Good Find Friday features interesting vehicles we’ve found for sale while conducting market analysis or appraisal research. They are not for sale by Wolf and Mare and we have no business relationship with the sellers. We just think they’re worth learning about and sharing with our readers!

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Today’s post is the first of a series of Good Find Friday articles dedicated to The Cars of Ronin. Whenever I’m channel flipping and find Ronin playing, I drop everything and watch. The movie frequently appears in lists of the best films for car chases, and the vehicles used are the subject of many a listicle. For this series, we’re going to take things a step further, and try to find decent examples of these European gems listed for sale. So sit back, read on, and let’s build a collection of The Cars of Ronin.

Released in 1998, Ronin is a crime thriller set in Europe and directed by the legendary director John Frankenheimer. The story follows a group of professional mercenaries hired to steal a mysterious metal case, depicting their planning, shifting alliances, and pursuit across Paris and the south of France. It’s a fantastic piece of cinema with a terrific ensemble cast and is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Sadly, Ronin quickly faded in people’s memories and failed to receive even one Academy Award nomination. Thanks to the movie’s extended and realistically staged car chases that eschew visual effects in favor of real action (aside from a somewhat pitiful use of digital smoke in one scene), Ronin has become a cult film among automotive enthusiasts. I love the film’s car chases, of course, but the beautiful European settings, stellar performances and procedural drama are what make it a must-watch whenever I find it on television.

In addition to the cars most associated with the film, such as the Audi S8, Citroën XM, Peugeot 406, BMW 535i/M5 and Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9, I plan to feature a few more cars that received a good chunk of screen time but have been overlooked by enthusiasts.

The first vehicle I’m featuring from Ronin is the Citroën Xantia, driven by Ron Perkins as “Man with the Newspaper.” The car is in one of my favorite scenes (spoiler alert), where DeNiro’s character Sam approaches a man to ask him a question — a man he obviously already knows — as a pretense to use CIA resources in tracking down the team’s betrayer. It’s a great little moment and the Xantia is featured in it fairly prominently.

The Citroën Xantia was introduced in 1993 by Citroën as a mid-size model positioned between the BX and XM during the company’s integration into the PSA Group. Styled by Daniel Abramson at Bertone, it used a steel monocoque body and was manufactured primarily in Rennes, France, with its structure designed to accommodate Citroën’s hydropneumatic suspension system.

The Xantia Activa, introduced in 1994, combined Hydractive suspension with an active anti-roll system using hydraulically actuated anti-roll bars controlled by electronic sensors to limit body roll. The system operated independently of the main suspension spheres and adjusted in real time based on driving inputs.

The Activa became notable in period automotive coverage when an Activa V6 achieved a record result in the “moose test,” which is a practical assessment of how a car handles sudden direction changes.

Today’s Good Find Friday car is a 1997 Citroën Xantia located in France and listed on lesanciennes.com with an asking price of €12,000.

Finished in blue over a black leather interior, the exterior condition of this Xantia appears to be quite good. The paint is shiny, and the photographs don’t appear to show any major dents or flaws. The stated odometer reading is 107,000 miles, so there are almost certainly some flaws here or there.

Though it sports a very sedan-like appearance, the Xantia is actually a hatchback design, with a fair bit of open space in the trunk for luggage and parcels. One of my favorite quirks of some European cars is the location of the radio aerial at the very top of the windshield, and this car has it.

While it’s not the most aggressively styled car, it is quite handsome with the distinctive wedge-shaped front end characteristic of Citroëns of this period.

The interior of the car looks just as clean with some wear and tear visible on the driver’s seat. Other finishes appear to be in rather excellent condition for a car pushing 30 years old. Wood trim on the dash and shift knob add a few touches of class, and a large grab handle built into the dashboard adds some design flair to an otherwise pretty functional interior design.

Powered by a 3-liter 24 valve V6 engine putting out 190hp, the car had some grunt considering its size. The powerful engine certainly helped motivate the additional weight added by the active roll bar suspension and is mated to a manual transmission for added engagement.

Identifying features of the Activa include the side badges, rear spoiler, special alloy wheels and bolstered front seats. This example has had a host of maintenance work performed including new tires, timing belt, and more. Extra parts are also included, which is a bonus for those of us in the USA where Citroën dealers are in short supply.

Completed sales for the Xantia are tough to find using the typical sources.  There are several hundred Xantias listed for sale with prices ranging from €2,000 to €20,000. V6-powered Xantias are much rarer, with only 7 of those cars being 3.0-liter variants and even fewer having the Activa suspension option.

There’s a rather fetching blue 1997 Citroën Xantia for sale in the Netherlands with the Activa package and a rather fetching patterned cloth interior. That car is listed at €19,950, but it has half the mileage of our subject car.

Believe it or not, there are 3 completed listings for Xantias in the United States. One was a 1994 model with 48,000 miles listed on Bring a Trailer in April of 2022. That car failed to sell at $4,766 but was relisted on Cars & Bids where it sold for $5,200.

A similar car to today’s cars is this 1997 Citroën Xantia V6 Activa sold on Cars & Bids for $10,850 back in July of 2023. It was in similar overall condition and had around the same mileage. Absent further results, this is essentially our baseline.

So is our car worth the asking price? Well, given the cost of importation, at €12,000 you’ll be into the car for at least €15,000-€18,000 by the time it’s ready for pickup at the port.

I would REALLY love to drive a Xantia with the Activa suspension to feel how planted the car truly can be when sent into a corner with gusto. Personally, I’d be more inclined to bring today’s featured Xantia over to the US if it were closer to €10,000. I find the car interesting, but to bring one over you really need to love it. The market for the Xantia seems to be very small over here and that makes resale challenging.

If you do go for it, you’ll not only have a car featured in Ronin, but a vehicle with one of the most innovative suspension systems ever produced.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisal and auction services for sellers and buyers of collector European cars. We also provide importation services. Give us a call or drop us a line!