What is it" Revamped version of family hatch for Citroën?s new upmarket brand.
Key features: Bespoke DS styling, revised market targeting, off-road styled version.
Our View: In July 2015 CarandVanNews reported on the launch of a revised Citroën DS 5, the major change being the lack of the Citroën badge anywhere on the car as the French brand rolled out its DS Automobiles line as a standalone upmarket brand, the DS 5 its flagship.
Now the same facelift treatment is being applied to the smaller DS 4, as it will be next year to the brand?s biggest seller, the MINI-rivalling DS 3. Then between 2017 and 2020 all three will be replaced as DS Automobiles rolls out six bespoke models of its own.
For now, however, the brand has to content itself with making the most of its current models, and in the case of the DS 4 that includes taking a new view on just what the car is. When first launched as a Citroën in 2011 the DS 4 was pitched as a high-riding family hatchback with a coupé-like profile, but as DS Automobiles product manager Alastair Fairgrieve freely admits, such a proposition did not exactly make the DS a popular entry on customers? lists of potential purchases. So in its new incarnation the DS 4 is being repositioned, and being pushed upmarket, with the expectation that as a premium car it will appeal more widely and be considered an alternative for those who might be considering moving up from a Ford to a BMW, or a VW to an Audi.
Therefore adding a greater sense o...