Citroens are futuristic and cool again

Cycle & Carriage has a way of turning car brands around, and in the same way the Kia brand was successfully re-launched in Singapore 6 years ago, the C&C magic now takes on the challenge of launching French carmaker Citroen.

Ever since Volkswagen reconnected with its roots with the new Beetle, carmakers have been delving into their past to re-create their own ‘beetles’. Citroen is adding a new twist to this by giving its little C-Buggy concept car a futuristic space-age theme, complete with an exciting, feature-packed microsite.

Call it a marriage of convenience, but the deal Citroen and Peugeot have signed with Mitsubishi seems to be a win-win situation for all parties concerned. Here’s the deal – Mitsubishi lets the French have its Outlander SUV, but with the necessary changes to the front and rear for brand identity, and Mitsubishi gets presence in the European market, since it is no longer part of the DaimlerChrysler group. The Peugeot 4007 and Citroen C-Crosser(shown above) may be little more than dress-up and re-badged Mitsubishi Outlanders, but having a stylish SUV is something that both French companies have wanted for a long time, and have not been able to develop until now. Will this French/Japanese SUV be available in Singapore, where the same car will be sold by three different carmakers? Not likely. Firstly, the French versions of the Outlander will only be available with PSA 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engines, which are popular in Europe, but not here in Asia. This relationship between Mitsubishi and Peugeot-Citroen is unlikely to be limited to just one vehicle though, and may emerge to become a very powerful tri-partite French/Japanese partnership.