The History of Citroen

Citroen, a French car company specializing in the production of passenger cars. It is part of the Peugeot Corporation. The headquarters is located in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

It was founded in 1919 by Andre Citroen as the 'Societe anonyme Andre Citroen' with the purpose of mass production of inexpensive cars.

1919 was a historic year for automobile Europe. That was the year when the first production car - Citroen model 'A' - left the gates of the Paris factory on the Quai des Javeles.

Meanwhile, industrial France, and even more so France, practically all Europe has known for a long time the products made under the trade mark of two inverted letters 'V'. Already then, few people remembered that this is what helical gears look like. For everyone this logo was associated exclusively with the name of André Citroën.

Andre Citroen was born in 1878 into a family of natives from Odessa, his father was a fairly successful entrepreneur. But when the future automaker was six years old, his father, co-owner of a large company processing precious stones, committed suicide. However, the fortune left by his father allowed Citroen to graduate from the Polytechnic Institute, after which he began working at his friends' enterprise to produce parts for steam locomotives. There he was able to quickly build a career. In 1905 he became a full partner of this production. And in 1908 Citroen was already serving as technical director of the factory Mors. In 1909, Andre visited Poland. Here was a small factory, which owned relatives Citroen. Among other equipment at this plant cast large gears with teeth in the form of a V. Knowing the urgent need for such gears, Citroen decided to take up their production at home. A little later helicoidal gears, produced at this plant, became known almost throughout Europe. The Russian patent for the production of gears, whose chevron gearing immediately became a brand, bought in due time, brought Citroen not only a huge profit, but also a wide popularity.

André also had, by today's standards, simply unaffordable advertising projects. At one time a photo of Eiffel Tower with glowing Citroen inscription went practically all over the world. The Eiffel Tower was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest advertising vehicle. Citroën was branded on the Citroën landmark in Paris for nine years. The brand also sponsored expeditions to Asia, North America and Africa to demonstrate the cars' capabilities. Many of the things that Citroën came up with to promote its products, we use to this day. For example, to keep the Citroën factories' trademark in the forefront of drivers' minds, signs and road signs crowned with the 'double chevron' were installed all over France. Today, no one is surprised by the advertising on road signs anymore. Advertising car rallies, sending out gramophone records of advertisements, and even skywriting, all of this was tried by André Citroën long before today's creatives.

At the Paris Auto Show in October 1924, the company unveiled the Citroën B10 as the first car in Europe to use an all-steel body. The model was initially a great success on the market, but later competitors began to change the body design, while Citroën did not redesign. The cars still sold well, but at a low price, which affected the company's financial situation in a bad way. Do not forget to use Citroen VIN decoder in order to avoid potential problems when buying a used car.