Citroën AX - French lightweight

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Citroën AX - French lightweight

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Created on February 12, 2025

Text:

Martin Sigrist

Photos:

Daniel Reinhard

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Leclere Motorcars

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FabPetersson Fotografie

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Citroën / Werk

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Paul Krüger

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Artcurial

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Archiv

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - No-frills design

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - "Vous n'imaginez pas tout ce que Citroën peut faire pour vous", Citroën wrote in the 1990s

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - The AX - good for the image!

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - The Cw value is 0.31 and therefore very favorable

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - The AX hardly exudes exoticism, but it is nimble in the city

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - After the end of the 2CV, the AX was the smallest Citroën in the range

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Perhaps the AX is not yet a shrine, but it is growing into a classic

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - An elegant city car with extra chrome

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - "Révolutionnaire!" wrote the marketing specialists at the launch of the AX in 1986

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Citroën showed 40 years ago how lightweight construction works

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - The lightweight weighs only 670 kilos

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - The AX has also become rare in its country of origin, France

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - The Citroën AX comes from the stock of the Oldtimergalerie Toffen

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - A compact city car with overland qualities

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Achieving great aerodynamics on such a short base is not easy

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Oops, here I come!

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - On the move with 60 hp

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Recessed door openers were only available on the two-door model

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Even the smallest is immediately recognizable as a Citroën

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Chrome grille as a special feature of the special model AX Image

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Monopoint gasoline injection and catalytic converter for Switzerland

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Steering wheel from the AX GT

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - The first interior was criticized for the vast amounts of hard plastic, but there are plenty of shelves instead

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Hard plastic was OK in the 1980s

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Gear knob and steering wheel donated sportier versions of the AX

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - All the information the driver needs

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - The well-maintained AX has covered just over 10,000 kilometers

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Heating: One rotary switch and two levers are all you need

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - The huge bottle cage replaces an air conditioning system

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - When large PET bottles were still unknown in Switzerland, the AX already had a holder for them

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Dark with a red accent: the theme of the AX Image

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Fine velour provides a mid-range feeling

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - A clear conscience: The 1991 AX Image has fuel injection and catalytic converter

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Citroen LNA (1985) - predecessor of the Citroën AX

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Citroën Visa Series II (1981) - one of the predecessors of the Citroën AX

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Citroën AX (1986) - Transparency drawing

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Citroën AX (1986) - the light-metal engine with 1124 cc

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Citroën AX (1986) - Rear view of the 11 TRE

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Citroën AX (1986) - Interior of the 11 TRE version

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Citroën AX (1986) - Production line / Overview

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Citroën AX (1986) - Construction of the car

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Citroën AX (1986) - Use of robots in production

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Citroën AX (1986) - Use of robots in production

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Citroën AX Image (1991) - Special model with accents

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Citroën AX GTi (1992) - the fastest variant

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Citroën AX (1992) - as a four-door car with 4x4 drive

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Citroën AX Electrique (1993) - almost silent, but not necessarily more practical than the petrol models, as it is limited to four people

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Citroën AX Sport (1988) - alone against a superior Peugeot 205 GTI - Salon Rétromobile Paris 2023

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Citroën AX Sport (1989) - offered as lot 076 at the Artcurial Rétromobile auction in Paris on February 8, 2019

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Citroën AX - offered on the occasion of the auction of Leclere "Vente des Reserves de 'Adventure Peugeot Citroën DS" on December 10, 2017

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Citroën AX - offered on the occasion of the auction of Leclere "Vente des Reserves de 'Adventure Peugeot Citroën DS" on December 10, 2017

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Citroën AX Sport (1989) - Ransel Classics 2024

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Citroen AX Sport at the 2015 Stuttgart Hockenheim City Prize in the Youngtimer Trophy race

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Summary

In 1986, China was still a developing country when it came to cars. The most widely used vehicle was called the "Flying Pigeon" and was a bicycle. Around half a billion of these two-wheelers are said to have been in use in the Middle Kingdom at the time. In total, almost every Chinese person had a "bicycle". Citroën, however, brought a car to China to capitalize on the fascination and magic of a country that was just opening up to Western tourism: The Citroën AX. Parts of the campaign at the time were photographed on the Great Wall of China - the title of the campaign was "Révolutionnaire!" - was it the car back then? What is clear is that today the AX is a classic!

This article contains the following chapters

Special models of all kinds
Lightweight construction in extremis
Plastics
Power-to-weight ratio
The bottle revolution

Estimated reading time: 9min

Preview (beginning of the article)

It is light, it is compact and it was (initially) a car without a counterpart from its sister brand Peugeot. Citroën confidently called the new model: "Révolutionnaire!" In a way, however, it was also a disappointment, the Citroën AX, which was first presented in 1986 and launched with a huge advertising campaign, filmed and photographed in China - albeit only a small one. In fact, the compact AX stature initially did little to inspire Visa drivers, who were targeted as customers for the new compact alongside LN owners. The five-door model that followed in 1987 did not help much either, because contrary to expectations, it was not built on a longer platform, but retained the mass of the three-door model, which at just under 3.5 meters in length made it one of the smallest European five-door models ever, together with the Rover (Austin) Metro, which was only 3.4 meters long.

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