DS brand to drop Citroën badge in Europe in 2015

The press weren't remotely culpable for the demise of pneumatic suspension. In fact, most of the press greeted such systems with enthusiasm, no doubt a product of never having to fix or service it using their own money. These systems were costly, complex and generally unreliable. They were made obsolete by advances in conventional systems, except in the most expensive limos where they continue to melt wallets on a regular basis to this day.

This comes across as a brave move but for me, taking the Citroen name away might be a step too far. Despite what people may say, the public do have a confidence in Citroen, and I don't think DS is a known-enough brand to be sold alone just yet. They talk about sharing dealerships; if they are aspiring to be like Audi, then Citroen UK seriously need to get themselves into gear and sort out their dealerships, which are by no means uninviting or dirty, but most are small and cramped. In France, they have the standalone DS areas as concessions in the larger Citroen showrooms, giving off a boutique-like presence. They need to develop that over here if they are to succeed. I drive a DS3 but from what we've seen from this Devine DS concept car, I'm not too keen on the direction they're taking the cars in, and they could end up on the wrong side of 'brash' if they aren't careful. The DS4 isn't a strong enough product in my opinion, and whilst I think the DS5 is fantastic, they do need to sort out the ride quality.
As for the rest of Citroen's range, it isn't exactly the strongest. The C4 Cactus is certainly a good sign of their future direction, but the current C3, C4 and C5 are all trailing the competition by some margin. People bemoan the lack of hydro suspension in today's cars, but if people had bought those while they had the chance and the press hadn't complained about 'floaty handling', then maybe Citroen would have had more confidence to continue down that route. The C1 will no doubt continue to sell well (as does the C3), but I think they need to plough more energy into the C-line of cars if they're to freeze DS off from it any time soon. It took time for Lexus to properly establish themselves, and I'm not convinced that the whole 'Infiniti' thing has worked, judging by how few I see both on the roads and in terms of Infiniti dealerships.