The Downfall of Citroen

[AandreiI]

In the 60s and 70s, Citroën made some of the coolest most original and most technologically advanced cars of their day(starting with the DS). Nowadays after the PSA thing was formed Citroens are becoming more and more Peugeot. Citroen used to put hydropneumatic suspension (their most well known trademark) on all but the smallest cheap cars. After the Peugeot take over, they gradually eliminated in favor of traditional coil springs and stuff. The BX (correct me if i`m wrong) was the last small citroen to have hydropneumatics. Then they produced the ZX which as someone put it: " was just a soft peugeot for p****es". Citroen tried to advertise it as "one of the softer sprung cars in its class"...but their charm was pretty much gone. We were left with the big cars: the XM, Xantia and now the C5 which will be replaced in 2008 by a new C5 which not surprisingly at all will not have hydropneumatic suspension , which will be availible as an optional extra for a few thousand euros more. Their other very nice new car, the c4, is as i`ve said nice. Underneath all the pretty styling, fixed hub steering wheel and digital dials and gadgets lies a car which couldn`t be more ordinary. The seats are "german hard", the ride is quite stiff, the power steering is ridiculously heavy (at least on the car i drove). So by next year we will be left with one last true Citroën: the C6 :roll:

Cheers

[AandreiI]

guess nobody cares, lol

[Johnas]

Well I don't personally like Citroens (except C4 Coupe) but it's always sad to see when old brand is not what it used to be. That has happened for too many carcompany.

[Icekid84]

People like pictures.. and not a lot to read Especially on things they dont know much about ie Citroens (atleast thats my story

[Silent][Moebius]

cars changing over the years... well car companies often get eaten by others... see Lamborghini by Audi. now the new lambos are all 4WD which is really lame for a hypercar imo. a proper hypercar has to be rwd and be completely rediculous to handle at the max.

The seats are "german hard",

for christs sake, if you want a comfy car that patts your but cheeks when your sitting go buy a cadillac :roll:

[JJJbrake]

If you ask me.
The new Citroen's like the C6,C4 and C4picasso are real ones.
After the BX you had only one real Citro and that was the XM.
Seems like Psa is doing a good job with it.
They are making profit and real citro drivers are happy with those new cars.

[multimediaman]

[quote='Silent][Moebius;175045']cars changing over the years... well car companies often get eaten by others... see Lamborghini by Audi. now the new lambos are all 4WD which is really lame for a hypercar imo. a proper hypercar has to be rwd and be completely rediculous to handle at the max.

I thought lamborghini was bought by volkswagen...


And the bugatti veyron is 4wd, or awd, one of the two, and I don't hear too many people saying that thing doesn't perform well.

IMO, I'd rather have an AWD than any other configuration, but that's just my way of thinking. I'd also prefer a switch to easily disable AWD to go back to Rwd in case I'd rather be able to fishtail and other stuff that's harder to do with AWD. But for nice acceleration, it would seem that the more wheels you get to power the car, the better the acceleration would be, no?

and what exactly is this hydropneumatic suspension that makes Citroen cars supposedly so good??

[AandreiI]

Originally Posted by multimediaman

and what exactly is this hydropneumatic suspension that makes Citroen cars supposedly so good??

well, the car does away with normal springs and shocks and uses oil filled cylinders instead.

There are several advantages:

1. Best ride quality of any car.

2. The possibility to increase the ride height to go over obstacles and to lower it on motorways to reduce drag.

3. The car can run on 3 wheels. If you have a flat tire, you just remove the wheel and the self leveling hydro susp will keep the car in a drivable state.

4. The suspension is self leveling, meaning that the car will always try to stay paralell to the road.

5. Being cool and original. Very few cars have the system. It was invented by Citroen but but was adapted and still used by Rolls Royce, so if they think it`s good enough for the Phantom, guess it`s good.

YouTube - Citroën GS Advert

YouTube - Citroen C5 hydractive

YouTube - Citroen C5 <- hadn`t seen that =D

YouTube - citroen DS commercial

YouTube - CITROEN DS

[multimediaman]

sounds pretty good...

but what are the mechanics like? is the suspension nice and rigid enough to keep the tires in contact with the ground as much as possible, to ensure proper traction? or would the chances of the tires leaving the ground be greater than those chances with springs?

[AandreiI]

Originally Posted by multimediaman

sounds pretty good...

but what are the mechanics like? is the suspension nice and rigid enough to keep the tires in contact with the ground as much as possible, to ensure proper traction? or would the chances of the tires leaving the ground be greater than those chances with springs?

the latest generation version of the system is really high tech and i`m sure it`s better than normal suspension at just about everything. The higher end models of the c5 and c6 also stiffen in corners and have very little body roll...