Dare more C5 - new Citroën C3 Aircross (2024)
Citroën has only just started delivering the revised C3 Aircross, and the successor is already making a name for itself. First pictures of a still well camouflaged one prototypes were made in India. It now seems clear that the new C2024 Aircross expected for 3 will evolve in the direction of the larger C5 Aircross. While the current small C3 Aircross is still a mixture of a small van and an urban SUV, from 2024 the trend will clearly be in the direction of an SUV. But, the new C3 Aircross isn't meant to be just any other small SUV. He should keep the typical Citroën cleverness.
Away from the minivan, towards the SUV
With the newly launched in 2017 C3 Aircross it was important for the brand not to lose the traditional customers of the C3 Picasso. Anyone who has traveled in the successful minivan should also feel welcome in the new Aircross. A polarizing balancing act emerged between a clever van and a small SUV. Contradictory, certainly not to everyone's taste, but still a typical small Citroën with its intelligent variability.
L'Automobile now shows a first graphic of what the small Aircross 2024 could look like. The brand with the double angle shrinks the big C5 Aircross and comes out with a little brother. That looks good on the graphics, Citroën would thus advance into a niche that the brand had not previously explored. There, where local rivals Renault have been doing best business with the for years Captur power.
C5 dare - but the variability remains
It should be the case that the new C3 should retain its variability, which has never been achieved before in this class, despite all the similarities with the large SUV. This would include the sliding and folding rear seat bench, which offers maximum flexibility in the smallest of spaces. L'Automobile therefore compares the new Citroën with the Skoda Yeti, which has long been out of production.
Its fans are still mourning big tears for the car that was sacrificed on the SUV altar and for its robustness and variability.
In contrast to the current model, the Citroën C3 Aircross (2024) will be offered as a mild hybrid with 48-volt technology and also with a purely electric drive. The latest contribution from Citroën then also provides the technical basis for the next generation of the Opel Crossland.
Images Citroën Communication (3) and L´Automobile (1)
Sacrificed on the SUV altar...
This is again a typical Tom and for me a key phrase.
I happen to be driving a borrowed SUV myself because the Saab 9-5 SC is in the workshop. The 9-5 SC always had the smallest trunk in all comparison tests in its class. Those from Volvo, Audi or Mercedes were slightly or even significantly larger ...
Compared to most SUVs today, the SC's cargo space is huge...
Looking at the sidelines of Aircross and Picasso, I fear the journey continues in that direction. Trunk, loading capacity and utility are becoming less and less important.
That may even be true and correspond to the taste of the majority of potential buyers. Then it also follows an inner logic or quite simply the laws of the market economy. It's okay, or not...
I find it rather inconsistent of us buyers to reduce our transport needs, get deliveries and fly on vacation (instead of driving) and still buy relatively fat cars...
If you don't need a large trunk due to your modern and contemporary lifestyle, you should also be looking for the smallest possible new car that meets your needs with the smallest possible external dimensions, a low curb weight and the use of resources.
But it works the other way around. We simply have the new washing machine, crates of drinks and everything else delivered to us, fly on vacation and no longer need any boot space. Manufacturers are happy to take note of this. And yet cars are getting bigger and heavier. According to my personal taste, something is not going so well, to put it mildly...
I don't necessarily see it that way. Citroën offers vehicles with a high utility value. That's what the customers are asking for. The new C3 Aircross will live up to expectations, I'm sure. Little space will also offer a lot of space there 😉
For people and transport tasks. It's just a Citroën.
But in general, beyond the double angle, I agree with you.
I'm not an expert and I'm not a Citroënist,
but I have the impression that Citroën is also following the general trend to a certain extent ...
From the DS to the CX to the XM, hatchbacks and large station wagons were on offer. With the C5 of the first generation then a conventional sedan next to a still large and practical station wagon. With the 2nd generation C5, the cars became visually even more pleasing, more arbitrary and also 100 kg heavier. Don't have the numbers but apparently the trunk and tailgate of the first C5 (Break) are significantly larger despite the vehicle being lighter. But both generations have 5 stars in the crash test...
Citroën was once a brand that swam against the current, built real alternatives, which had a large number of models with real unique selling points in terms of technology and design ...
Unfortunately I don't see that anymore today. You compete as one of many fish in the pond to get a little closer to the mainstream, to be a little more pleasant and cost-optimized than the global competition from 1.000 other fish. That may be the right way in the automotive industry today, but it also no longer produces real alternatives, but only purchase options among 1.000 others. It hurts me, especially when looking at Citroën...
Which other manufacturer has ever had so much backbone, was so idiosyncratic and special?
No other, venerable and still existing automobile manufacturer has this enormous drop from really very special to almost completely arbitrary, like this big, old and traditional brand ...
Personally, it's not enough for me if Citroën spreads a jumping net in the mainstream with cost optimization and production in China and hopes for a soft landing. Where is the character of the indomitable Gauls that I have valued so much since my childhood?
I'd rather have a 2CV, an R4, an R5 Turbo than a C3 Aircross. Not to mention a Citroën Avant Traction (preferably the short two-door), a DS (either as a convertible, sedan or break), the SM or a CX (also in any form). I also thought of Peugeots...
When an automobile manufacturer and a great automotive nation arouses more historically motivated covetousness than current and present excitement, does that make me question whether the stream has chosen the right waterway and tributary to spawn? You can just as well swim with the crowd as you can drown in it without a word and just be eaten up.
Will a few intelligent and, if you like, French details, but made in China, make the difference in the medium term? I have my doubts …
Too bad that there will be no more smaller vans from Citroën. That leaves only the Berlingo and the big Spacetourer. The segment is probably dead, all customers want SUVs.
Citroën also has to keep up with fashion. If there are still intelligent features, I can handle that too 😉
Yes, I see similar.
I also find “minivans”, “family panel vans” or similar and even sometimes station wagons much more sensible than old SUVs.
It is a pity that they are more likely to “die out”.
(and somehow I also found that our previous hatchback 9000's were the "perfect" solution)
Speaking of the SUV users here 😉 , i.e. the car class described by Tom I would deny the predicate SUV anyway, the 9-7x is one, the 9-4x already with drawbacks. The companies' marketing only provides the environmentalists with arguments that too many SUVs are being produced when they call small and medium-sized cars with all-wheel drive SUVs.
The 2022 Aircross looks horrible, but at least the C3 Picasso has a shape.
But hatchback is certainly the variant that represents the optimal compromise for most uses. I can underline that the 9000 is the perfect solution. For me it is still the reference car in the upper middle classes, but the 900NG/9-3OG can also be used universally with its hatchback and compact design. Compared to the 9000, I find the shape even more coherent and consider the design to be one of the most coherent of all time. I don't want to say that about the C3 aircross 2022 and 2024, they are arbitrary for me in terms of design. Remove the double angle and put any other emblem on it and it's no longer recognizable as a Citroen. It will probably happen too, the basis of the C3 will definitely also be used as a Peugot.
Good discussion. How did the author write? Polarizing balancing act. You don't have to like the current C3 Aircross, but I find the recognition value high. The Opel, on the same platform, has no discernible resemblance.
But yes, the hatchback would be. I would like the author to test the C5 X, and I wrote it to him. Perhaps readers' wishes will come true?