This French Friday we have four Citroen five-seaters: two from the ‘70's, and two from the ‘00's! Yep, the venerable CX berline and estate alongside its spiritual successor, the C5 lineup.
The Citroen CX was a magnificent car, a worthy successor to the DS with a great set of four-cylinders (some turbocharged!), awesome hydropneumatics, and that amazing wind-cheating styling!
Where the estate did lose a bit of that aerodynamic appeal by adding a huge fifth door, the return on investment was magnificent as the resulting cargo bay was massive! Also no, the rear window on the berline hasn’t caved in over the years—the real car purposely made it concave to cheat the rainwater as well as the wind!
Since these are ‘70s-era castings themselves (the estate from Matchbox, the berline from Majorette), they have plenty of moving bits as well as working suspension on both!
Both manufacturers also faithfully recreated the iconic hood bulge and vent on the CX—a trademark of the wacky and idiosyncratic D-segment Frenchies!
On the other hand, the C5 seems comparatively dowdy with its “Germanic” styling (alluded to in an advertisement, even) and standard PSA fours; at least it came with Hydractive 3+!
As both these C5's come from Norev’s three-inch line, they are nearly identical up front; in the rear, the wagon is better detailed with the “Citroen” name picked out and the “C5" badge standing proud.
Today the C5 is being phased out and it looks like the era of a family car that rides on liquid is coming to an end. A shame, as Citroen had perfected the art of hydropneumatics, as we’ll see next week with a special guest (the Citroen Xantia!)
An icon of elegance, a middle finger to the ordinary, and an understatement of style, the hydropneumatic Citroen has provided European families with a wonderfully eccentric mode of transportation for the past sixty plus years.
Thanks for looking, and Happy French Friday! Bon weekend!