It might be strange to think of a station wagon as a retro design, but a concept car with such a rear immediately puts itself in that peaceful period of the late ’90s, early ’00s. Before all our cars somehow inexplicably got taller, heavier and a touch shorter.
Certainly an American concept car like this Chrysler Citadel, which appeared at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit in January 1999, a show as American as apple pie and concealed handguns. This was the year after Daimler and Chrysler had merged to form what turned out to be a doomed industrial behemoth (called DaimlerChrysler, they weren’t very imaginative back then).
The Chrysler Citadel has some nice gadgets
Perhaps they wanted to show that some of the European flair had reached the Americans. In addition to that sleek, racy appearance, the Chrysler Citadel had some nice tricks in house – the rear doors were sliding doors with an integrated B-pillar and the lower part of the split tailgate disappeared into the floor. Both things were designed to facilitate accessibility to the cream leather interior.
That interior, especially the dashboard, was ‘inspired by top watches’, something that was certainly an absolute must on your concept car at the time. But for which the spectators really pulled out their pitch, feathers and pitchforks: the hybrid powertrain. Electricity assistance was then reserved exclusively for Japanese manufacturers, with small motors and even smaller bills at the pump. So insane stuff.
Nice and economical, such a six-cylinder with electrical assistance
That’s why the Citadel boasted that it combined the power of a V8 with the fuel consumption of a V6, which Chrysler didn’t lie a word about. Ah, what a time those were when you could promote family cars in such a way. The 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine pumped 256 horsepower to the rear wheels, while a Siemens-derived electric motor sent 70 horsepower to the front wheels for four-wheel drive safety. How much further away from a Prius can you get in terms of hybrid?
And yet the Citadel never made it to the production stage. The Sebring and PT Cruiser were the safer choices, it seems. The Citadel might have had a better chance in the US if it had combined the power of a V8 with the consumption of a V12. Or if it had been a huge pickup truck with 40-inch wheels and a shotgun rack on the passenger side of the dash.
However, DaimlerChrysler had a tendency to do everything wrong. The American/German tycoon mixed the worst of the two companies and, at most, left both sides with years of seriously tarnished reputations. They were dark times. Chrysler was sold in 2007, went bankrupt in 2009, was bought by Fiat in 2014 and merged into Stellantis in 2021. American quality, French ergonomics and Italian reliability? That’s more like it.
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