Citroen BX (1982 – 1994) Review

Citroen BX (1982 – 1994) At A Glance

4/5

+Magic carpet ride, easier to maintain and service than you might think, all models go well for their engine sizes due to low weight

-Some parts getting hard to find, plastic panels and a rust-free body can hide corrosion nightmares underneath, still considered a banger by those who don' get them

The Citroen BX was launched at the same time as the Ford Sierra and Audi 100 at the end of 1982, and looked somewhat out of step with its smoothly-styled aero contemporaries. But it was a clever fusion of Peugeot rationality and Citroën individualism, and despite being idiosyncratically styled by Marcello Gandini majoring on '70s style origami squareness, it caught the imaginations of plenty of European buyers.

Or it did at least after the 1986 facelift. The earliest cars were blessed with drum dials and paddle switchgear to appease Citroen traditionalists, but it was sold on the back of an advertising campaign that played up on its easy-to-service nature so as not to scare off hard-nosed fleet buyers. Following the arrival of facelifted models (and conventional instruments) in 1986, then the turbodiesels and GTi model, the BX became a popular mainstay in the company car pool. Survivors have thinned out, the worst ex-minicabs have gone, and banger status should soon be behind the BX.