If you thought that DS was optimistic in believing it was a rival to premium brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, I wonder what you made of the news that it would in future like to become “the Louis Vuitton of the automotive industry”, rubbing shoulders with Bentley and Rolls-Royce.
Let’s take it seriously for a moment. DS design director Thierry Métroz acknowledges that this is a “dream”, that it could take the brand another 10 years to achieve (on top of the 10 for which it has existed in its present form) and that it ultimately might never get there.
I’ll be amazed if it does – and it won’t do so by taking existing Stellantis platforms and tweaking them a bit, no matter how much the interiors, like that of the new N°8 crossover, are “more like Bentley than our German competitors” and regardless of how many key parts are changed.
Pushing back windscreens and lowering rooflines won’t be particularly persuasive.
True luxury is also territory never before occupied by a DS – not even one of the most striking cars in existence, the original Citroën DS19 of 1955.
That’s pretty old history, it’s true, but if they thought it didn’t matter, they wouldn’t have reused the DS name in the first place.
When new, the DS19 cost £150 more than other Citroën models, at over £1400. That turned out to be too expensive for many buyers in its home market, yet it wasn’t even near luxury pricing.
The Bentley Continental of the day cost £3295 and the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud £3395, off the peg. By the time they had been to a coachbuilder, they could cost much more.
The DS19 was never in that sphere. It was advertised as “one of the world’s most advanced cars” at the same time as a Rolls-Royce was being marketed as “the best car in the world”.
Could a modern DS be one of the world’s most advanced cars? Perhaps, but even if DS were, say, the first brand within the Stellantis group to be given the newest battery or motor technology, it would have to offer a tremendous advantage, of the sort that’s harder to come by today, to cut through.
Besides, would the average car buyer even know, remember or care that the original DS was about new technology?
Join the debate
Add your comment
So, the DS was about 40% the price of a Rolls Royce...
Today, a new Rolls Royce Ghost sells for about £300K. Meanwhile, the new
DS No.8 will be topping out at £63K: 20% the price of a new, smaller Rolls Royce.
So, relatively to those marques in the late 1950s, today's DS No.8 is half the price.
Perhaps the right product would give DS room to grow its transaction prices...
"It won’t do so by taking existing Stellantis platforms and tweaking them a bit"
Well, the Bentayga uses a platform shared with Audi and even VW, but still manages to sell just fine.
Meanwhile, Alfa developed the bespoke and critically acclaimed Giorgio platform for the Giulia, and sales have always disappointed.
So, a good platform, up to task, appears to be what matters, rather than whether it's shared.
As Matt says, it all needs to be wrapped in something beautiful and evocative.
The No.8 would make a nice Chrysler or Cadillac, but really doesn't stir the inner francophile into a compulsion to buy...
Design a modern car as breathtakingly beautiful as the original DS and it will be lusted after.
Slipping DS badges onto boring Citroen hatchbacks and bloated suv' s with tarty boudoir interiors ?
Yuk.
Repulsive.
Remind me, who are DS again?