(music) The Citroën XM wasn’t the first large Citroën
and it wasn’t the last. It was widely praised, but largely ignored
when it was sold. Over 20 years after production ended it’s
becoming a collectable classic, like the Citroën SM before it. Any why not? If you’re going to drive a classic car,
make it a stylish, luxurious, quirky ride that looks like something out of a 1980’s
sci-fi movie. This is the Citroën XM Story. (music) The predecessor to the XM, the Citroën CX,
was launched in 1974, just a year before Citroën’s finances imploded and it was bought by Peugeot. Citroën engineers tried to update the CX
in 1980 as Projet E or Project E if you’re English, but it would take until 1984 until
the next generation model was green lit. But they’d done it without the approval
of parent company PSA, and PSA didn’t take too kindly to that. The CX was to be the last unconventional Citroën,
so PSA didn’t want to waste money updating it. By 1984 the old Citroën design team were
out, quirky odd-ball designs and all, to be replaced by a PSA sanctioned team. To save money, the new Citroën floorpan would
be shared by the next big Peugeot, which would be called the 605. Something was needed to take on arch-rival
Renault’s new 25, launched in 1983. But PSA had their eyes firmly set on German
rivals Audi and BMW with their 100 and 5-series. The new Citroën, codenamed “Y30” would
have to be something quite special to do all that, but with a large development budget
the designers were confident this luxury executive car would be the car that would reclaim French
pride. PSA asked three design houses to submit proposals
for the project. The team wanted the designers to emphasise
three key areas. A very aggressive, almost sinister look, lots
of glass to create a greenhouse effect, and a shape with low aerodynamic drag. Two of the design teams were in-house – Vélizy
and Carrieres sous-Poissy, but they would also get a proposal from Bertone who had recently
crafted the Citroën BX shape, and Bertone’s proposal would lean heavily on work they’d
done on the BX. The proposals were submitted in 1984 and from
this Vélizy and Bertone were asked to further refine their designs by 1986 and build full-scale
models. A further round of reviews took place in 1986
where Bertone’s design was chosen. The shape would be a hatchback, which was
the fashion for large executive cars in Europe at the time, and it would have a fuel-saving
low drag of just 0.28. PSA had high hopes for the car. They’d sold large Peugeot’s in North America
for decades, and thought the new Citroën would sell well, competing against its premium
European rivals. They had plans for a 4WD version, a saloon,
an estate, plus a heads-up instrument display. Citroën was known for technical innovation,
and this high-end car would be no exception. It would get the latest version of Citroën’s
hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension, this time with 6 nitrogen spheres acting as
both springs and shock absorbers. Although the CX used a similar system which
produced a magic carpet-like ride, it had been criticised for how much it leaned into
tight corners. To counteract this, its replacement would
be augmented with a sophisticated electronic control system dubbed “Hydractive” that
used sensors in the steering, brakes, suspension, throttle pedal and transmission to feed information
on the car's speed, acceleration, and road conditions to on-board computers. Where appropriate – and within milliseconds
– these computers switched an extra suspension sphere in or out of circuit, to allow the
car a smooth supple ride in normal circumstances, or greater roll resistance for better handling
in corners. This handling allowed a high driving position,
while allowing a minimal roll through corners that would feel uncomfortable. Like previous Citroëns, the suspension could
be manually lowered or raised to give high ground clearance if needed. The driver could change the firmness of the
ride from a slider on the centre console. My dad once test drove an XM when it was launched
with me in the passenger seat. The nickname he gave me then was “the messer”
because I always used to mess with any button, lever or switch that was near me. And I wanted to find out what the suspension
would feel like on its lowest and highest settings. I found out the XM had a really firm, sporty
ride on the A5 at 70mph. He found out that the softest setting is really
scary on the A5 at 70mph, and that I should be supervised a lot more closely! The hydropneumatic system would also power
the braking system, as it had done on previous Citroëns. And the DIRAVI self-centring, speed-sensitive
steering system (that’s a lot of “S”’s!) fitted to the CX would be updated. The DIRASS system, which stood for “Direction
Asistée” was a more conventional power assisted steering setup. This signalled the new direction for Citroën
– less of the crazy stuff. Go more conventional. Although the hydropneumatic suspension system
was maintained, and the iconic single spoke Citroën steering wheel graced the cabin,
the rest of the car was fairly conventional. No crazy magic mushroom brake button. No weird gearbox shifting pattern. To quote Citroën at the time, they would
"take what Citroën means and make it acceptable". It would be a little disappointing for those
looking for Citroën’s mad Gallic flair, but moving to the mainstream could help it
capture a larger segment of the market. And borrowing from the rest of the car industry
wouldn’t be all that bad. The new car would be galvanised to prevent
the rampant rust that was plaguing the CX. The Citroën CX was also underpowered, so
PSA would push their 1974 PSV engine into service. Developed with Renault and Volvo, it was the
engine that powered the Volvo 260 and 760. It would be joined by a 2.0L petrol engine
used in the hottest Peugeot 205 and a 2.1L turbo diesel from the Citroën BX. The new car would undergo extensive tests
to ensure it was the right car for the 1990s. 100 prototypes were built, and each covered
around 30,000km or about 18,000 miles. The factories that would make the new car
and its components were retooled at great expense, and large amounts were spent on training
workers to use the new equipment. According to one source, the car cost 7.5B
French Francs, which is the equivalent of £2B in 2020. After the CX, many thought the new car would
be called the DX, but it was named the XM in homage to the high-end Citroën SM from
the early 1970s. (music) The Citroën XM was launched in May 1989 and
initial public and press reaction was encouraging. Sales for the half year of 1989 were almost
50,000 cars and the car won the coveted European car of the year in 1990, also hoovering up
14 other major awards. And who couldn’t love a car that had three
trim levels called “Ambiance”, “Harmonie” and “Séduction”? Reviewers loved its large rear space, bigger
than the outgoing, and by now ancient CX, and although it was a hatchback it used a
pane of glass between the rear passengers and the boot space to give it the feel of
a saloon. This was known as the “13th window”, referring
to the wall of 12 windows around the car. This was touted as a big advantage at the
time, but other cars also provided excellent all-round visibility, and did it with fewer
panes of glass. To provide a powerful forward beam of light
from incandescent bulbs, early cars used a hemispherical reflector style, that being
the simplest to produce. Over time headlight manufacturers experimented
with ellipsoidal and other designs, but the XM was the first car to use a complex reflector
surface, crafted by computer design to ensure a bulb – halogen by this time – could
cast all its light to a specific point on the road despite the thin headlight size. However, in practice while the main beam was
excellent, the dipped beam lacked brightness. Owners have found more efficient xenon bulbs
can fix the problem from this early complex surface design. 1990 sales were respectable at 96,000, but
Citroën had been hoping for so much more. They’d set the lofty goal of 160,000 cars
per year. That’s 450 cars sold every day and was the
reason for all that money spent retooling the existing factories. It didn’t help that the base XM was almost
50% more than the outgoing CX, meaning existing customers had to raid their piggy bank to
pay for the new car. And for non-Citroën drivers like my dad,
the styling and whole car in general were a bit “out there” for most conservative
customers, who made up a large part of the executive car demographic. It also didn’t help that as Ford and Vauxhall/Opel
were finding out, executive car customers were abandoning mainstream car manufacturers
for the caché of luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW who were making more affordable cars. Citroën sold the XM alongside the budget AX,
not something you’d ever see in a Mercedes dealership! UK customers were put off by the hatchback
styling that had scuppered the Ford Granada before it. Citroën thought the smooth ride, V6 and turbodiesel
engines would win over customers, but the car rolled through the bends and the engines
were weak against the competition. Companies like BMW were selling their cars
aggressively on handling and performance, and this is what customers were clamouring for. Instead of sales improving in 1991, it all
got worse, a lot worse. The early 1990s recession definitely impacted
sales, but the main problem was the highly publicised mechanical issues - despite all
the time and effort spent on making this a quality car! Bad quality means rapid depreciation which
hits future sales. 1991 sales were almost half of 1990 sales
at just 49,000. Sales were down in all markets. UK sales in 1991 were less than 4,000. Citroën sold the XM through Japanese dealers,
but sales were few and far between there as well. Peugeot had used the same platform for their
605, launched at the same time as the XM, but this had its own fair share of quality
problems, and it faired about as well in sales. PSA had not one, but two economic liabilities
on their hands! The XM estate was launched in 1991, and the
engine line was updated. But the ability to carry larger, heavier loads
made those weak engines stick out even more. A 24V version of the 3.0L V6 was added, giving
nearly 200hp and a much better 0-60 time of 8.6 seconds, but this was asking a little
too much from the 17 year old engine and it suffered from cam shaft reliability problems. The following year in 1992 the 2.0L gained
a turbo to drop its 0-60 time to just under 10 seconds. With the estate launch there was no reason
for that old CX to be produced, so it was put out to pasture after a long 17 year production
run with hardly an update. The UK and US markets favoured saloons, so
Citroën showed off a sedan design at the Geneva auto show in 1992, but plans to put
it into production faltered and the only one that showed up in the wild was one presented
to the new French President Jacques Chirac in 1996. A few XMs were imported into North America
by Citroën fans in the early 1990s, but Citroën never made a serious attempt at entering the
market. I bumped into one in the late 1990s while
working for Microsoft’s Windows Automotive team in Seattle. While I was working on this thing up here! For a long time, we had an XM parked beneath
the building, care of Citroën who were working with us. It never moved and just gathered dust. I really wanted to take it for a drive! Pierre Tissier had been doing wacky Citroën
conversions since the DS days, and used the XM to produce stretched limos, cargo carriers,
car transporters and even ambulances! In 1993 the hydropneumatic suspension was
updated to the “Hydractive II” system fitted to the new smaller Citroën Xantia. This helped improve the harshness of the hard
“sport” mode. And in 1994 the car got a light restyle, making
it look more like the Xantia on the outside. There was a dashboard update, and the iconic
single spoke steering wheel was removed to allow space for a driver’s airbag. The suspension was redesigned to reduce roll,
pitch and dive. But most noticeable was the adoption of a
passive rear-steering system similar to that on the recently introduced Citroën Xantia
which improved the steering. Power was increased on the turbocharged petrol
engine to 150hp, and this helped particular in the 50-70mph acceleration range. But despite the refresh sales continued to
decline. In 1996 the weak headlamps were updated, but
just on the continent. It wasn’t worth the expense to produce right
hand drive versions for the UK where sales were now down below 1,000 a year! Citroën did a deal to assemble the XM in
China, so avoiding high tariffs on importing fully assembled cars. But the Chinese economy was just starting
to blossom, and people didn’t have the money to spend on a high-priced luxury car. 1997 brought side airbags to improve safety,
plus an update to the aging V6 PRV engine, now 23 years old. The XM would be fitted with the newer ESL
engine. It had slightly less horsepower and a slower
0-60 time than the outgoing 24V engine, but at least it was a lot more reliable! Citroën was already looking to replace the
XM and made a special edition with all the bells and whistles. As it was 1998 it would be called the “multimedia”
edition and included everything a driver could want in those days of dial-up Internet. It had an advanced GPS navigation system,
a touch screen PC on the back seat with a wireless keyboard, plus internet connectivity,
mobile phone calls and even TV reception! All with sumptuous leather seating. Peugeot 605 production ended in 1999, and
XM production ended a year later. Citroën ended up selling over 300,000 cars,
but most of these sales had come in the first couple of years of release. Its predecessor, the CX had sold over 1M cars. The XM’s successor, the C6 debuted at the
Geneva Motor show in 1999, and was set for a 2001 release, but it would take until 2005
until it arrived, leaving a large gap when Citroën had no large car, and that would
mean the C6 would have a harder time getting those customers back. Citroen had expected the XM to sell 160,000
cars a year, and despite the C6 having more realistic sales figures of just 20,000 a year,
it fell woefully short of even that, selling around 23,000 cars over 8 years. PSA refocused Citroën around more standard
small cars that would become the company’s staple into the 21st century. By this time mass market manufacturers were
abandoning the large car sector, Ford in 1998 and Vauxhall/Opel in 2003. They were buying up rival Scandinavian car
companies to continue their feud in the European luxury car market, both ultimately failing. But like many older Citroëns, the XM is staging
a comeback as a collectable car. People love that magic carpet-like hydropneumatic
suspension and the odd-ball 80’s designs. Will it become a classic like the DS or the
SM? When I research videos for cars made by non-English
speaking countries it can be hard to find English sources that give the whole story,
so I look at pages written in other languages. In this case a lot of French sites. My “C” grade in O-level French means I
need to rely on machine language page translations, and some of those translations are quite frankly
hilarious! Feel free to pause the video now if you too
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