Old Gold Top Gear: Citroën ZX
Sorry, sorry, sorry. The trip to Geneva has completely thrown me off course and Thursday has rolled around quicker than I'd expected. This means you've been forced to read two updates from PetrolBlog today, with the first Geneva Unconventional appearing earlier and now this, the regular Old Gold Top Gear slot.
I therefore hope to make up for the lack of scheduling on my part by keeping the waffle to a minimum.
The subject of this week's Old Gold Top Gear is the Citroën ZX. Now I know I'm probably alone here, but I'm beginning to find the ZX quite desirable. In a dark colour and kept in immaculate condition, I think they cut a fine figure on today's roads. They're also robust little things, with mileages of 200k+ not uncommon. The diesel versions are ridiculously frugal and in the increasingly rare estate form, they're highly practical.
Of course, it's the Volcane that I find the most appealing and Mr Clarkson seems to share the same opinion. But in this video, he forgoes the chance to test the Volcane and instead heads out onto the wet French roads in the Aura.
This piece of old Top Gear footage is memorable for the sight of some delightfully old school French cars and Clarkson's almost perfect Queen's English presentation. He argues that the ZX's ride and handling as “faultless” and describes the rear seats as “wacky”. Also look out for Top Gear's summary at the end, which looks to me like it's been done on PowerPoint.
Incidentally, I checked out the How Many Left? website to see how the four types of ZX have faired in the 21 years that have passed since this Top Gear first aired. Of the 17.5k ZXs left, there are 1,199 Reflex models, 3,604 Avantage models, 2,227 of the Aura, but only 646 Volcanes. This makes me sad. It's a car that I'd love to own and I see one every day on the way into the office. Each day it looks increasingly tired and I want to save it from oblivion.
Oh, and just how good do the yellow fogs look on the Volcane in the video?!
Enjoy.
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Thanks to celticmadliam for posting the video