Citroên finally seems to have come to terms with its past with the astonishing D5 revealed at the Mondial de l’Automobile. Beneath its self-evident nostalgic styling, the D5 attempts to reinvent the automobile in much the way its ancestor did in 1955. Indeed early examples of its ancestor have recently been officially classified as part of France’s national heritage.
With the launch of the D5, Citroên is truly enjoying a cultural revolution. Notwithstanding the disavowal of the dieresis in the founder’s name with its recent replacement by a circumflex accent, Citroên seems ready at last to acknowledge its troubled past.
And this new model represents a rebirth. The D5 is a reinvention of the famous DS which was launched in 1955 and went out of production 20 years later.
Underneath a beautiful retro dress, the D5 is radically innovative. With its rear engine and transmission; its double glazed windscreen; its domino layout seating for five; its 100% pneumatic suspension; and its safety innovations, the D5 recreated in the Grand Hall of the Mondial the feverish scenes that occurred at a certain Salon in 1955.
Is the D5 the francophile motorist’s dream come true? Unfortunately not. The launch of the car is a well-designed spoof by the people at Citroënët…
