Citroën
From The Matrix
Citroën is a French automobile manufacturer started in 1919 by André Citroën.
Originally a mass-market car maker with relatively straight-forward designs, Citroën shocked the world in 1934 with the innovative Traction Avant (1934-1956) and until the late 1980s had a reputation for approaching auto design in a unique way. Later significant models include the H Van (1947-1981, aka HY), 2CV (1948-1990, aka "Ugly Duckling"), DS (1955-1975, aka Goddess) and CX (1974-1989).
In 1928 Citroën introduced the Citroën C4 nicknamed "Rosalie" which featured the first all-steel body in Europe. To produce the car Citroën acquired huge expensive machines from Chrysler. In the beginning the car was successful, but soon the competitors (who still used wood-structure for their bodies) introduced aerodynamic body designs on their cars. Citroën had no way to redesign the body of the Rosalie and the car was perceived as old-fashioned. Despite his body style the Rosalie was sold in large quantities, but the low price was the main selling point and Citroën experienced heavy losses. That decided André Citroën to develop the Traction Avant, a car so innovative that the competition would have no response. Achieving quick development of the Traction Avant was of course expensive and contributed to ruin the financial health of the company.
In 1934 debts meant the company could not continue as it had; it was taken over by its biggest creditor, the tyre company Michelin.
1955 saw the introduction of the DS, which was the first appearance of Citroën's now legendary hydropneumatic suspension system. The DS featured power-operated steering, brakes, and clutch which were all operated from the same hydraulic system. This would form the basis of many Citroën cars in the second half of the 20th century, including the GS, CX, BX, XM and Xantia.
In 1965 Citroën took over the french carmaker Panhard, In the hope of using Panhard's expertise in mid size car to complement it's own range of very small, cheap cars (2CV/Ami) and large, expensive cars (DS/ID). In 1967 Citroën took control of Maserati, the Italian sportscar maker and launched the sportscar/Grand Tourer SM, which contained a V6 Maserati engine. This was unfortunately timed, with the impending oil crisis making GT manufacture an unprofitable business.
Huge losses caused by failure of the Maserati tie up, coupled with crippling warranty costs by the unreliable GS and CX led to Peugeot taking over Citroën in 1976. The combined company was known as "PSA Peugeot-Citroen".
In the 1980s, Citroën models were increasingly Peugeot-based. The BX of 1982 still used the hydropneumatic suspension system, but was powered by Peugeot-derived engines. By the late 80s, PSA used platform sharing in a major fashion, the XM was the first, using the same engines floorpan as the Peugeot 605; the Xantia of 1993 was identical under the skin to the Peugeot 406.
Citroën developed a small car for production in Romania, known as the Oltcit, which it also sold as the Citroën Axel.
One of the tragedies of this approach is that Citroën's quirky approach to engineering and styling has been squeezed out in favour of Peugeot conservatism. The ubiquitous 2CV was finally killed off in 1991, production having moved from France to Portugal.
An old-fashioned nickname for Citroën cars is Citron (lemon, in French).
The company's famous "double chevron" logo derives from André Citroën's early business in gear-cutting, the company pioneered mass production of helically-cut gear teeth, which mesh together in a chevron pattern.
Models include:
- Airdream Concept car 2002/2003
- Ami
- Axel (1984-1990)
- AX
- Berlingo
- BX
- CX (1974-1989)
- 2CV (1948-1990, aka Duck)
- C2
- C3
- C5
- C15
- Dyane
- DS (1955-1975, aka Goddess)
- Eole Concept car 1986
- GS and GSA
- H Van (1947-1981, aka HY),
- ID
- Jumpy
- Jumper
- LN
- LNA
- Méhari
- Saxo
- SM (1970-1975)
- Traction Avant (1934-1956)
- Visa
- XM
- Xantia
- Xsara
- ZX
See also: List of automobiles, List of French companies
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