My fancy is taken by old cars. I browse, get tempted and usually back-out before any serious damage is done to my finances. Maybe I could combine my interest in classic cars and make a quick profit?

I love old big Citroens and have had a CX estate before, so I decided to search for a big CX Familiale. After a few hours, searching I found a Citroen Specialist garage in Burnley with an 8 seater CX. Deal done and cheque sent for £550.

Two weeks later I was collected from Burnley rail station in a white XM diesel by Malcolm, the Citroen specialist. He kindly took me to where the CX was sitting. There it was. Exactly like in the picture. Malcolm said he’d serviced it, replaced the spheres, and it was running fine. He’d even cleaned the interior. The body was better than I was expecting apart from the roof at the rear. It had obviously rusted (a known weakness of CX’s) and had been repaired poorly. Still, the car started first time, rose on its hydraulics and chassis the looked sound.

I drove it, refuelled and set about my journey. Thirty minutes later I stopped the car and it wouldn’t start again. I got Malcolm on the phone, he said it had happened once before (!) but since it had never happened again, he never looked into it. Fiddling with the positive terminal of the battery, it started. For my next stop in Leeds, I parked it on a hill (just in case). However it started fine (and every time since) and drove perfectly to my home in Newcastle.

I love the cars ride, the comfort, the steering and handling. It really is lovely to drive. This is the 2.2 litre 4 cylinder petrol version. It is the best CX engine as it is quick, and still gives more than 30mpg. And being petrol it is much more refined than the tractor engine in the CX diesel (this is not a dig at modern diesel engines).

So now I’ve got it home, it’s going on ebay. Will the otherwise decent CX make me any profit?

Click here for the CX Ebay listing

Happy Bidding.

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Costs so far: £550 for the car. £40 rail ticket. £30 petrol. £9 ebay-listing cost.

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We're into the last 24 hours of the auction. I fear a loss. Only 3 people have bid and the price has stubbornly settled on £205, despite 1100 views and 65 people watching the auction. In the words of Delia Smith, "where are you? lets be having you" bid. Please

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Citroen has sold for only £285. This represents a loss of £344.
What's the lesson here. Money doesn't grow on trees.... Profit depends on buying price and selling price. I bought this car too expensive. And you really have to know what you're doing to make any money. Lesson learnt. At least I will be able to offset loss agains my tax.

Return to Amistad Home.

This article is sponsored by Proqul Ozone store who supply the Ozonology Sanitisation service.

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