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Citroen Car Company

Citroen cars first entered into car manufacturing in France in 1919, taking its company name from the founder, Andre Citroen. The head quarters today still remain in rue Fructidor, France but today, the company has merged with Peugeot, to form PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Citroen began life as most car manufacturers did at that time, by building armaments for the First World War. The end of the war left Andre Citroen with no product and no factory so he began a business producing automobiles, beginning this new career with a conventional Type A.

The 1919 Citroen Type A

Much speculation surrounds the Citroen logo. Some believe that it is simply a ‘double chevron', a reference to the ‘herringbone' or double helical gear that was at the centre of most of Citroens early works. Some other theories link Andre Citroen to the Freemasons. Thought to be an internationally well-known freemason, the logo is seen as a reflection of a Masonic symbol. It is either thought to be a double Masonic square or indeed a double Masonic compass, seen by the Freemasons as the ‘architect's tool', he may have used it to represent Andre Citroens invention of the helical gear.

Andre Citroen was one of the first people to utilise the Eiffel Tower as a grand advertising sign, earning himself a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for doing so. A keen advertiser, he didn't stop there. He also sponsored many expeditions in both Africa and Asia, earning his company worldwide kudos by demonstrating the potential for motor vehicles equipped with the Kegresse track system to cross inhospitable regions of the world.

Edward G. Budd, an American engineer began a business relationship with Citroen in 1924. At this time, wooden structure bodies were still the most widely used in automobile manufacture. Budd was one of the first people to start manufacturing steel bodies, securing Dodge as its first client. Citroen were one of the last manufacturers in Europe to re-design their cars bodies and this showed in their sales figures, consumers perceived them as old-fashioned. By 1928 they had caught up with the market and they became the first car manufacturer in Europe to build their cars with steel bodies. Still, the cars biggest selling point was the cheap price it came at, rather than the innovative design of its framework.

Citroens answer came and managed to leave all the other competition speechless. The 1934 Traction Avant was an innovative design that comprised of three revolutionary features: a unitary body with no separate frame, front wheel independent suspension and front wheel drive. This design was so far ahead of its game, it managed to set major elements of mechanical design, employed 30 years later by Mini and followed by virtually every other car manufacturer today. However, Citroen did experience problems with undercapitalisation, meaning that too few cars were being developed by the time of launch.

The Traction Avant was an expensive car to produce and it finally attributed to the financial ruin of the company. By the end of 1934, the company had gone into foreclosure and its biggest creditor, Michelin, the tyre company, stepped in to take over control of Citroen. Fortunately the Traction Avant proved popular and met with market acceptance and the basic philosophy that led to its design continued.

During the Second World War, when Germany occupied France, the Citroen researchers continued their work in secret, developing concepts that would later be bought to the market in the form of 2 CV's and DS's. These models were thought at the time to be avant garde in their design, radical solutions to automotive design. This era bought with it the kind of brand consumer loyalty that is normally only associated with niche automobile companies like Ferrari or Porsche. The cult like appeal of the cars to the now-named citroenistes took about two decades to fade, from the mid ‘70's to the mid ‘90's.

The most famous Citroen to be produced was the 2CV which was unveiled at the Paris Salon in 1948. Citroens aim was to develop a car for the rural people of France that would be an alternative to the horse. The car was an instant success with the consumers and production a=of these vehicles lasted right up until 1990 and is still a relatively common sight on the French roads.

The high pressure hydraulic system that has become the basis of most of Citroens modern cars was first introduced in 1955, with the brand new Citroen DS. The legendary self-levelling system was tested on the rear suspension of the last of the Traction Avants. It also featured power steering, power brakes and power suspension and was the first production car to have disk brakes.

Much financial restructuring has taken place at Citroen. In 1963 they started talks with Peugeot in the hopes of purchasing raw materials and equipment but the talks broke off just 2 years later in 1965. The same year, Citroen took over the French car maker, Panhard. Citroen had believed that they could use Panhards expertise in the midsize cars to complement their own range of small, cheap cars like the 2CV. This deal had been in talks between the two companies for the last 12 years, finally a partial merger of their sales networks was agreed upon in 1953. By 1967, Citroen completely took over Panhard who had now ceased making vehicles.

By 1968, Citroen were operating under a new holding company name, Citroen SA. Michelin. The long-time controlling shareholder and one time saviour of the Citroen company sold a 49% stake to FIAT. That year the company also purchased the Italian sports car manufacturer, Maserati. That same year they launched the Grand Tourer SM, a car with a V6 Maserati engine and their first fully powered steering system.

By the 1970's, financial circumstances for Citroen began to take a turn for the worse. The company had to withdraw from the American market due to design regulations that were implemented which would outlaw the core features of Citroen cars. The energy and oil crisis of 1973 caused the company a huge blow too, causing FIAT to withdraw from the merger, selling its 49% stake back to Michelin. Less than a year later, Citroen was bankrupt. Fearing large job losses, the French Government arranged talks between Michelin and Peugeot. It was eventually decided to merge Automobiles Citroen and Automobiles Peugeot to form a single company. In 1974, Peugeot purchased 38.2% of Citroen and became responsible for managing the combined activities, particularly their research and purchasing and investments departments.

By 1975, Peugeot had sold off Maserati to DeTomaso, freeing up the funds to complete the takeover the next year in 1976. Peugeot SA bought a 90% stake in Citroen SA, the company was merged and now traded under the new name, PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Citroen have proved their commitment to innovation in the 21st century, designing cars like The Pluriel, which has blown their designs of the 1990's out of the water. Selling over a million cars a year, they are back to being one of the front runners in Europe's car manufacturing.

Citroen Car Insurance Models

2 CV AX Berlingo BX C1 C15 C3 C4 C4 Picasso C5 C6 C8 CX Dispatch Relay Saxo SM Synergie Xantia XM Xsara Xsara Picasso
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