The History of Citroen
Citroen the famous car manufacturer was born in 1934. He attended the Polytechnical school in Paris where he was an excellent student. From there he started work for the car company “Mors”. By 27 years of age he had founded his first company.
In 1913 he founded another company to make the best use of his patent for carburettors. Early on Citroen was influenced by the methods of Henry Ford who utilised the assembly line as early as 1908 in the USA.
In 1915 at the outbreak of war, Andre received an order to make 7500 grenades. Citroen then convinced the Ministry of Defence that he could in fact deliver larger quantities if produced industrially.
By 1919 the first “citroen car” was made. It had a 4 cylinder engine and was capable of a speed of 65km/h. During the year 2,500 cars were produced. Nevertheless the following year they were producing 20,200!
In 1921 the Citroen taxis made their appearance onto the streets of Paris.
Eleven years on at the start of 1932 the C4 and C6 were built with the “floating power” engine. The engine was made secure by rubber mounts in preference to being bolted to the chassis. This obviously stopped a lot of the vibrations making it a much more comfortable ride.
Around this time they began to produce toy cars for children, a somewhat unusual idea!
However things took a turn for the worse after the Wall Street crash in October 1929. In 1933 their factories were rebuilt which meant a great expense. April of that year there was a strike at the factory. Cars stopped selling well abroad due to the exchange rates and restrictions against foreign products. By the latter part of the year they had accrued many debts.
December 1934 the company was declared bankrupt. Citroen passed away the following year.
It was from here that the Michelin Company stepped in with financial assistance and so the name continues today.
There are still countless “citroens” on our roads today and many of these are used for van leasing. It is often more viable to lease vans and indeed in years to come Citroen van leasing companies would be spread worldwide.
Citizens Automobile Finance
Tags: ciitroen vans, citreon cars, citroen van lease, citroen van leasing, van lease, van leasing
