One of Citroën’s biggest news at its homeland’s Motor Show is, in fact, a Chinese car. The very first creation of the brand’s Shanghai Design Center comes out with an excellent result in many ways, but also with the concern of joining an even harder market than what was faced by its predecessor, called C4 Pallas. This time it was already born with a global style, in order to replace its previous generation along with the initial C4, whose design was originally made in France and only as a hatchback, but without the mistakes of the past.
And what would be those mistakes? The first one is more likely to be defined as a “conceptual exaggeration”, applied to what was called the Coupé version. While the 5-door hatchback’s style gave an as elegant as commonplace overall impression, they decided to attract the spotlights with the 3-door. The clean and well-defined lines went from the front to the sides, but the rear end had a very abrupt cut, with the rear windshield forming a slightly concave with the trunk lid. Although creative, this solution wasn’t much different from the contemporary Renault Mégane’s, but wasn’t very well received at some markets. The second mistake was made by Citroën’s Chinese joint-venture with Dongfeng: the European market’s rejection to small and medium sedans used to result at hard times to the emergent countries: those cars are really well-accepted in them, but always with price limitations. So to adapt a three-volumes version from a car whose original project never considered it and sharing as many parts as possible in order to lower production costs winded up as a really hard task. PSA-Dongfeng’s first attempt with C4 was called C-Triomphe, but ended with a very much bigger focus at the internal space than at the style, so it never had good sales. But instead of phasing it out they launched another: the C-Quatre, smaller and more sporty.
However, Citroën now wants to avoid the situation of having two sedans with small sales, and decided to concentrate those customers into a much more stylish car. The now called C4 L (for Lounge, to highlight its bigger internal space) follows the company’s current rule of leaving the style eccentricities to the DS- line and focusing the C- line in a more discreet design. But the pictures already show what’s the nicest part of all this: getting discreet didn’t mean to get boring at all. C4 L now gives the very pleasant impression of a sophisticated car, with modern and well-designed lines and volumes and without the excessive length of its predecessor. The sad part is the loss of charm items such as the perfume diffuser, central dashboard and the fixed-center steering wheel, but it still attracts easily when it comes to the comfort and technology items: there are many shared parts with the hatchback, including central touchscreen to give access to the entertainment functions reverse view camera and GPS navigator and leather coating. This car will use the 136 hp VTi engine, and the already classical 1.6 THP at the 150 hp and 170 hp versions. Citroën intends to sell it with focus at the emergent markets, and produce it at one plant of each of the planned regions, starting at 2013.
