Citroen seeks salvation in quirky models
Time was, Citroen oozed elegance and quirky charm: The French automaker’s lowslung DS was the preferred ride of movie stars cruising the Riviera, while the bugeyed 2CV rivaled its German cousin, the VW Beetle, in cuteness.
But after Peugeot bought Citroen in 1976, the DS line was closed and the brand’s identity eroded. Cheap plastic replaced chrome and leather, the 2CV grew too outdated to sell, and the brand’s allure gave way to ho-hum wagons and sedans that lacked the panache of their ancestors.
Enter the C4 Cactus. When Citroen two years ago introduced the compact sport utility vehicle featuring bump-proof plastic side panels, squinty running lights and a panorama sunroof, the car quickly rekindled some of the bygone spark and be- came one of the automaker’s best sellers.
The vehicle also provided a foretaste of an ambitious transformation plan calling for new models that take their cues from the Cactus, said Linda Jackson, the brand chief spearheading the revival. Citroen has new products lined up through 2023.
The goal is design that’s somewhere “between different and bizarre,” Jackson, 57, said at her office near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. “If you look in the mainstream, an awful lot of the cars are the same.”
Citroen’s revival took on even more importance for parent company PSA Group after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. The resulting economic fallout will probably drive down British car sales, affecting demand across the region. PSA, which is reliant on Europe for the bulk of its sales, is the car- maker most exposed and faces a 21 percent plunge in its earnings next year as a result, according to Evercore ISI estimates.
Doomed nameplates like Saab or Pontiac are testament to the pitfalls of allowing a car brand to lose its way in an age of stiff global competition. PSA further complicated the undertaking by carving out upmarket cars, under the revived DS line, in a separate unit last year. That left Citroen struggling to redefine its identity with a jumbled lineup ranging from an electric beach buggy called the e-Mehari to bulky minivans to the luxurious C6 sedan unveiled for the Chinese market in April.
“You can’t roll out a more expensive, better-looking car if all the other ones around are oddly shaped cheap ones,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.
The biggest test of Citroen’s revival will be a new version of the C3 hatchback — traditionally Citroen’s top-selling model — to be unveiled Wednesday in Lyon, France. The car’s design will reveal how aggressive the revamp is and whether the restyling is enough to make Citroen’s offerings more competitive with the likes of VW, Ford and Hyundai.
In its heyday, Citroen was about engineering, not just looks.
The DS 19, introduced in 1955, was the first car with independent brake systems for its front and rear wheels and the first mass-produced vehicle with hydropneumatic suspension, which improved comfort and handling by keeping the car at a constant height above the ground. Philosopher Roland Barthes described the car, pronounced in French as “Deesse,” or goddess, as “humanized art.”