While the new wheel bearing has made the new BX much more pleasant to drive, it’s also allowed me to pick up on other issues. The front end felt loose and clonky, while the exhaust was adding its own clonks at the rear. I didn’t fancy crawling underneath the vehicle so in a fit of laziness, I headed down to Lisburne Garage to make use of the ramp. Sean quickly identified a very worn lower balljoint (offside) and a worn inner track rod end (nearside). It will be returning to him for those to be sorted out as I seem to have a lot on my plate at the moment.

The exhaust was easily fixed though. Poor alignment and a rather dubious exhaust hanger had combined to leave the newly-fitted back box perilously close to the nearside rear suspension sphere.

Don’t hang so, don’t hang so close to me

Adjusting the bracket on the back box and using cable ties to restrict the freedom of the rubber hooks stopped the wobble and gave further clearance. Sorted!

The really good news is how solid this car is beneath. There is rot in places, but very, very little of it and most key rot spots are in fine condition. Such as this rear crossmember.

Gosh! Actual metal. Fabulous.

I genuinely had no idea what this was meant to look like, as both my previous BX estates were a touch soft in this area. The trick now is going to be keeping it this good – a challenge given how cold March has been, and how much salt is being hurled onto our roads.

The downside was discovering a pretty mucky oil leak from the back of the engine, probably the turbocharger. That said, it might just be the typical leaky rocker cover, but I don’t think so. Accessing the turbocharger itself is not at all easy, so I’m not sure how to get a firm diagnosis just yet.

I have been chatting to the previous, previous owner of the car today though, who confirmed that the previous, previous, previous owner was a sales rep. That explains why it seems to have clocked up 70,000 miles in just one year – 2000 to 2001. Not bad for a car already 7 years old by that point. I had wondered why the mileage jumped so much, though it still did 35,000 the next year.

It’ll be doing a few more miles this weekend too, as I’m planning (and I use the term very loosely) a 600 mile road trip to deepest, darkest Kent and back. Should be a good trial run. I have a nasty habit of forcing my BXs into instant long journeys. In fact, the silver TXD was purchased in September, and visited the South East in October and November, then Devon in December and February. When it comes to covering distance, they’re really rather good. I hope this one proves to be as good…

Living somewhere remote can be difficult in ways you just never imagined. Getting things for a start. Aberystwyth is our nearest town, but it is still 12 miles away. And it doesn’t exactly have a comprehensive range of shops. On the one hand, that’s a good thing – far fewer chain stores – but on the other, finding something when you need it is a nightmare. I’ve had difficulties locating trousers this week, which is merely the tip of the iceberg.

I’ve pretty much given up buying car parts in town. The motor factors never seem to stock stuff for the oddball motors I drive, even though some of them aren’t exactly ancient or that oddball. I accept that finding 2CV parts might be tricky, but the Citroen BX was still in production 20 years ago (just about) and there used to be loads of them about.

That means trusting my luck to mail order. I tend to use a mixture of established specialists, parts retailers and Ebay. I don’t like Ebay – it goes against my hippy ideals and there are many things wrong with it – but it can be very good for finding parts. Problems can occur though, like getting sent the wrong part. This can hold a project up by days on end, especially if you don’t realise you’ve got the wrong part until the car is in pieces. The other problem is when further faults develop as a job progresses. If something breaks, you’re pretty much stuffed. Last year, I ended up with the Ford Maverick marooned outside the garage after being sent the wrong rear wheel cylinders. With the rear hubs in pieces, I couldn’t move the car, so poor Mr Postman had to try his best to negotiate it when turning his van. Sorry Mr Postman! Tools is another problem. These days, there are more and more special tools that you need. A basic socket and spanner set just won’t cut it anymore. I find this deeply frustrating and many a painful hour has been spent trying to use a tool for a purpose that its designer never had in mind. Sadly this tends to result in damaged tools and, even more often, damaged hands. The alternative is to spend yet more money on tools I’ll use once in a blue moon. As someone trying to reduce expenditure, that means often trying to make things work with what I have – which can backfire, causing injury and even marital strife…

Anyone for a jiffy bag or six?

Let’s just say that if I have a BX needing strut return pipes fitting, I’m going to have to buy a special tool and not rely on using my wife’s wire strippers. Lesson learnt… (sorry dearest wife!). It’s a valuable reminder that I really should find a better tool for winding back BX calipers than my wife’s wood chisel (it works really well, but as I like being married, I shan’t be using it for that reason again).

The problem with buying tools is that it doesn’t always go well either.

That’s what happened with the Mercedes, which seems to need a special tool to remove the spark plug leads. I ended up with the Merc stuck in the garage for days while I eventually gave in and ordered the special tool. It was rubbish and is now broken, not that Ebay cares. I had to resort in butchery and violence to get the spark plugs removed, which was at least satisfying, if messy.

It’s one reason for trying to rationalise the fleet. If I stick to BXs and 2CVs (pretty much…) then I should amass suitable tools for both, and frustration will not be such a factor. There’s also the fact that I’m getting to know these cars and their foibles. These days, I’m excited less and less by the lure of other cars  – especially when cars like the Mercedes underwhelm me quite so much.

Oh, one downside of mail order – we have a VAST number of jiffy bags. If you need any, do let me know!

A cold has made the past few days pretty unpleasant, but thankfully this is a motoring blog so I shall spare you the gory details. In short, I spent two days making it little further than the sofa when I actually got out of bed.

It meant that when it came to getting a new wheel bearing fitted to the new BX TZD estate, I decided to farm the job out. I know what’s involved and I know that two mechanics working together will get it sorted in no time at all, so it shouldn’t be costly.

Fighting fit after wheel bearing replacement

The bearing cost £12.50 delivered via Ebay and this morning, I took the car to a local garage – enjoying a BX Convoy with my wife as she followed me there in the silver BX. Not often I get to see another BX on the road!

The job didn’t take long but they couldn’t do it straight away, so I went back later, stumped up another £50 for two hours labour (you don’t get that in your fancy London dealerships!) and drove home in a transformed car. All the harshness and grumbling was gone. Bliss.

With the heater now working as it should too, the car is much, much more pleasant to drive than it was for the journey from Manchester at the weekend. There’s still work to do – the accumulator sphere needs replacing/refreshing, a full service should take place and the exhaust seems to be knocking a bit – but I’m feeling very positive about this new purchase.

Which is more than can be said about the Mercedes. It doesn’t help that, with the fleet currently a bit over-sized, the Mercedes is blocked in on the driveway. Since it arrived just over a month ago, I’ve acquired two cars that have stolen the ‘ooh, exciting new toy!’ crown. The Mercedes has a starting issue now – cured one issue but exposed another I think – but really, it’s curtains for it as part of this fleet. I just can’t justify having a car that does zero mileage.

That’s a tricky aspect of this lifestyle. I’m a car lover, who loves driving. Yet I find myself with a commute that even the laziest person couldn’t do in a car – from my bedroom to my dining room. Don’t think I haven’t considered it – the trouble is the step out of the kitchen. I think a Peel P50 would struggle to get up it. But it means I don’t actually have to drive anywhere.

This means that I can and do go for drives just for the hell of it. Why not? I live amongst some of the best driving roads in the UK. The downside is that there aren’t actually a great many roads! Mind you, I did find a very enjoyable one only the other week. It’s the B4337 between Llanrystud and Llanybydder. Seek it out, but watch out for farm machinery, steep gradients, hidden crests and other dangers.

The problem for the Merc is that it just isn’t the right car for these roads. It’s why I sold my Citroen CX back in 2010. It was too big, too floaty and just felt out of place. I do like big, wafty cars, but not as much as I think I do.

Driveway Queen

That’s why the BX scores so well. It gives that big car, wafty feel, but remains taught in the twisties and easy enough to park in town. Sorry Mercedes. Compared to a Citroen, you just can’t cut it.

Only a short one tonight as I’m knackered and ill.

Today, the fleet looks like this.

The Fleet, March 2013

As you can see, things are a bit chaotic at the moment. By next weekend, the silver BX should have gone, which will make life easier (a bit of shuffling is needed at the moment) but I still feel the fleet is a bit too large. I’d quite like to sell the Mercedes, but buyers aren’t exactly flocking to my door. No bother. That’ll mean three roadworthy cars so I won’t worry for the time being.

I just hope this cold virus disappears swiftly as I feel dreadful, have loads of work to do and loads of jobs on the fleet’s To Do list. Wonder if this is my shortest blog to date?

Having incredibly found the car I was looking for after one day, it only remained to head to Manchester to collect it.

After kindly being given a lift into town (in a Mk3 Volkswagen Golf no less), I purchased my train ticket and waited upon the platform.

A sign in Aberystwyth, this morning

There, I pondered the demise of the railways. Staff who don’t really care, buildings that were built by incredible Victorians and ignored by everyone since, and views littered with rubbish – a glimpse behind the scenes.

Some mess. Out of sight, out of mind, but not actually out of sight.

It’s all a bit depressing, and thoughts of the romance of train travel quickly desert the mind.

Happily, the train was on time and not actually that bad to travel on. I got two seats all to myself and started to read Ian Rankin’s excellent latest book – Standing in another man’s grave. Once the train was moving though, the ever-changing countryside dragged my attention away from Rebus’s latest adventures. Little lambs, an Osprey nesting platform, snow-capped mountains, a Renault 21 Turbo and a Reliant Scimitar GTE all commanded my attention – and that was just the section to the curious town of Borth.

By the time we reached Crewe, changing at the very pleasant town of Shrewsbury, the view had changed somewhat.

Intercity carriage at Crewe

I took photos of old train carriages because it was a distraction from the building football fever on the train. Sadly, Manchester United were playing at home, so a lot of people who had never lived anywhere near Manchester felt the need to visit the city to indulge in some mild yobbishness. It wasn’t too bad thankfully.

Then we reached Manchester. I’m afraid it all got a bit hectic here. I grew up in a city – Birmingham no less, so a pretty big one. Yet these days, I’m utterly stunned by the sheer number of people you get in urban environments. It was a bit of a shock to the system having sat on the seaside in Aberystwyth that morning pretty much on my own.

I’d already paid for the car, so some hasty paperwork ensued while I quickly checked the car over. And I did it REALLY quickly, fearful that now I’d signed the logbook, it would be me liable for any parking fines should a warden happen upon our chosen handover location. The good news was that the structure looked sound, including the rear crossmember – a very common rot spot.

In hindsight, I should have checked the car more thoroughly when we first reached it, here in a multi-storey car park.

BX – first sighting!

The car looked good, but I now had to navigate my way out of Manchester City Centre. I had a sat-nav, but the seller reckoned I wouldn’t need it. He was pretty much right – I found my way onto the M56 and began to discover issues.

A front wheel bearing was humming away rather loudly, the turbo was making some odd noises (bearings or air escaping – I haven’t decided yet) and fifth gear was also noticeably more noisy than all the others. Then, after 30 miles, the ABS warning light came on. Bother.

I stopped for a photo shoot. Note how dry it was here. That wouldn’t last…

BX is going wrong already

Turning the engine off and restarting cured the ABS fault. Easy! I decided at this point to plug the Sat Nav in as I didn’t have a map and had forgotten how to get home. Not long after I set off again, the heavens opened. At this point I discovered both that the windscreen wiper was hopeless and that the heater was also rubbish.

I don’t understand how people can drive around with knackered wiper blades. It rains a lot in the UK. Surely being able to see is good?! The last BX was even worse. I ended up having to swap the front blade for the rear. This time, I decided I could live with it. The knackered heater was something else though. I’m not sure what’s wrong but air doesn’t seem to be coming into the car, so I suspect a stuck flap. I ended up having to clear the windscreen with a glove, while trying not to feel the cold.

Audi yer see anything? Misty windscreen

It wasn’t the most enjoyable drive home. At one stage the rain was so heavy that flooding was a real risk and visibility was absolutely dreadful. There was more exciting weather to come though…

Snowy sunset

Ok, so this was rather more enjoyable. Enough snow to make Wales look even more beautiful than normal, but not enough to create OMG SNOW KAOS on the roads. At this point I discovered that it had winter tyres fitted! I even had a set of snow chains in the boot – thankfully not needed.

The car won’t go down as one of my better purchases I don’t think. I was a bit too trusting and didn’t ask enough questions – perhaps getting a bit blasé after a fair degree of blind purchasing success. It isn’t a bad car though, and any sub-grand buy has the potential for tinkering. It was good value for what it was at £500. Especially as the key factor is that it has covered (by the time we got home) a rather staggering 305,900 miles. That’s further than the distance to the moon. The engine has been replaced (200,000 miles), but careful maintenance has allowed this car to keep going. Hopefully it’ll continue to do so under my ownership.

2013 really isn’t proving to be a quiet year for the fleet. I confidently hoped that it might be. After all, the Citroen BX Turbo Diesel has been an excellent machine. After a strong start to the year on the earning front, I decided it was safe to blow some of the cash from the sale of the Ford Maverick last year. The Maverick was all that remained from my £2000 project, as I’d had to dip into the fund for general living costs.

In fact, 2012 was quite interesting as we really did discover just how little we could live on. It’s not nice having to decide whether you can go and meet up with friends and family only after considering the cost of fuel, but we did at least prove that if money is tight, we can still live. We try to live frugally – really frugally – to try and minimise our impact on the world. That may seem slightly at odds with my obvious love of fossil-fuel powered motors, but bear in mind that while I own many vehicles, I can only drive one at a time – and working from home means I’m not actually clocking up very many miles at all. Yes, I’m a hippy with a fuel guzzling Mercedes-Benz. I don’t see a problem with that.

So I bought a Mercedes. Then got offered one and a half 2cVs, which I collected last weekend. Then I decided I needed to upgrade BXs. You see, I love my TXD Turbo, but it’s one major failing is that it isn’t an estate. So, I decided to seek out a turbo diesel estate. I wasn’t in a rush – I knew finding an affordable BX in the spec I wanted would be difficult. Estates are rare and often driven into the ground. Turbo diesel estates are pretty much one of the most desirable BXs to have. Ridiculously, I found the perfect vehicle the very next day!

I’ve since bought the car – again over the internet, sight unseen – and will be collecting it tomorrow. It’s covered 305,000 miles and is bright red. Pleasingly, I sold the silver BX TXD this very afternoon (over the internet, sight unseen and yet to be collected) which means my driveway will not be completely inundated with vehicles. Well, not for very long anyway.

Buying cars ‘blind’ seems very much to be the way of the world these days. Perhaps it’s driven by fuel costs. The alternative is to drive around physically looking at cars, which costs a fortune. Ebay has made people a lot more comfortable about buying ‘blind’ and car dealers report that many cars are sold this way.

Certainly, there is some trepidation. I’m to clamber onto a train tomorrow, travel to Manchester (£18!) and then drive home in a car I’ve never seen, which has covered more miles than a trip to the moon. Should be fun!

I had the thought before I considered why it had happened. The six month irch. I’ve owned 55 vehicles since 1995, but the only ones that have survived more than six months on the fleet are Elly the 2CV (13 years this summer), the stripey BX (two and a half years, with a one year gap in the middle), an Acadiane (which was on the road for less than six months), a Daewoo Matiz (18 months), a Peugeot 306 (three years. Blimey!) and a Citroën H van (eight months, three weeks of which involved driving to Sweden and back). That’s six vehicles out of 55 that have won me over.

I thought that my BX Turbo Diesel might make the hallowed List of Win, and very soon it shall – but only just. You see, I’m having thoughts about its future, set off by that six month itch.

Was this ‘saloon’ the wrong choice?

It’s silly really. It’s a truly superb car. When it comes to covering distance with a mixture of speed, comfort and economy, only my Rover 75 gets close – and that only did 49mpg on a run rather than the BX’s impressive 54. My mistake was going for a hatchback – or saloon in Citroën-speak. After years of owning estates, I began to miss the hatchback’s sunroof and map reading lights. Like most Brits, I welcome any chance to indulge in rare moments of sun worship. The estate’s modified roofline makes fitting a water-tight sunroof difficult.

I also miss the practicality. Heuliez in France did a very clever job of converting the hatchback into an estate. The difference (roofline aside) only exists from behind the rear doors. Just a couple of inches in length, but allied to a steeper rear window and a much lower load lip to cleverly boost luggage capacity by a vast amount for those couple of inches.

I’ve now begun my search for a Turbo Diesel estate, but I know it’ll be tricky. Estates are rare as (like my previous estate – oops) most have been driven into the ground and/or suffered corrosion to their bespoke rear panels. Perhaps I could consider a non-turbo diesel again? I’m not sure there’s any going back now. I’ve become horribly addicted to that turbocharger. It isn’t the way the car seriously shifts if you boot it, it’s how easy it is to gain pace without having to rag the engine. Stir the cogs regularly and it’s easy to keep the engine on boost between 2000 and 3000rpm. That’s a tiny power band but your reward for sticking to it is a very relaxing driving experience and excellent economy.

I only once managed to get 54mpg out of a non-turbo diesel estate. 48 was the norm. That’s because in the diesel my foot was welded permanently to the floor to get it up to speed. It’s not just that though. Taller gearing makes the turbo diesel much more civilised at motorway speeds. The difference between 2600rpm at 70mph and just over 3000 is very notable after a couple of hours.

We’ll see what happens. I’m not going to find the perfect estate overnight, and if I do I might find it commands a premium. There’s a very real chance I won’t actually be able to afford one!

In the meantime, I’ll just have to live with what might be the best BX I’ve ever owned.

I’d hoped that 2013 would be a year in which I calmed down on the fleet. I decided to sell the BX estate, leaving me with just the BX Turbo Diesel and 2CV. Then the 2CV started to demand urgent mechanical attention, so I bought a Mercedes-Benz W124. As far as I can work out, this still makes no sense.

That’s ok though. Three vehicles is very manageable and it always pays to have a couple of spare vehicles when, like me, you thrive on sub-grand motors. Then I got offered a free 2CV. And a complete rolling chassis for another. Now we have four and and half vehicles. How did that happen?

To be honest, the Mercedes is going to be up for sale before too long I suspect, and certainly before I start to restore the latest 2CV. I’ll need the funds as bodywork restoration isn’t cheap. Even though I’m hoping to learn how to weld, the panel budget alone is at least £400.

The garage is even more chaotic than usual. There’s half a 2CV in here, and at least five front wings.

The chassis will be heading to a new home in the Midlands hopefully. I’ve removed the engine as I want to keep that for the red and white 2CV. I also plan to pinch a suspension arm in the hope remedying a flappy kingpin issue. Incidentally, the chassis was an absolute pain in the backside to move. The gearbox had jammed in gear and the rear brakes had seized entirely. I had to remove the engine, swap wheels and bash the rear drums just to get it into the garage.

In the meantime, the new 2CV and the existing one are having to sit outside to await their respective renovations. In a change of plan, I’ve decided to focus on getting Elly the red and white Dolly up fighting fit first. She needs far less work doing, so I shall do what’s necessary for next month’s MOT and use her over the summer. I then hope to start reviving the new 2CV (which still needs a name, if only to avoid confusing with Elly) and in turn once that’s on the road, I can pull Elly into winter hibernation and give her a much-needed proper sort-out. That’s the plan anyway…

2CVs new and old.