Citroën

Citroën is a French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën Group since 1976, established over 100 years ago in March 1919.

Citroën produced the world’s first mass-produced front-wheel drive car and one of the first to feature a unitary type body, with no chassis supporting its mechanical components.

How popular is Citroën in the United Kingdom?

Citroën is probably better known for its quirky design and fun fashion styled brand of cars. Offering something different from more traditional sporty looks, they are a brand that provides value without being cheap.

There were 1.3m Citroën cars on the roads at the close of 2018; a figure that peaked in the early part of 2015 and has maintained a very similar number ever since.

Good value vehicles for family driving

Citroën offers a range of fun-looking smaller city cars and family cars for every ilk. The smallest starts with their C1 city model, growing into the C3 mini-MPV and SUV models, then the C4 subcompact and compact featuring crossover and SUV styles, up to the C5 family saloon, that is also available as an SUV sporting Citroën’s Aircross moniker. With models featuring up to 7 seats, Citroën doesn’t just create cars for everyday family motoring—they supply cars for the biggest of families.

Citroën’s reliability and reputation

You wouldn’t instantly think of Citroën as one of the technological leaders of the automotive industry, but as well as being the first to introduce front wheel drive and unitary body type vehicles, they were also responsible for producing the first hydropneumatic self-levelling suspensions system in 1954. Just one year later they introduced another milestone in motoring history, producing the first mass-produced car with modern disc brakes.

Citroën ranked 25th place out of 30 car brands in the What Car? Reliability Survey in 2018. Probably not a figure to earn them too much confidence and an increase in sales, but when you consider that they still featured higher than Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and Land Rover then maybe the competition is a little tougher throughout that survey than it first appears.

Recent Citroën recalls and reliability issues

Various recalls have been made on Citroën models throughout their motoring history. The following are a list of the most recent in the UK and Europe.

25/04/2019 – Citroën Berlingo

The handbrake mechanism may not be correct

27/02/2019 – Citroën C4 Aircross (2011–2015)

The battery charge program may not be to specification

12/02/2019 – Citroën C3 Aircross (2016–2018)

The wires of the seat position sensor may not be correct

01/02/2019 – Citroën Spacetourer and Dispatch IV (2015–2108)

The loosening of the front wishbone lower ball joints

01/02/2019 – Citroën Spacetourer and Dispatch IV (2016–2018)

The fixing bolt of the front suspension wishbone

01/02/2019 – Citroën Spacetourer and Dispatch IV (2015–2018)

The air conditioning compressor pulley could break

01/02/2019 – Citroën Spacetourer Dispatch IV (2016–2018)

Rear suspension wishbone mounting bolts

14/01/2019 – Citroën C3 (2018)

The steering column universal joint clamp may be incorrectly fitted

All recall information sourced from gov.co.uk data.

DS

DS is the premium automobile marque of the Groupe PSA. First announced in 2009 by Citroën as its premium sub-brand; it was suggested to be an abbreviation of different spirit or distinctive series. However, in French, the name is considered a play on words, as the translation of déesse becomes goddess in English.

How popular is DS in the United Kingdom?

As a newcomer to the UK market in its own right, there were around 35k DS cars on the roads in the UK by the end of 2018. Whether those figures will continue to rise at the same rate shown since their introduction in 2015, only time will tell.

Looking to provide a standalone marque to initially compete with brands such as Volkswagen and Audi, PSA decided that neither Citroën nor Peugeot would be able to carry the brand strength that would be able to make a serious threat in the market with an elevated price-point at the level of quality and luxury they set out to achieve.

DS: Establishing a new range of upmarket models

To compete with the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, DS introduced a range of hatchbacks, saloons and SUVs but it’s undoubtedly their supermini city car that is proving the most popular.

The DS3, sold as a 3-door hatchback or a convertible, is available in countless customisation options and also as the subcompact luxury crossover SUV DS3 Crossback. The DS3 was voted Car of the Year by Top Gear Magazine, and first place supermini four times in a row in the JD Power Satisfaction UK Survey.

DS: Don’t be fooled into thinking they’re just a one trick pony

At the other end of the range you’ll find the DS7 Crossback. Here’s a large SUV designed to compete directly with the Audi Q5, the BMW X3 and the Mercedes-Benz GLC; that’s quite a jump for a car that’s built by Citroën.

The models that you’ll find between the DS3 and the DS7 are created with the same style for the market in mind. The DS4, a mixture of hatchback and SUV, and the DS5, a bigger hatchback priced and pitched against the Audi A4, the BMW 3 Series and the Mercedes C-Class saloons.

DS’s reliability and reputation

DS didn’t feature in the 30 car brands of the What Car? Reliability Survey in 2018, however, Citroën came in at 25th place so it stands to reason that their premium vehicles should score higher. Not necessarily so. Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover were propping up the wrong end of the survey, and given that the most reliable brands are all Asian manufacturers (with Suzuki, Lexus, Toyota, Kia and Mitsubishi taking the top spots) perhaps it’s simply a case of the rest of the world are having to play catch-up?

Recent DS recalls and reliability issues

Currently there is no information available regarding recall information for DS vehicles as sourced from gov.co.uk data.