69 Hydractive 2 suspension Suspension
Citroen XM Internet Reference Version 1.0 99
3/3/99
>If this is the case with your car there is something wrong I would think.
>The difference between “sports” mode and “normal” is certainly clearly
>noticeable, but a good XM doesn’t become so hard that it will “rock your
>hard”.
>I’m talking about a series 1 XM (with hydractive 1) here. Newer XM’s should
>even be better.
See my comments above.
>I never got this feeling in our XM (1990 model year). If the suspension
>get harder in corners it feels like it is going on a rail road track (I
>mean it is exactly going the way you want it). Quite different from all the
>DS’s I drove for example !
Exactly - it goes where you point it - without fuss or drama - although tyre squeal can be readily
provoked.
>I do have the feeling that the system switches to “sports mode” far to
>early in a long Autobahn curve. As soon as I get above 140 km/h the
>suspension gets harder in almost any significant curve, this is a bit
>uncomfortable but not really dramatic.
>As I understand it, this was improved on later XM’s.
Again, see my comments above. Driving on de-restricted Autobahnen recently at 200 kph plus did not
result in any noticeable hardening of the suspension when going round curves. The only time the
suspension draws attention to itself is on short frequency undulations, discontinuities in concrete
surfaces and at low speeds. The rest of the time it is utterly unobtrusive.
>”Sports” setting on a XM is still more comfortable then a Opel Vectra for example !
Having had a (Vauxhall) Vectra 2,0 16V as a company car a couple of years ago, I confirm this. In fact I
would go as far as saying that the XM offers a better ride than anything I have ever driven (and that
includes a long list of DS, SM, GS, GSA, CX, BX and Xantia). Yes, some of these may offer a softer ride
but it is at the expense of pitch, yaw, body roll, dive and squat - all motions that bear little relationship to
the road surface but which are indicative of a certain lack of control. If you couple this with the high
levels of understeer (masked in the SM and CX thanks to DIRAVI) which these cars provide, this makes
for a less pleasant driving experience than is offered in the Hydractive 2 cars - and less pleasant for
passengers too, especially those who suffer from motion sickness.
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