Citroen investigating Aussie flavour

Citroen is considering local suspension calibration to lift the appeal of its products in Australia.

It's an initiative that the importer – Sime Darby – hopes will boost Citroen's sales here, after an uninspiring year in 2014 when the niche player sold just 1307 cars – in a million-strong market.

Citroen has a long reputation for building cars that ride properly, courtesy of its much vaunted hydro-pneumatic systems, but with its move into budget-buy sectors of the market – as with the unusual C4 Cactus due early 2015, for instance – local tweaking of the conventional suspension systems underpinning those cars may turn the corner for the brand.

During the launch of the updated DS3 DSport hot hatch (pictured), Citroen Automobile Australia's (CAA) product planning manager, Glenn Reid, revealed that local chassis tuning is one option the company is considering to improve customer appeal – but not at any cost.

"We have to consider the cost of testing and tuning and so on; it's easier said than done," said Reid.

"But yes, it's definitely something we'd consider. We're always open to doing things differently."

Reid confessed the topic had been discussed before within Citroen and that sales growth was important to pushing ahead with the project, but with sales up by 24 per cent for the first three months of 2015 for the French brand – up from 10 per cent growth in 2014 – it could happen sooner rather than later.

Local suspension tuning has proved effective for burgeoning Korean brands Hyundai and Kia in Australia; their respective chassis adjustments lending them a point of difference compared to their Asian rivals. For Kia in particular the Australian-tuned suspension has proved so effective that it has been deployed in international markets – for example UK versions of the Kia pro_c'eed GT now feature the Aussie chassis setup.

Like the Korean brands, Citroen also offers a stronger warranty than its rivals, and is the only European brand to offer a six-year warranty in this country.