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YORK, England — By the point our present century acquired began, most American automobile customers had develop into absolutely dedicated to pickups and SUVs as their most popular rides. Cross the Atlantic at the moment, nonetheless, and also you’d discover that the compact MPV was one of the vital in style selections for Western European drivers searching for loads of passenger and cargo area in a small package deal. The Citroën Xsara Picasso was one of many best-selling compact MPVs of its period, and I’ve discovered this ’06 in a self-service scrapyard (as they name them right here) in York, England.
It has been 51 years since new Citroëns had been offered in the USA, and so I’ve solely managed to doc a handful of them throughout my junkyard travels. Citroën started constructing vehicles in 1918, merged with Peugeot in 1974 and turned a part of the mighty Stellantis Empire in 2021.
How did it occur that Citroën is allowed to position Pablo Picasso‘s well-known signature on its vehicles? In 1989, Pablo’s son offered the rights to Citroën for $20 million.
The brochures for this automobile bear down very laborious on the Pablo Picasso connection.
Though the Xsara Picasso by no means got here near being offered in the USA, this is one within the brochure negotiating the Choose Harry Pregerson Interchange in Los Angeles (the place the bus-jump scene in 1994’s “Pace” came about).
The California excessive desert in 2006, the place cops in 15-year-old field Caprices conceal behind Picasso billboards in an effort to bust dashing Citroëns.
The U.Ok.-market 2006 Xsara Picasso was obtainable in Need, VTX and Unique trim ranges. This one is the bottom Need mannequin. These badges now reside on my storage wall.
For a automobile that weighed properly underneath 3,000 kilos, the Xsara Picasso provided a tremendous quantity of inside area. There’s room for 5 inside, with airliner-style folding tables for the rear-seat passengers; these rear seats are detachable to make room for cumbersome cargo.
The sort of car by no means caught on in North America, regardless of one of the best efforts of Japanese producers.
The Xsara Picasso was succeeded by the C4 Picasso, which has since advanced into the form of crossover SUV that will look proper at dwelling on American roads. It took awhile, however the SUV craze lastly has conquered Europe.
The Xsara Picasso was one of many first automobiles designed by Donato Coco, who went on to work at Ferrari and Lotus. Along with his work designing many Citroën fashions, Coco was behind the styling of the Ferrari 458 Italia.
This one is a petrol-engined mannequin with five-speed handbook transmission, that includes 110 horses beneath its bonnet. Diesels and automatics had been obtainable as properly.
U-Pull-It York’s stock itemizing for this automobile exhibits that it had 114,279 miles on the odometer when it was retired with front-end injury. A test of its MOT historical past signifies that it handed its ultimate inspection in October 2022 and that its registration was allowed to run out a yr later.
Citroën acquired its cash’s price out of that Picasso branding deal.
These rebellious assembly-line robots have had their minds freed by the spirit of a long-dead Spaniard.
The faces of odd French youngsters develop into terrifying Cubist sculptures once they experience in an Xsara Picasso.
Richard Hammond reviewed the first-year Xsara Picasso in 2000.
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