Citroen Xantia

 

Xantia Activa - a taste of Citroen's famous active suspension

While the VSX is a good car, one should have higher expectation on the Xantia Activa, which is boosted by turbo-charged engine and semi-active suspensions. Although the blown 8 valver produced useful mid-range acceleration, the hydraulic suspensions is quite disappointing. 

Xantia's hydraulic system is similar to that used in XM, but in addition with hydraulic-controlled active anti-roll bars in all wheels. It does all it was designed to be - kills the body roll due to cornering, unbalance load or bumpy road. Anyone who drove it should have wondered how stable Activa is, even in fast cornering it never throws your mother-in-low towards the window. But the suspensions also being too stiff, making the Activa a lot more bumpy in rough road than the VSX. Moreover, perhaps the biggest problem is, no body roll means the driver cannot sense what's going on during hard cornering. Since a driver detects cornering limit by feeling the degree of body roll, the absense of roll makes determining the limit to be impossible until tyre slip happens. Therefore, Xantia Activa can neither satisfy real drivers nor ordinary familiy men.

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Specifications
 
Model
Xantia 2.0VSX 16v
Xantia Activa
Layout
Front-engine, Fwd
Front-engine, Fwd
Engine
Inline-4, dohc, 4v/cyl.
Inline-4, sohc, 2v/cyl, turbo
Capacity
1998c.c.
1998 c.c.
Power
135 hp
150 hp
Torque
136 lbft
172 lbft
Transmission
5M
5M
Weight
1375 kg
N/A
Top speed
117 mph*
N/A
0-60mph
9.6 sec*
N/A
Best competitors
Ford Mondeo
Peugeot 406
VW Passat
Ford Mondeo
Peugeot 406
VW Passat
Autozine's choice in this class
Mondeo / 406 / Passat
Mondeo / 406 / Passat
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* Tested by Autocar
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