1986 Citroen CX 25 Prestige Turbo

Description

You are bidding on a 1986 Citroen CX 25 Prestige Turbo located near Portland, Oregon USA. It is silver over black leather. This is the executive limo version of the CX with a spacious back seat complete with footrests and sun visors. It has a 4-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine running Bosch electronic fuel injection and 5-speed manual transmission. It has the famous hydropneumatic suspension that is more firm than the older DS; the CX corners flat at any speed. It also has the self-centering DIVARI steering, another Citroen hallmark. While common in Europe and elsewhere, the CX was never officially imported to the USA making them quite rare here.

History

While I’m no expert on the CX, this car was likely a private import - my understanding is that the car has been in Oregon since new. I was unable to find indication it was imported by CXA or another similar entity. It has a clean Oregon title issued in my name, and it recently passed Oregon DEQ emissions test “with flying colors” according to the state testing tech. I’ve been told I am the third owner. The first owner was a curator at an art museum here in Oregon and drove it gingerly to/from work a few miles each day. She adored the car as an art object. The second owner (an attorney I believe) treated the car well, but he put the car into storage in his garage back in 2001. I purchased the car from the second owner in 2018 – it had been stored indoors for 17 years. I received some of the prior service records. I performed a number of maintenance items on the car to bring it back to roadworthy condition as detailed below. I have driven the car around 500 miles on my daily commute over the past 6 months since getting it back on the road. It runs well, lots of power, quite quick and torquey because of the turbocharger. The suspension is awesome, soft yet sporty if that makes any sense. My family and friends love the big back seat! While the car is the longer wheelbase model, it isn’t really that long by today’s standards – I don’t have any trouble parking it or maneuvering it around the city.

Condition The odometer currently reads 70,239 miles on the 6-digit odometer which is consistent with the vehicle’s history (i.e. storage). I would say the car is in excellent driver condition, and I’ll attempt to describe known issues below. The interior is clean and crisp, the seats show very little wear (back seats in particular). I have shampooed the carpets and they are in great condition, but there is a tinge of mildew odor which I suspect is coming from under the seats. If I had more time with the car I would pull the seats and clean those portions of the carpet as well. The interior is absolutely fabulous, right down to the single-spoke steering wheel.

At the advice of Citroen experts, I replaced the hydropneumatics spheres and filled the hydraulic system with hydraurincage which will need to be replaced with Citroen green LHM fluid in around 500 more miles (new bottles of LHM are included in sale). The hydraurincage is a cleaning agent for the hydraulic system. The hydraulic system operates just fine running hydraurincage, and this cleaner should be run for around 1,000 miles total in order to get the system cleaned out. The fluid wasn’t terribly dirty when I purchased the car, but experts say it’s a good preventative measure to run hydraurincage – so I did. The hydraulics work well, the car goes up and down as it should (there are four height settings), the DIRAVI steering centers itself, and the brakes stop on a ‘10-Franc coin.’

Original paint presents well with only an occasional blemish. A true marvel is the convex rear window – truly a sight to behold. I note some crazing at the lower edges of the front windshield but it seems only a minor cosmetic consideration – you don’t see the crazing while inside the car. There is a spot of rust under the passenger rear-most window, but I don’t see this rust spot from underneath when looking up into the wheel well. There are also two small dimples in the roof. I tried to show these spots in the video below. Three keys are included and so is the remote control for the door lock which I haven’t tried (battery in the remote is dead).

Things look good underneath the car with no significant rust beyond some surface corrosion here and there. There is a small oil leak but I’ve not looked into the origin. I had the exhaust replaced from the header back. Please note that the undercarriage photos provided were taken *before* the new exhaust were installed. The old exhaust system in the photos has been replaced with an entire new system since the photos were taken. I can try to get photos of the new system upon request but I don’t have a lift at my house making it difficult to get quality undercar photos.

Vehicle Condition I have done, or have had done the following work in the past 6 months (not exhaustive, just things that come to mind):

• Wheels professionally reconditioned.
• New, correct Michelin TRX tires from Coker.
• New spare tire.
• New exhaust installed.
• Headliner and ABC pillars professionally recovered.
• New, beautiful, expensive aluminum radiator from Germany with new hoses, thermo-fan switch, and thermostat.
• Many new parts installed (horns, a headlamp, both front turn signal lenses, exterior trim, starter, battery, alternator, spark plugs, etc.)
• All fluids and filters changed.
• All 6 spheres in the hydraulic system replaced with new.
• New upper engine mount.
• Valves adjusted.
• All 4 Bosch fuel injectors professionally rebuilt (thanks Mr. Injector!), installed with new seals.
• New radio with AUX input and 4 speakers – sounds great!
• Sale includes some additional parts/fluids/filters, all records, and a nice Haynes shop manual.

There are some items that could use attention from the next owner (not exhaustive, just things that come to mind):

• Car needs an alignment, pulls slightly to the right.
• Air conditioning is not working; I’ve not explored the issue but I think it might be electrical.
• Turn signal switch (left in particular) and oil pressure gauge are intermittent.
• Passenger window motor operates slowly and could use fresh grease.
• Headlamps could use a proper alignment. I replaced one of the headlamps but only aligned approximately.
• I haven’t tested the central locking system and remote. Doors do lock with the key.
• A couple of the little computer covers on the dash are broken, but they stay in place.
• Some of the LCD screens in the center of the dash don’t work.

Photos and Video

Below is an album of about 100 additional photos, and links to a video showing the condition of the car including operation of the hydraulics.

Video

https://youtu.be/daJj6xAM0HA (you may have to copy/paste)

Additional Photos: Please note that the undercarriage photos provided were taken *before* the new exhaust were installed.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskQMvFQk (you may have to copy/paste)

Fortunately, parts are commonly available in Europe, and there are some great websites such as CX-Basis out of Germany who ship to the USA. There are groups online who offer support and technical information for the CX, they are truly an asset. Lastly, factory manuals and information are available in pdf format from the internet, I can provide these on a thumb drive as requested at the time of sale.

I’m sure I’ll regret selling this car because it’s unlikely I’ll ever find another in the USA in this condition with so few miles. Limited space forces sale unfortunately.

A non-refundable deposit of $500 by PayPal is due at auction close. We can settle up the remainder by wire transfer or bank check.

I will be traveling internationally from May 14 to 28. Vehicle will need to be collected either before or after this trip.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you and good luck!

On Apr-26-19 at 07:16:14 PDT, seller added the following information:

Hello everyone, thank you for your interest and your bids. I do not end auctions early, so please don't ask. Also, bid with confidence knowing this auction will run to completion. Thank you.