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Early years
André Citroën built armaments for France during World War I and after the war he had a factory and no product. In 1919, the business started to produce automobiles, beginning with the conventional type A.
The Citroën logo is the 'double chevron', referencing Citroën's early work on the 'herringbone' or double helical gear, but there are other theories about this. Citroën, was Jewish and also an internationally well-known Freemason, attached to the Lodge of "La Philosophie Positive" in Paris. The logo may be interpreted as a masonic symbol - a double masonic square or a double masonic compass, associating the masonic ideology of Citroën with his invention of the double helical gear. In masonry, the compass is associated with the symbolism of the 'architect's tools', so it is possible that Citroën used a double compass to represent his invention, in a masonic way.
Citroën was a keen marketer - he used the Eiffel Tower as the world's largest advertising sign, as recorded in the Guinness book of World Records. He also sponsored expeditions in Asia (Croisière Jaune) and Africa (Croisière Noire), intended to demonstrate the potential for motor vehicles equipped with the Kégresse track system to cross inhospitable regions. The expeditions conveyed scientists and journalists and were a publicity success.
In 1924, Citroën began a business relationship with American engineer Edward G. Budd. From 1899, Budd had worked to develop stainless steel bodies for railroad cars, for the Pullman in particular. Budd went on to manufacture steel bodies for many automakers, Dodge being his first big auto client. In 1928, Citroën introduced the first all-steel body in Europe.
In the beginning the cars were successful, but soon competitors, who still used a wooden structure for their bodies, introduced new body designs. Citroën did not redesign the bodies of his cars and they began to be perceived as old-fashioned. Citroëns still sold in large quantities, despite the stylistic drawback, but the car's low price was the main selling point and Citroën experienced heavy losses.
This encouraged Citroën to develop the Traction Avant, a car so innovative that the competition would have no response. The 'Traction Avant' had three revolutionary features: a unitary body with no separate frame, front wheel independent suspension, and front wheel drive. Citroën commissioned Budd to create a prototype, which evolved into the 7 fiscal horsepower (CV), 32 HP Traction Avant of 1934.
The Traction Avant set major elements of the mechanical design that were followed 30 years later by the Mini, and by nearly every other manufacturer today.
In 1933 Citroën also introduced the Rosalie, a passenger car with the world’s first commercially available diesel engine developed with Harry Ricardo.
The Michelin era
Achieving quick development of the Traction Avant was expensive and contributed to the financial ruin of the company. In 1934 debt forced the company into foreclosure and it was then taken over by its biggest creditor, the tyre company Michelin. Fortunately for Michelin, the Traction Avant met with market acceptance and the basic philosophy that had led to this design continued.
Citroën has always been undercapitalized, so its vehicles have a tradition of being underdeveloped at launch, with limited distribution and service networks. For both the important DS and CX models, development of the original engine the design was planned around proved too expensive for the finances available, and the actual engine used in both cases was a modest and outdated four cylinder design.
During the German occupation of France in World War II, Citroën researchers continued their work in secret and developed the concepts that were later brought to market in the 2CV and DS. These were widely regarded by contemporary journalists as avant garde, even radical, solutions to automotive design.
This began a period of unusual brand loyalty, normally seen in the automobile industry only in niche brands, like Porsche and Ferrari. The cult-like appeal of the cars to Citroënistes took almost two decades to fade, from 1975 to about 1995.
Citroën unveiled the 2CV (2 fiscal horsepower, initially only 12 HP) at the Paris Salon in 1948. This car became a bestseller, achieving the designer's aim of providing rural French people with a motorized alternative to the horse. This car remained in production, with only minor changes, until 1990 and was a common sight on French roads until recently.
1955 saw the introduction of the DS, the first full usage of Citroën's now legendary hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system that was tested on the rear suspension of the last of the 'Tractions'. The DS was the first European production car with disc brakes.
The DS featured power steering, power brakes and power suspension and, from 1968, directional headlights. A single high-pressure system was used to activate pistons in the gearbox cover to shift the gears in the transmission and to operate the clutch on the "Citromatic", Citroën's semi-automatic transmission.
This high-pressure hydraulic system would form the basis of many Citroën cars, including the SM, GS, CX, BX, XM and Xantia. These vehicles shared the distinguishing feature of rising to operating ride height when the engine was turned on, like a 'mechanical camel' (per Car & Driver magazine). A lever located just ahead of the driver's door allowed the driver to adjust the height of the car. On right-hand drive models this lever was located behind the driver's right foot. The height-adjustability of the suspension allowed for clearing obstacles, fording shallow (slow moving) streams, and changing tires. This type of suspension was uniquely able to absorb road irregularities without disturbing the occupants.
During Citroën's venture with Maserati, the Citroën high pressure hydraulic system was used on several Maserati models, for power clutch operation (Bora), power pedal adjustment (Bora), pop-up headlights (Bora, Merak), brakes (Bora, Merak, Khamsin), steering (Khamsin) and the entire Quattroporte II prototype, which was a four-door Citroën SM under the skin.
Citroën was one of the early pioneers of the now widespread trend of aerodynamic automobile design, which helps to reduce fuel consumption and improve high speed performance by reducing wind resistance. The firm began using a wind tunnel in the 1950s.
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