What's the news?
Take a look at this glamorous French concept car in profile, and have a good hard stare at which two letters are rendered in bold on its for-show-only number plates. Yup, this Citroen Cxperience Concept - revealed a month ahead of its full debut at the Paris Motor Show - is clearly a modern interpretation of the classic old CX built from 1974 to 1991. We can't tell you how ridiculously excited this makes us.
There's no confirmation that the concept will morph into a new CX, although there are so many cues to the old hatchback included in this newbie that give us hope. Such as a concave rear window, said to be for aerodynamic purposes but surely more of an homage to the '70s Gallic barge. Or its gargantuan length - the Cxperience is 4,850mm long with a 3,000mm wheelbase, 2,000mm wide and only 1,370mm tall. True, we don't remember the original CX running on 22-inch five-spoke alloys. Nor did it have rear-hinged autoclave doors that open to 90 degrees to the car and up to the roofline. But you get the point.
Overall, the Cxperience is a splendid-looking thing and we particularly like the use of the company's chevron logo as inspiration for the light signatures. There are V-shaped daytime running lights high up, made of 3mm strips of the diodes, while down below three LED directional headlights echo the motif. At the rear are more V-shaped lamps, this time 3D items featuring laser fibre optics. Snazzy.
To complement the sea-green exterior, the interior of the concept car is finished in citrus yellow (ahem!) and once again, brand fans will be gnawing the backs of their hands when they clock the single-spoke steering wheel; classic CX, that. There's also an eye-catching floating dashboard, seat backrests made of walnut, a flat foam floor and various other outlandish details that can never make it off the motor show stand into the world of production reality. But we can dream... we can dream.
Citroen says the Cxperience is part of its new Advanced Comfort programme and again this is something that fills us with joy. If the French marque is going to take on the German executive elite, it is not going to do it by trying to 'outsport' them. Better, then, to focus on its traditional strong point of exquisite ride quality. And here's another CX link: the concept car rolls along on a 'progressive hydraulic cushion advanced module' that turns the car into a true 'cocoon' of calm, the Cxperience said to be capable of 'filtering out the outside world, along with the bumps and dips in the road'. Yes. Bloody. Please, Citroen.
Naturally, in this day and age, any self-respecting concept car needs an outré drivetrain - sadly, unlike the concept for the original CX, Citroen hasn't gone with a Wankel rotary (it didn't in the classic car, either, in the end, for reasons of cost; thus, the tiny engine bay only allowed the CX a load of duff old four-cylinder units instead... GTi Turbo model excepted). The Cxperience is a plug-in petrol electric hybrid, with up to 200hp coming from the combustion engine and another 80kW (109hp) provided by the electric motor; total output is rated at 300hp. It can run in zero-emission full electric mode for up to 60km, while the battery can be recharged in four-and-a-half hours on a standard charging system. That time drops to two-and-a-half hours on a 6.6kW charger. Drive is provided by an eight-speed automatic transmission.
Anything else?
So will Citroen make a 21st-century CX, full of wafty goodness and (hopefully) a seven-seat Safari model as well? Difficult to say. Linda Jackson, the company's global CEO, said: "The Citroen Cxperience Concept car challenges convention to express a new vision of executive hatchbacks. It also fits in perfectly with the ambitions of the Citroen Advanced Comfort programme. This concept illustrates the brand's capacity to deploy its 'Be Different, Feel Good' promise in this segment."
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-OqUaKdsQhg" width="560" height="315"></iframe>