointment are that stupid handbrake (prone to occasionally making me look like a drunk riverdancer as I battle with the four pedals) and a clutch which is creaky and heavy – the latter being something that’s very common.

As for To Do list, the most urgent is to get the offside sill welded up. I’m hoping to get that done next week. I also need to trace an annoying rattle in the driver’s door – I fear it’s a piece of trim fouling the door aperture so I’m not sure how to cure it. By turning the really rather good cassette player up I think!

There’s going to be more opportunity to put miles on this car before too long. I’m really looking forward to it. In the meantime, here’s a video with my first thoughts on this car.