The DS 19 was the famous 'futuristic' model launched in the 1950s which had many features ahead of its time in automotive history. The new models, flagged by a concept 'DS Inside' will be named DS3, DS4 and DS5, the first of them launching in 2010.
They will be premium models in their segments, mirroring but upmarket from the C3, C4 and C5 'standard' cars from the company. The aim is to replicate in each of the segments what BMW's new Mini did for the supermini segment since 2001.
At a special unveiling in Paris last night (above), a company spokesman said also that the replacement programme for the current C3 and C4 will show an improved perceived quality for those models as has the new C5 against its previous version.
The C5 won the Semperit Irish Car of the Year 2009 award last November.
Over a period of three years, beginning 2010, Citroen plans to launch six brand new cars.
Meanwhile the parallel launch of the new branding for the 90-year-old French carmaker will include immediately the first redesign of its 'chevron' logo for 25 years. A refurbishment of all the company's 8,000 dealerships worldwide to reflects its new image is expected to take around five years.
Drawing on its background in automotive innovation, the new slogan for Citroen is to be 'Creative Technology'.
Meanwhile, the world's top car designers have voted the original DS19 to be 'the most beautiful car of all time'. It led from joint second Jaguar XK120 and Ferrari 275GTB. The Cord 810/812 came in fourth in the poll, organised by Classic & Sports Car magazine.
Advt
