Citroën C6 - the dream car with the second career

Not only the Saab scene has a dream car with the 9-5 NG. The Citroën world adores the C6, built in Rennes from 2005 to 2012. Both vehicles have something in common. They are the last big cars of their brand, the numbers produced remained small. With Saab it will (probably) stay there forever. At Citroën, the future is open. You can be surprised. C6 and Saab 9-5 have in common that they are traded at high prices in good condition. Workshops have specialized in the exotics and their enthusiasts. After all, the presumably last big Citroën produced around twice as many copies (23.384) as the Saab.

A stunningly beautiful car

However, the brand with the double angle took a lot of time for this. In seven years the vehicles just dribbled off the belts in Brittany. The Swedes didn't even have a full year for their 9-5 mission. But even without time pressure and drama, things didn't go optimally for the C6. After the first big hype about the C6 had subsided, demand was only moderate.

It can hardly have been due to the Citroën C6 itself. The design was typical for a large representative of the brand. Elegant restraint mixed with historic design cues from the CX and DS resulted in an exceptional, hauntingly beautiful car. An overly long bonnet, frameless windows like the DS, the ingeniously inwardly curved rear window like the CX. Everything that was promised on the outside was kept by designer Marc Pinson, who also gave the new Citroën C4 gave its shape to the interior.

Driving more beautifully with the C6

Nice living, or better, nicer driving, is only about right. High-quality details such as the wood-panelled door pockets met a tidy ambience that did not have to hide behind the ancestral line of large Citroens. Everything about the C6 was of high quality, the technology, the workmanship and the opulent equipment were up to date. The Hydractive 3+ suspension marked the pinnacle of a long evolution, bringing comfort and floating to perfection.

The fact that the C6 was praised by the trade press and that the chassis only received clearly admired words didn't really help. She sold badly.

The reason why the C6 unfortunately did not become a success is not difficult to pin down. Perhaps many other sympathizers of the brand were like me. I really wanted to own the XM. The premiere lured me to local dealers, brochures were circulated. I only noticed the C6 appreciatively, but it wasn't enough to move me to my former Citroën dealership.

Close contact with the brand had been lost over the years.

Understandable. The XM as a direct predecessor was discontinued in 2000, customers migrated to other brands in the years without a successor - and stayed. And a large station wagon, popular with the Citroën XM, was not in the program.

A balancing act fails

To make matters worse came a serious marketing problem. For years, the Citroën image had been reduced to a provider of inexpensive vehicles that could only be pushed onto the market at significant discounts. The glory of the innovations of the past was gone. So the admirable balancing act that had once been done between the high-priced DS and the rudimentary 2CV could no longer work.

When the production came to a quiet end in 2012, only the fans noticed. The C6 has long ceased to play a role on the market. Only 2006 C2012s were newly registered in Germany from 3.701 to 6.

The second career of the Citroën C6

But, the C6 was far from dead. It had fans who just wanted to drive a C6. The avant-garde started a second, now convincing career. Because, once again, there was no successor. The throne of levitation, it remained empty. When it became clear that Citroën would forever depart from the religion of hydropneumatics, the C6 was finally established as an immortal icon.

The last great Citroën is the last great hydropneumatic sofa licensed to float. The C6 has been on the way up for a few years. At about the same time as the 9-5 NG from Saab, she took off into the fans' sky. For a good, well-kept C6, you put €20.000 plus X on the table today. Depending on the mileage, equipment and engine.

The vehicles with the double angle are stable in price, with a tendency to become even more expensive. The V6 petrol engine, which is also extremely rare with only 2.783 copies, is considered particularly desirable, but often has full equipment in mind. C6s with a diesel, much more common, come down in price significantly and with high mileage are available at a fraction of the petrol.

The Citroën C6 will probably always remain the dream car of fans. If a new big Citroën ever came onto the market, it would certainly be purely electric. You won't see hydropneumatics again either.

The throne of levitation will forever belong to the C6.

Images Citroën Communication (3)