With a new Citroen C5 due in 2016, production of the mid-size Citroen will shift from PSA’s Rennes plant to an undisclosed Opel facility. A French car, built by Germans – eat your heart out, Clemens.
The move comes as part of the General Motors-PSA alliance, which sees cars like the C5 and Opel Insignia sharing a GM derived platform, while PSA contributes small car knowledge for the next Citroen C3 and Opel Corsa.
Union officials in France have long maintained that Rennes will be closed, and point to a dwindling workforce – cut in half from just three years ago – as evidence that PSA plans to shutter the plant. But the head of the factory recently told a local newspaper that a 40 million euro investment was planned for the site, which also builds the Citroen C5 and Peugeot 508.
Not any kind of fruit I’d like to eat…..
Hopefully they’ll build a DS9 to provide our new president some decent motor…
A GM V6 will do fine in it, thanks.
As for the midsize cars, my view is that when the second heaviest in its class tells the heaviest “Hey, you’re doing a better engineering than I, let’s move to your platform”, chances are few the offspring will be class-leading in that respect. Class-stomping, maybe, as an Insignia with V6 and 4WD is above 2 tons!!
I also foresee the definitive demise of the Citroën suspension with that move… what a shame for a company that was (quite succesfully) run by engineers and artists to be eaten alive by bean counters and designers.
Can we get that in Buick flavor?
How about Caddy flavor?
Could we get this as a Fusion-fighter, perhaps?
That’s a shame that it’s come to this. While the new car will be fine, it will have too much in common with the Opel to be truly unique. Sort of like how the Saab 9-5 was neat, but you could feel the Opel in the design.
Le gens have lost interest in domestic brands, sales have been on a steady slide. I don’t think anybody in France has a long term plan or a real concept on how to reverse it. I’m sure of appeals to nostalgia & patriotism. But beneath there is a sleepy french “outcome inevitable,” like the British industry.
The DS line from Citroën is one plan to reverse it. It appeals to the young and wealthy, to car guys that despise German conformity, and it works.
At Renault, the electric line is the plan. At Peugeot, nothing special and it will hurt them.
Industrially, both groups are leaving the country, slowly but surely. But they would love to keep the “domestic appeal” alive nevertheless…
I wonder whether an Opel-built D segment Citroën will retain the latter’s hydropneumatic suspension.
The DS line from Citroën is one plan to reverse it. It appeals to the young and wealthy, to car guys that despise German conformity, and it works.
At Renault, the electric line is the plan. At Peugeot, nothing special and it will hurt them.
Industrially, both groups are leaving the country, slowly but surely. But they would love to keep the “domestic appeal” alive nevertheless…
Common GM derived platform? How is that a C5. I have one and the Hydractive suspension was its number one draw. Without that unique ride it is just another French car. What is the world coming to? What’s next? Front engined, V6 Porsche 911s? Four cylinder Vipers? Recipricating engined RX7s? (oh yeah, I saw that one coming)
Sharing platforms and production facilities is one thing, as long as they leave the actual styling responsibility in the hands of Citroen’s own design team. The current C5 is one of the best looking midsize sedans on sale today, Citroen basically just got their design mojo back, it would be a shame to to have it morph into a generic Opel/Vauxhall/Buick with a double chevron grille.