Citroën Xsara

Lore & Background

The Xsara's chassis used a conventional front MacPherson strut layout with anti-roll bar, while the rear employed PSA's fully independent trailing arm/torsion bar setup first introduced on the Peugeot 305 estate. Unusual features included passive rear-wheel steering via specially designed compliance bushes in the rear suspension, though less pronounced than on the ZX, and in-house developed shock absorbers. At high mileages, the rear axle mounting bushes and trailing arm bearings were prone to wear, sometimes requiring an expensive rebuild or replacement axle assembly. Diesel and larger-capacity petrol engines were canted as far back as possible in the engine bay to place weight behind the front axle line, reducing the centre of gravity and minimising understeer.

The original Xsara launched in September 1997 with a range of straight-four petrol and diesel engines. A substantial facelift in September 2000 for the 2001 model year introduced a new bonnet, wings, bumper, grille, headlamps with integrated fog lights, revised rear light clusters, a new hatch with a prominent logo, and a stiffer body with reinforced A-pillars and side-door beams. The car became heavier (around 80 kg) and longer (21 mm), with wider tracks and 15-inch wheels as standard. New 16-valve 1.6L and 2.0L engines were introduced, while the 1.8L was dropped. Multiplex wiring was added, and side and curtain airbags became available on higher trims.

Prototype mild-hybrid and parallel-hybrid versions were developed. The 1998 Xsara Dynalto used an integrated starter alternator for stop-start, overboost, and engine restart. The 2000 Xsara Dynactive, based on the estate, paired a 55 kW 1.4L petrol engine with a permanent magnet synchronous motor and automatic transmission, offering an electric-only range of 20 km via a ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle) selector. This technology later appeared in the Citroën C3 as Stop & Start. In 1997, Intel and Citroën produced a computer-integrated Xsara prototype with DVD playback, RDS traffic updates, email reading via text-to-speech, and internet-based weather and tourism data. A 1998 Auto PC prototype with Microsoft and Clarion featured voice recognition and Windows CE 2.0. In 2000, 500 examples of the Xsara Windows CE edition were produced.

Reader's Guide

The Citroën Xsara occupies a notable place in the compact family car segment as a development of the ZX and Peugeot 306, sharing their platform and running gear. Its chassis engineering, particularly the passive rear-wheel steering via compliance bushes and the rearward canting of larger engines, aimed to improve weight distribution and reduce understeer, characteristics that distinguished it from many contemporaries. The Xsara's facelift in 2000 addressed criticisms of bland styling and brought structural and safety improvements, including reinforced A-pillars and side-door beams, multiplex wiring, and wider tracks. The model's legacy includes pioneering mild-hybrid and parallel-hybrid prototypes—the Dynalto and Dynactive—which prefigured the Stop & Start system later used in the Citroën C3. Additionally, the Xsara served as a testbed for early in-car computer integration, with prototypes featuring DVD playback, voice recognition, email reading, and internet connectivity developed in partnership with Intel, Microsoft, and Clarion. The Xsara hatchback was replaced by the C4 in November 2004, while the estate continued until 2006 without a direct successor. The Xsara Picasso small MPV continued alongside its C4-based successor, with 'Picasso' becoming the name for MPV derivatives of any Citroën model.

Did You Know?

• The Xsara was the 1998 Semperit Irish Car of the Year in Ireland.
• The Xsara Dynactive prototype had an electric-only range of 20 km via a ZEV selector.
• A 1997 Intel-Citroën prototype could read incoming emails aloud using text-to-speech.