Production of the C6 ends

[casalingua]

[urlhttp://europe.autonews.com/article/20121212/BLOG15/312129996/1295/ANE&cciid=internal-aneinside-mostright][/url]

"Only 556 C6s were sold in Europe in the first 10 months of this year. It's easy to understand why Citroen had to halt production of the car. Sister brand Peugeot also has quit the large sedan segment".

It is a real sign of Citroen´s long-standing irrelevance in the large car sector that little fuss has been made of the demise, without replacement, of the C6. It´s not as if the vehicle didn´t get quite sympathetic reviews. Car Magazine even ran one as long-termer. They may as well have run a Bristol Blenheim for all the attention the market paid the car. There were only about 2,000 people who were ever going to buy one in the UK and half of them couldn´t afford it. Top Clarkson magazine was also very kind to the car. They listed it as one of their cars of the year (that´s probably Paul Horrell´s influence) and gave the car a nice segment on the television version of the magazine (to be shown somewhere for ever more it seems). So what went wrong? It goes back to the XM with its famous and probably vastly over-stated reliability problems. More relevant was the XM´s failure to be really bloody good at something straight away. I own one of these cars and like it alot but most drivers won´t take the time to understand a car´s underlying capability. So, the XM lost 300,000 buyers every year for 10 years. Once lost they never come back. But the C6 would have struggled even if the XM had been as successful as the E-class it was supposed to compete with. This is because with the C6 the firm gave up on the concept of a "useful big car" and reckoned styling and nostalgia was going to sell the vehicle. Styling can only help cars that are good in the first place. The C6 was badly packaged and, as far as I can ascertain, rode no better than the best of the rest. It was expensive when there was no sign the market would pay this price. it didn´t have its own engines and the choice of engines was limited. Underneath all this is also the fact that Citroen didn´t have the experience to make a good big car at the Mercedes and BMW level.

So, I wouldn´t expect too much from Citroen in future in this sector. The memory of the CX has faded, the DS is a kind of mythical car now and the XM is only recalled as an embarrassment though it did still sell vastly better than the car it was, eventually replaced by.

[MTXM]

Many thanks for that and here is another link http://europe.autonews.com/article/2012 ... 6/0/SEARCH Regards, Matthew T.

[CitroJim]

A sad day

Some of us like our comfy old barges and I suspect that's what keeps us so keen on the XM...

Not all of us like racing around in suspension-less, gaudily styled go-karts and shopping trolleys and enjoy a bit of luxury and refined good taste. Sadly there seems no logical replacement for the C6 so where do we go?

One solution in these ecological times is a comfy and luxuriously appointed small car with all the creature comforts, one with wood and leather and subdued yet timelessly classic styling in and out. I'm not sure one exists now but back along the French did well with those in the form of such things as the Pug 205 Gentry and perhaps the Roland Garros derivatives.

Even BMC used to do them with the Vanden Plas, Riley and Woseley marques. All gone now I once had from brand-new a Vanden Plas Metro - that was a quite nice place to be.

I see a nice little niche for a go-ahead maker. How about a Citroen C3 or C1 Pallas or Prestige with wood, leather, deep pile carpets, walnut dash, soft long-travel suspension and a nice lazy autobox but minus all the gaudiness of the 21st century... I'd have one in a heartbeat... Hey, they could always call it a C1 or C3 Sei

[DerekW]

They did (do?) a C3 Exclusive which has lots of trinkets (picnic tables, underseat trays, alloys etc.) and plenty of useful bits (ABS, foglights, cruise control, automatic lights and wipers etc.) but putting leather and wood into a car which rides with all the comfort of a go-cart and has an abysmally small boot would be a major mismatch.

Derek

[CitroJim]

but putting leather and wood into a car which rides with all the comfort of a go-cart and has an abysmally small boot would be a major mismatch.

Precisely Derek and that would need to be addressed. They could make small cars ride lovely years back so I'm sure they've not lost the art. dare I say it they could hydropneumatically suspend it or just look back to the base model 205s - they rode beautifully and very comfily...

The boot is easy. How the basic Mini turned into the Riley Elf or Woseley Hornet is a good example of how it could be achieved.

[russ92xmsed]

this is really sad...but not surprising. I loved the C6, but it could have been better with only a few changes. Adding a load of interior parts from other lower down models did not help things. It just seemed, they got a cracking concept in 1999, then had to follow through on their promise of producing it, only in the end a bit half hearted. a real shame.


The ironic thing is, Audi and even BMW have produced large hatchback exec cars of late. I like the A7. So you could justify producing a large Citroen hatch...C5 size with XM like styling. of course this would be laughed out the showrooms.
Interestingly Autocar have said recently, what Citroen need, is to reinvent the GS range and then build on that.

oh well, au Revoir Haut de Gamme Citroens.

[CitroJim]

Interestingly Autocar have said recently, what Citroen need, is to reinvent the GS range and then build on that.

Absolutely Russ A new GS Pallas would suit me down to the ground... They don't even need to change the shape of it as far as I'm concerned. It's timeless and classically right...

[DerekW]

Agreed Jim. but galvanised body panels would be essential. And that pretty little flat-four engine would have to go, it was not very efficient (the BX 1.6 was far more economic) and I still have nightmares about disconnecting and lifting the engine to change that Y exhaust pipe underneath.

That, for me, sums up what's wrong with Citroen design, they never thought about the impecuneous owners who would have to repair their cars.

Derek

[MTXM]

I might be wrong, but I am not sure that many C6 owners will be repairing their cars in the future as we look after our 20+ year old XMs!! Regards, Matthew T.

[CitroJim]

I might be wrong, but I am not sure that many C6 owners will be repairing their cars in the future as we look after our 20+ year old XMs!! Regards, Matthew T.

I've often wondered if DS and CX owners thought the same about the XM when it was relatively new. We manage OK and I wonder if we'll manage OK with 15 year old C6s when the time comes? I expect we will if the law allows us to...

I think the bigger problem with keeping an elderly C6 going will be spares due to it being so scarce even when new and in production. Already some spares cost huge amounts and there'll be only a limited after-market.

I hear tales of door mirrors costing £700

And I guess little is interchangeable with the C5 just as little is interchangeable between the XM and Xantia...