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The Visa was not a bad car. It was reliable and
comfortable and
economical and it handled reasonably well and I liked
the PRN
satellites. But the engine was asthmatic and the
transmission seemed
overgeared and it was nowhere near as nice as its
predecessor – a GSA
Pallas C-matic. So why did I buy it? The GSA was
beginning to
rust and
was too thirsty for a 60 mile daily commute on London’s
North Circular
and M4. The local Citroën dealer offered me a
reasonable trade in
against the Visa.
I tried desperately to like it. I tried
desperately to discover
evidence of the Citroën heritage (or DNA as modern
marketeers would
describe it) but PRN satellites and single wiper aside,
it was
conspicuous by its absence. Yes, the suspension was soft
and yes, there
was plenty of body roll which were Citroën trademarks
but the handling
wasn’t what I had become accustomed to. I sold it to a
friend who
thought it was an incredible improvement over his Austin
Allegro and I
bought another GSA.
Peugeot had acquired Citroën two years prior to the
launch of the LN.
The LN was the first "new" Citroën following the Peugeot
take over but
Citroën purists were horrified since engine aside, the
car was pure
Peugeot. The LN employed the body shell of the 104 Coupé
and the 32 bhp
version of the Citroën flat twin.
At the press launch, there was more than a degree of
defensiveness - a
car that looked like a Peugeot but was assembled at a
Citroën plant and
fitted with a Citroën engine appeared to be at odds with
assurances
provided just a few months earlier that the two marques
would retain
their individuality.
The LN was not sold in Britain but its successor,
the LNA was. In 1978, the LNA was launched and was
fitted with
the
bored out version of the twin cylinder power unit fitted
to the
Visa.
This engine developed 36 bhp from 652cc and was
fitted with
electronic
ignition.
In 1983 the LNA 11E and 11 RE were launched and these
cars were fitted
with the Peugeot 1,124cc engine and thus were no more
than rebadged
104s.
The other car launched in 1978 was the Visa. Once again
like the LN and
LNA, it was based on the underpinnings from the Peugeot
104 although
housed in a five door body derived from Projet VD which
also led to the
Romanian Oltcit and Citroën Axel.
Three models were available initially - the Spécial and
Clubwere both
fitted with the 652cc engine which they shared with the
LNA while the
Visa Super used the Peugeot 1,1 litre unit.
This book tells the story of how and why the LN, LNA,
Visa, Oltcit,
Axel and C15 came to be. The development of these
cars coincided
with
a period of crisis for the company.
Some of the problems were internal
such as major financial problems, erroneous strategic
decisions, an
ageing product range compared to their peers and of
course the takeover
by Peugeot and the subsequent attempt to reinvent
Citroën (and to a
lesser extent, Peugeot). The major external problem was
the oil crisis
which meant that demand for large thirsty cars fell
while demand for
small economical cars grew.
Not only is all of this is placed into context but the
book covers in
detail all the variants of the production cars with full
technical
information, details of upholstery and exterior colours,
and also looks
at the cars in non-French markets.
As has become the norm, CITROVISIE
sets the standard for books about the marque. It
is meticulously
researched and uses many previously unpublished
photographs and is
beautifully laid out.
This period in Citroën history has not been covered at
all (with the
exception of Thijs’ books Citroën
Visa and Citroën
Axel la
cousine de
Craiova which are no longer available).
Many Citroën
enthusiasts
believe that this period was when the rot set in and
Citroën’s products
became increasingly ‘banalised’ and are therefore
dismissive of these
cars – a view I tend to share.
My dislike of these cars was not really
to do with any shortcomings in design – it was more
philosophical than
that. I didn’t like what they represented but
despite that, I
found
the book to be absolutely fascinating.
The only criticism is that it is only available in
Dutch.
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