Citroen Cars | Used Cars, Motorbikes, Vans & Other Vehicles

Buying a Citroen
Citroen cars are the product of parent company, PSA Peugeot Citroen. The car has been long established and it is still a very popular brand today and Citroen cars continue to be produced. It is most commonly associated with the Peugeot brand, some technological innovations in the past and sound engineering. It is often considered to be an ideal family car. This article will look at the history of the Citroen, some different models you can buy and the kind of prices you might expect to pay.

Company History
Citroen was founded in 1926 by Frenchman Andre Citroen. Today it remains a French company although it was absorbed by rivals PSA Peugeot Citroen in the 1970s which it currently operates under.

Its significance in the earlier years lies with the technology that surprised the world. While it was originally aimed at the mass market it showed some significant advancement usually associated with narrow market specialist brands. For example, in 1934 the Traction Avant was produced, which was the world's first mass production front wheel drive car. Other landmark models include the H Van, the 2CV and CX. The latest current model is the Nemo and long awaited C5 which was first produced in 2008.

The company began simply because the founder who made war armaments in World War 1 had to find a new purpose. He persuaded American Engineer Edward G Budd to help him with his new company in the 1920s. Budd designed the cars with a steel body and introduced this concept to Europe which had previously used wooden bodies. Budd's innovation in engineering led him to work with automotive giant brands such as Dodge whereas Citroen himself built himself a reputation in marketing as he marketed the Citroen as a low cost, ground breaking design vehicle. Budd broke the world record for advertising by using the Eiffel Tower as the world's largest advertising board which featured the brand name of Citroen from 1925-34. The brilliant marketing and superb engineering culminated in the launch of the successful Traction Avant which was made unique not only by its front wheel drive, but its unitary body with no separate frame and front wheel independent suspension. The only draw-back to this tremendous success was that Citroen had never had a great deal of capital and it had always been under funded for its ambitious projects. This led to debt and the inevitable take-over by Michellin who were its biggest creditors.

During the next stage of the development of the Citroen brand of car had to produce more modest, understated designs as Mitchellin did not invest enough for Citroen to continue with their ground breaking work. However the second World War added a new dimension of excitement and subterfuge to what was becoming a 'safe', ordinary brand of car. The researchers at Citroen began an underground movement where they secretly continued their developmental work, which was to later be produced in the form of the famous 2CV and DS. The secret work of the researchers seemed to somehow contribute to the war effort and the general public admired their determination to continue to research and develop despite the War, which secured brand loyalty for a considerable number of years on its strength. This type of loyalty was usually only seen by niche brands such as Mercedes and Porsche but the growth of 'Citroenistes' was rapid after the war and took a long time to fade during the 70s and 80s. The clever design of the 2CV brought auto-power to the country which still relied on horses, whereas the more dynamic DS introduced the hydro-pneumatic self levelling suspension system which formed the basis for later models including the infamous SM and later Xantia. It set the benchmark for many other aspects of car manufacturing such as disc brakes, power suspension, power steering and power brakes. Later in the 1950s they also experimented with a wind tunnel and were one of the early pioneers of the widespread trend of aerodynamics in car design. This was probably the height of their heyday.

Citroen attempted to expand by buying Maserati and produced a range of cars including the Maserati Bara, Maserati Merak, GX, CX and SM. They also experimented and tried to integrate the Wankel engine into their designs as it was so light and certainly ideal for aircraft and racing car design. However in the 1970s gas prices rose and as this type of engine has a high fuel consumption it proved to be a huge expense of time and money. Another blow to the company was after winning the USA Car of the Year award in 1971 for the SM it was subsequently removed after it failed to adhere to safety standards in car design. As a result Citroen lost their hold on the American market and became bankrupt as a result of investing in the Wankel engine and ignoring the profitable middle of the range car market, leading to the PSA takeover.

While the PSA takeover led to changes in the Citroen design, the name continued to be used as it was recognised world wide. However the model was now geared towards the economy market, it was similar to the Peugeot brand and in danger of becoming 'safe' as opposed to innovative. Some would definitely conclude that during the 1990s the design was far less popular and uninspiring. Of course under the Peugeot umbrella, however, the Citroen began selling again, proving to be particularly popular in Europe. Today the company is trying to recapture some of the former reputation for engineering, innovation and marketing with its new more exciting designs which is shown in the new advert for the C5 which draws a direct comparison to German designs (world famous for engineering innovation with brands such as BMW) and shows marketing flair. Supporting this are recent Podium awards won by the C4 in 2005 and 2007 design.

Buying a Citroen
Having perused this Citroen guide you might have guessed which cars are worth the most money. If not, then for collectors, the most expensive and best loved models are the early ground breaking CV, DS and Traction Avant models and also the later infamous SM model. In good conditions these cars make great collectors items and can be worth up to �25,000. More recent models are far better for practical use and are in line with other similar brand prices if bought second hand.