Replacing The CX
Successful competitors in this market segment (Mercedes-Benz W124, Audi 100, and BMW 5 Series have adopted a cycle of redesign and substantial improvement every seven years. Despite the success of the CX design (and the unbroken legacy of dominance in this segment stretching back to 1934, there was no new and improved "big Citroën" model on the horizon by 1981. CX sales began to slide and never recovered.
Citroën tried to operate independently and design a CX replacement that updated the flowing CX design (in 1980 and again in 1986). Each time, the parent company PSA Peugeot Citroën killed the project and fired the Citroën designers responsible.
Citroën did incur the expense of designing an entirely new gasoline 4-cylinder engine in 1984 for the top-of-range cars—this allowed the CX to go slightly faster at the cost of slightly worse fuel economy. The market demanded either inline-six or V6 engines.
The CX was finally replaced by the XM in 1989. This vehicle was based on the same chassis as the Peugeot 605, styled in a distinctive, angular fashion, and fitted with self-levelling hydropneumatic suspension, featuring new electronic controls and branded Hydractive suspension. It also featured a hatchback and a conventional interior rather than the starship command deck of the CX. The XM is clearly related to the BX in layout and construction, but carries forward little design and technology from the CX.
The XM at first achieved annual sales similar to the modest totals of the CX in the last decade of its life, before a total collapse in demand set in around 1994-1995. It was retired without replacement in 2000. Total sales were 333,000 units, less than a third of CX sales, but twice those of the Peugeot 604.
The 2006 Citroën C6, first announced as the C6 Lignage concept car in 1999, appears to be the direct descendant of the CX. The design of the Citroën flagship is directly inspired by the personality of the CX. Total sales were about 20,000 units, similar to the Talbot Tagora.
Read more about this topic: Citroën CX
Famous quotes containing the words replacing the and/or replacing:
“I do not mean to imply that the good old days were perfect. But the institutions and structure—the web—of society needed reform, not demolition. To have cut the institutional and community strands without replacing them with new ones proved to be a form of abuse to one generation and to the next. For so many Americans, the tragedy was not in dreaming that life could be better; the tragedy was that the dreaming ended.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)
“I do not mean to imply that the good old days were perfect. But the institutions and structure—the web—of society needed reform, not demolition. To have cut the institutional and community strands without replacing them with new ones proved to be a form of abuse to one generation and to the next. For so many Americans, the tragedy was not in dreaming that life could be better; the tragedy was that the dreaming ended.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)