I've fallen out of love with my Citroen Xsara Coupe VTS

This isn’t a review, a buying guide or a tale of restoration. It’s more of a Petrolblog fleet burp: an 11-minute therapy session about how a car I should adore became the one I kept avoiding. It's not in the least bit exciting, so feel free to watch something else. Like Harry Hill's TV Burp.

I bought my Citroën Xsara Coupé VTS in May 2016, when it had covered around 39,000 miles. After being off the road since 2020, the Xsara was secretly revived by my family and friends as a surprise birthday present at the end of 2024. I was handed the keys at a pub, enjoyed one brilliant drive with my eldest son… and then the head gasket failed. Of course it did.

One trip to a grotty shopping centre, a few bus rides and a very large Pug1Off bill later, it gave me a magnificent drive home before deciding that four cylinders were an unnecessary extravagance. Then life intervened, the car was mothballed again, and even a new alternator and some welding couldn’t restore my enthusiasm. And now it doesn't have an MOT... again.

The bigger problem is that the Xsara hasn’t just affected how I feel about one car. It has cast a cloud over the rest of the Petrolblog fleet. What was once a hobby is beginning to feel like homework, so I need to clear the blockage. This is the story of what went wrong, why the car still matters, and whether I can fall back in love with it.