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My Story |
| The CX Reflex Story |
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It all started in spring 1992, me and my friends had decided to go to Spain by car. We were absolutely strict on the fact that we should go by car and nothing else. It would be a journey of about 7500km both ways. We all had some saved money (at least that's what we thought). The biggest problem was to find a car that would do the job and take us the long trip it would be to go there and back again. We asked friends and friends friends and friends parents if we could borrow a car. Surprisingly enough no one seemed that interested in getting another 7500km on their odo just because four young guys wanted to go on holiday to Spain in their car! I've never understood why? We just had to face the facts, if we were to go there by car it had to be in our own car. But which? We didn't have one that possibly could stand such trip. One day we hear about one of my friends friend (huh?) who has a CX Reflex he wants to sell. Since we all were interested in cars we new what a CX was had never driven one. Weird car for weird people, we thought... suits us just fine! Off we went to test-drive it and the car was an instant hit.What a charisma. The car was just oozing personality and complete lack of conventionality. The clutch was worn and the suspension a bit stiff but apart from that it seemed OK. This car was the one, the one that'll take us there! |
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My Reflex as it looked in summer 1992. To get a more detailed view go to "Pictures" in the main menu. |
| A slight problem raised though, no one had enough money to pay for it... but me!
We reconsidered the thought of buying the car together and decided that I bought the car myself, fixed it, and the other three guys would pay the fuel for the trip. Fair enough.
I had never really considered buying a Citroën. I had seen a a lot of cool CX's in shops and remembered a friend who had one when we were kids. That's it. I just thought, like so many others, that it was an ugly, crazy and weird vehicle. Not that I disliked it but I never really thought of it as a serious car.
Finally when I got the Reflex, I first thought it looked pretty ugly, both in shape and colour. But after a while I started looking closer at the lines and shape of the bodywork and found that it was quite a remarkable design. Not to mention the interior which I was in instant love with. The "bathroom-scale" type of speedo-/tacho- meters housed in the StarTrek influenced console (It didn't take long before my car was nicknamed "USS Enterprise"). The car was just an orgy in design madness, I adored it! (and still do) A lot of people might be able to design such beauty but only frenchmen would be crazy enough to actually put it into production. Lazy as I was (and still am) I used the car, for the first couple of months, to go the 2km trip it was to get to school every morning. I didn't do much work on it at all. When summer came and school ended it was time to get down to business. My parents had been on a trip to France and brought home a new clutch. It took us about one and a half day just to get the engine out. Then most work was very straight forward. A few days later the engine was back in the car with a brand new clutch. I can't remember that we encountered any greater problem. The car worked fine for several weeks no problem what so ever. Then one week before takeoff for Spain the radiator hose exploded after some 'engine-excercice' round town centre. Not a very serious problem though. Since an original Cit hose was about 400 Crowns (about 36pounds) and I was a poor student I replaced it with one of those standard hoses you can buy at a petrol station. I was a bit distrustful of the cheap hose and that my greed would cause more trouble later on. This was fortunately for no reason. The hose is still in the car until this day. A few days later, now only a couple of days before takeoff, my father had borrowed the car to do some shopping. When he came back ha had a BIG red warning light on the dashboard. After some discussion about the lamp meaning we agreed on that it had something to do with the hydraulic fluid. A quick look under the bonnet spoke quite clear words. The return hose from the regulator had burst and there was LHM all over the place. Ahh lovely! A silent thought in my head said: -Hmm what other surprises can this car offer on a nice holiday trip? After checking with the local Citroën dealer I decided NOT to pay the scandalous price of a new hose and then do all the work getting it in place. No no. I'm smarter than that... just chop off the hose and add a piece at the end. It worked, and still does! Luckily everything went fine. Off we went for Spain. At three o'clock in the morning, while driving through Germany on a pitch black autobahn drowned from the skies, the windshield wiper suddenly stopped. A very interesting experience I must admit. The road surface is completely covered with water and you can't see which lane you're in and then all of a sudden you can't see anything, at all. This had happened before but on less inconvenient occasions so I had a clue what the problem was. We managed our way across the lanes and off to the verge where I got out and tightened the centre nut on the wiper axle. Back into the car, soaking wet, and off we went, continuing our journey. Apart from that the only thing that happened was that some of the pins holding the exhaust manifold just snapped and fell off. Making the engine chug somewhat when cold. Not a major problem at all and was easily fixed when we came back to Sweden. |