China Car Times

The Citroen C1 is quite possibly the coolest super mini to ever come into China, in fact, it might actually be the only super mini from a foreign contender that has dared to go into the 60,000rmb and up price bracket, unless of course you count the Chevrolet Spark.

The Citroen C1 is to be made via the Citroen-Dongfeng joint venture partnership, and should be on the market by September 08. The C1 will be equipped with front airbags, MP3 player connections, and ABS, priced at 60,000rmb and rising for the 1.0l model, its a car we could love for the city center.

Of course, this makes us wonder - If the C1 is coming to China, then surely the Peugeot equivlant cant be far behind? Not that we care, the models from Citroen China are far better looking than those from Peugeot.

We like the French, especially Citroen. Citroen has that excellent knack of announcing something at just the right time, last time it was the Spanish Chairman Mao advert that made many Chinese angry, the very next day Citroen announced the C4 was to be made in China.

Yesterday, Citroen announced that that mid level Citroen C5 would go into production in 2009, and the C4 would see PRC production in 2008.

China Car Times does prefer the Citroen line up to the Peugeot line up! The 207 and the 307 have that squashed frog look about them, where as the Citroen line up looks rather sophisticated, even the latest incarnation of the ZX, with its updated grill and odd metallic paint job looks pretty good. Citroen China also has the C-Triumphe C-Triomphe (left), a notchback sedan based on the Citroen C4, which is a very nice car for its class.

The Citroen Elysee is a China only car made via the Dongfeng Citroen tie up, its been on the market for a few years now, and Citroen feel that the well selling sedan is due for a make over to bring it in line with the 2008 Citroen line up.

The fact that this much older sedan still sells very well, shows that at least some Chinese customers prefer the old to the new. The Elysee engine is the same as whats sold in the Citroen ZX (also still available in China), and is a very popular car which is easy to fix due to a plentiful supply of cheap parts.

Citroen might have to turn down their sales forecasts for 2008 sales in China, it seems they’ve just earned the anger of the Chinese people with their new car advert in Spain. The above advert was featured in a full page spread in the Spanish newspaper, El Pais. The advert clearly shows Chairman Mao pulling a wry face at the little Citroen hatchback, the text underneath says

“It’s true, we are leaders, but at Citroen the revolution never stops,”

The response to the advert from Chinese residents in Spain was quite strong, and it quickly spread across the internet to China, where Chinese anger was vented quite openly on various websites, BBS forums and blogs.

Citroen apologised via a letter to The Global Times saying:

Citroen expresses regret for any displeasure caused by the advertisement and apologizes to all who have been hurt by it

Citroen later apologised again via the Citroen-China office to Reuters:

Citroen reiterates its friendship with the Chinese people, and highly respects China’s representative figures and symbols,

Although Chairman Mao has long since departed Beijing, he still retains a lot of popularity with young and old Chinese alike, it is no wonder that there was such an uproar, perhaps the Citroen advertisement team would like to think harder the next time it decides to use a former, or current head of state for an advertisement!