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Citroën is a French automobile manufacturer, started in 1919 by André Citroën, today part of PSA Peugeot Citroën. Its headquarters are located in Paris, rue Fructidor.

Originally a mass-market car maker with relatively straightforward designs, Citroën shocked the world in 1934 with the innovative Traction Avant (front wheel drive) (1934-1956). Until the late 1980s the company had a reputation for approaching auto design in a unique way. Later significant models include the H Van (1947-1981, "HY"), 2CV (1948-1990, "The Duck"), DS (1955-1975, "Goddess") and CX (1974-1991).

Contents

History

1934 Traction Avant 11CV
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1934 Traction Avant 11CV

1955 2CV
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1955 2CV

1967 DS Pallas
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1967 DS Pallas

1974 SM
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1974 SM

1982 CX
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1982 CX

HY
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HY

Citroën Acadiane
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Citroën Acadiane

Citroën C5 SX, 2003
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Citroën C5 SX, 2003





2006 Citroën C6 Sedan

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2006 Citroën C6 Sedan











The story of Citroën begins with the founder of the company himself, the engineer André Citroën. He built armaments for France during World War I - after the war he had a factory and no product. In 1919, the business started to produce automobiles, beginning with the conventional type A model.


The symbol for this firm, still used today, is the "double chevron" trademark, referencing Citroën's early work on the "herringbone" or double helical gear.


André Citroën was a keen marketer - he used the Eiffel Tower as the world's largest advertising sign, per the Guinness book of World Records. He also sponsored expeditions in Asia (Croisière Jaune) and Africa (Croisière Noire), intended to demonstrate the potential for motor vehicles equipped with Kegresse track system to cross inhospitable regions. The expeditions conveyed scientists and journalists and were a publicity success.


In 1924, Citroën began a relationship with American engineer Edward G. Budd. From 1899, Budd had worked to develop pressed-steel bodies for railroad cars, Pullman in particular. Budd went on to manufacture steel bodies for many automakers, Dodge being his first big auto client. In 1928, Citroën introduced the first all-steel body in Europe. 


In the beginning, the cars were successful. But soon competitors, who still used a wood structure for their bodies, introduced new body designs on their cars. Citroën had no way to redesign the body of his cars and the cars began to be perceived as old-fashioned. The Citroëns sold in large quantities despite the stylistic drawback, but the car's low price was the main selling point and Citroën experienced heavy losses. 


This encouraged André Citroën to develop the Traction Avant, a car so innovative that to it the competition would have no response. The Traction Avant had three revolutionary features: a unitary body with no separate frame, front wheel independent suspension, and front wheel drive. Citroën commissioned Budd to create a prototype, which evolved into the 7 fiscal horsepower (CV), 32 HP Traction Avant of 1934. 


The Traction Avant would set major elements of the mechanical design to be followed thirty years later by the Mini, Volkswagen Golf and today by nearly every other manufacturer.


Achieving quick development of the Traction Avant was expensive and contributed to the financial ruin of the company. In 1934, debt forced the company into foreclosure; it was then taken over by its biggest creditor, the tire company Michelin. Fortunately for Michelin, the Traction Avant met with market acceptance and the basic philosophy that had led to this design continued. During the German occupation of France, Citroën researchers continued their work and developed the concepts later brought to market in the 2CV and DS. These were widely regarded by contemporary journalists as avant garde, even radical, solutions to automotive design.


This began a period of unusual brand loyalty normally seen in the automobile industry only in niche brands, like Porsche and Ferrari - the cult-like appeal of the cars to Citroënistes would take almost two decades to finally eliminate - from 1975 to circa 1995.


Citroën unveiled the 2CV (2 fiscal horsepower, initially only 12 HP) at the Paris Salon in 1948. This car become a bestseller - achieving the designer's aim of providing rural Frenchmen with a motorized alternative to the horse. This car remained in production with minor changes until 1990. 


1955 saw the introduction of the DS, which was the first full usage of Citroën's now legendary hydropneumatic self-leveling suspension system that was tested on the rear suspension of the last of the Tractions. The DS was the first production car with disk brakes.


The DS featured power steering, power brakes and suspension and, from 1968, directional headlights . The same high-pressure system was used to activate pistons located in the gearbox cover to shift the gears in the transmission and operate the clutch on their "Citromatic", Citroën's version of a semi-automatic transmission. 


This high-pressure hydraulic system would form the basis of many Citroën cars, including the SM, GS, CX, BX, XM, and Xantia. These vehicles all share a distinguishing feature: they rise to operating ride height when the ignition is turned on, like a "mechanical camel" (per Car & Driver magazine).  


During Citroën's venture with Maserati the Citroën high pressure hydraulic system was used on several Maserati models for power clutch operation (Bora), power pedals adjustment (Bora), pop-up headlights (Bora, Merak) and brakes (Bora, Merak), and the entire Quattroporte II prototype, which was a four-door Citroën SM under the skin.


In 1963, Citroën negotiated with Peugeot to cooperate in the purchase of raw materials and equipment. Talks were broken off in 1965.


That year Citroën took over the French carmaker Panhard in the hope of using Panhard's expertise in midsize cars to complement its own range of very small, cheap cars (e.g. 2CV/Ami) and large, expensive cars (e.g. DS/ID). Cooperation between both companies began 12 years earlier, as they agreed to a partial merger of their sales networks in 1953. Panhard ceased making vehicles in 1967.


1968 saw a restructuring of Citroën's various worldwide operations under a new holding company, Citroën SA. Citroën's longtime controlling shareholder, the tire company Michelin sold a 49% stake to FIAT, in what was referred to as the PARDEVI agreement (Participation et Développement Industriels). That year Citroën purchased Maserati, the Italian sports car maker and launched the sports car/Grand Tourer SM, which contained a V6 Maserati engine. The SM was engineered as if it were replacing the DS, a level of investment the GT sector alone would never be able to support, even in the best of circumstances. Circumstances were instead unfavorable, since the SM was banned from the key US export market in 1974 and the 1973 energy crisis cut GT sales. 


Huge losses at Citroën were caused by failure of the Comotor rotary engine venture, plus the strategic error of going 15 years (1955-1970) without a model in the profitable middle range of the European market, and the massive development costs for the GS, CX, SM, Birotor, Maserati Bora, Maserati Merak, and Maserati Khamsin models - each a technological marvel in its own right. 


Citroen was weak and unable to withstand the softening of the automobile market that accompanied the 1973 oil embargo; In 1973, FIAT withdrew from PARDEVI and returned its 49% stake to Michelin. This was an ominous sign of things to come, as less than a year later, Citroën went bankrupt. The French Government feared large job losses and arranged talks between Michelin and Peugeot, where it was decided to merge Automobiles Citroën and Automobiles Peugeot into a single company. In 1974 Peugeot purchased 38.2% of Citroën and became responsible for managing the combined activities, in particular their joint research, purchasing and investments departments. 


Peugeot sold off Maserati to DeTomaso in May 1975, and the Italian firm was quickly able to exploit the aspirational image of the Maserati brand to sell tens of thousands of newly designed Bi-Turbo models.


The takeover was completed in May 1976 as Peugeot SA purchased a 90% stake of Citroën SA, and both companies were combined into a holding company, known as PSA Peugeot Citroën. 


Since Citroën had two successful new designs in the market at this time (the GS and CX) and Peugeot was typically prudent in its own finances, the PSA venture was a financial success from 1976 to 1979. PSA then purchased the aging assets of Chrysler Europe, leading to losses for the consortium from 1980 to 1985.


PSA gradually eliminated Citroën's ambitious attitude to engineering and styling in an effort to rebrand the marque as an economy brand. In the 1980s, Citroën models were increasingly Peugeot-based. The 1982 BX used the hydropneumatic suspension system and still had a Citroënesque appearance, while being powered by Peugeot-derived engines and using the floorpan later seen on the Peugeot 405. By the late 1980s, many of the distictive features of the marque had also receded - the AX GT, for example was noted by contemporary journalists for its poor ride quality - an unusual attribute for the brand. 


Citroën has expanded into many new geographic markets. In the late 1970's, the firm developed a small car for production in Romania known as the Oltcit, which it sold in Western Europe as the Citroën Axel. While that joint venture has ended, but a new joint venture between Citroën, Peugeot, and Toyota is now producing cars like the Citroën C1 in the Czech Republic. In China the C3 and Xsara are sold alongside the ZX Fukang and Elysée local models. Citroën is still a global brand, except in North America, where the cars were banned in 1974.


The ubiquitous and versatile 2CV workhorse was finally killed off in 1990 without replacement. Companies like Chrysler with the PT Cruiser, Toyota with the Scion xB, and Honda with the Element have recognized the 2CV concept and translated it to the modern era. Latterly, Citroen has introduced the C3 Pluriel, an unusual convertible with strong allusions to the 2CV both in body style (such as the bonnet) and in its all-round practicality.


The Pluriel is but one example of Citroën's return to innovation after launching somewhat dull (although efficient) models throughout the 90's. Other examples are new vehicles such as the C2, C4, and C6.  The introduction of even newer models, such as the long-awaited XM replacement, the C6, indicates Citroën's continued commitment to innovation in the 21st century.


In 2003 Citroën sold 1,372,500 cars, as stated in the PSA Peugeot Citroën group's 2003 annual report.



Passenger cars and vans



Pre war



Post war 1945-1970



Post war 1970 onwards



Trucks



Prototypes and Concept Cars



Miscellaneous



Citroën's winners of the European Car of the Year award



Citroën's second and third placed entrants in European Car of the Year award



Citroën bus





See also





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