Some automotive facelifts give an ageing platform a new lease of life. Some manage to completely ruin the car’s appearance, sentencing the facelift models into derision and universal dislike, no matter how capable the car behind the mask is.

The post-facelift Citroën Xsara falls into the bodged category. The original 1997 car was a very attractive hatchback, often seen in a dynamic yellowish hue and shilled by Claudia Schiffer. Come the turn of the millennium, Citroën seemingly wanted to tie the Xsara in with the bigger C5, and slapped bigger headlights on the Xsara’s conk. The only good thing that can be said from the redesign is that you can’t see it from the driver’s seat. And, from the said seat you command 167 hp of 16-valve, two-litre French firepower, as this is the range-topping hot version.

This silver 2001 car belongs to a Miata-driving friend, Lauri, whose photowork has lately been displayed on these pages. He bought it a little while ago from a friend, and proceeded to fix the numerous issues the Citroën struggled with. Now, as the opportunity rises for him to put the car up for sale, I sampled the Citroën quickly. Very quickly.

How many cars do you usually use to get to a certain destination? In the Xsara’s case, we met up Lauri in central Helsinki in my BMW. We swapped cars, as he was driving his red Miata and I wanted my girlfriend to experience the hoot that a well-sorted Miata is. Lauri and another friend, Janne, took the BMW and drove to Janne’s place, where I took the helm of Janne’s RX-8 seen in the background. We left the BMW there, with Lauri leading the way in his Miata to his place in Espoo where the Citroën waited. And was it a sight.

The Citroën has been improved on by previous owners. It wears aftermarket Altezza taillights in lieu of the original clusters, and those have been sorted to go at some point. In a way, the daft punk detailing even suits the car’s attitude.

The distinctive badge has partially fallen off, making the front even more unique.

There are bumps and dings here and there, and due to Lauri also owning a Peugeot 406 and having sold on the Mille Miglia wheels the Xsara came with, the car wears 406 alloy wheels on good rubber.

One of the reasons the car ended up in Lauri’s hands was the tired rear axle, which rubbed the tires on the inner fenders. Lauri swapped on a completely overhauled and reconditioned axle, essentially rescuing the car from a sad, worthless fate. There is some slight cosmetic rust here and there, but the paint issues will be rectified later on. I got to test the car as-is, fresh from use.

Inside, the 153k car was worn at parts and clean at others. The leather steering wheel had been covered with something horrible earlier on, so the leather hadn’t worn badly but had some cosmetic staining. The part-alcantara bucket seats displayed usual bolster wear, and rocked in their adjustments. But these are minor details, and the car needed to be driven.

Having warmed up the Xsara somewhat, I did as told and took it to the redline as soon as possible. The car has some issues with a borked gearbox mount meaning the entire powertrain likes to move around, chafing the blowing exhaust onto the underbody. To overcome the dreadful-sounding resonation, the best thing I could do was to take it to 7500rpm on a motorway ramp, to drown out the rattle with some engine sound. And did the box of bits move.

The Xsara VTS, in essence, is a French econocar cobbled together around an incredibly engaging engine. The way the Peugeot-derived unit sounds on full song nearing the redline is addictive, and that rev range needs to be visited often. The clutch on this one feels like a brake pedal, the shifter is vague at best and the rest of the car just sort of tags along, but driven briskly with little mechanical sympathy it’s possible to extract the joie de vivre still embedded deep within the package. It is, no doubt, a quick car, and it doesn’t need to be mollycoddled. It can take everything you throw at it, with parts possibly jettisoning off – but everything snaps back on.

Kind of like the speaker cover, which came off when opening the door because neither door card fits anymore. That, too, will be fixed.

But it’s the engine that counts. Pay the good man the 3k he wants for this low-km, well-beaten and by the time he officially puts it up for sale, well-repaired car, and you get access to this Mi16-related unit that will give you 7500rpm of good time whenever you want. Come selling time, even the A/C will blow cold air inside the hot hatch.

But despite Lauri’s best efforts, he wasn’t able to make me snap up the Citroën; even if to be completely honest the car isn’t in worse condition than 99% of VTS:s for sale in this country. And since my other companions started to look like this, we decided it would be best to head back to Helsinki and spend the evening on a rock cliff, discussing hobbits and enjoying Amstel beer. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, is it? Especially, when the journey included a good amount of rotary power zoom-zoom.

[Images: Copyright 2013 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]