Citroen C4 2010 News

Manufacturers including BMW, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), Peugeot and Citroen have issued recalls via the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Volvo, Subaru, Land Rover, Citroen and GM have issued safety recalls for some vehicles due to defective manufacturing issues.

...actually wind back its adventurous looks.The new Picasso is coming at the Paris Motor Show in September but this Carparazzi picture points to a more conventional big-box design, although it has trendy turbine-design alloys and retains the small window behind the A-pillar that's a signature of the current C4.

Due to arrive here in the third quarter of 2011 – along with its youth-targeting DS4 sibling – the C4 noses in with the new family chevron grille and rear gate, and redesigned bumpers and light clusters, with the interior getting a trim makeover and new technology in the entertainment and communications departments, including the ‘eTouch’ emergency assistance system. A second-generation stop-start system and brake energy recovery combine to make all the new C4s micro-hybrids, allied to either the 120kW and 155kW petrol engines or the 110kw and 150kW turbodiesels.

OWEN Kelly and Dale Wood will partner Rick and Todd Kelly in this year's V8 Supercar endurance events at Phillip Island and Bathurst.   Wood is the Jack Daniel's team's final signing, and comes after top-15 finishes in his first two starts at Mount Panorama.SEBASTIAN Loeb continued his unbeaten run in Rally Germany with his eighth straight win last weekend at the head of a Citroen sweep. Loeb was never headed and beat home his team mates Dani Sordo and Sebastian Ogier in Citroen C4s.Bryan Staring is on track to win the Australian Superbike Championship after sweeping both events at Queensland Raceway last weekend for Honda. The victories stretched his winning streak to four straight and gives him an 18.5-point lead in the series with two rounds to run.Scott Pye is pushing hard for the British Formula Ford Championship with a 1-2-4 record in the latest Brands Hatch triple-header. Pye is in second place in the series and the Triple Eight junior driver is also aiming to score a record number of individual race wins in a single season in the UK nursery series.KYLE Busch swept all three Nascar categories - Truck, Nationwide and Sprint Cup - in a record run on the high banks of Bristol speedway   last weekend. Marcos Ambrose was only 20th in the Nascar feature race after starting 22nd in his Toyota Camry.NICK Heidfeld will lead the test team bringing Pirelli into Formula One as the sole tyre supplier from the 2011 season. The former BMW F1   racer has been released from his test contract with Mercedes GP to take up the spot as chief test driver for Pirelli.TOP Fuel drag racer 'Aussie' Dave Grubnic (Subs: Correct) has taken the final place in the NHRA's 'Countdown to 1' field for 2010 in the USA. He made the cut by racing to the semi-finals of the most recent event in Minnesota, behind leader Larry Dixon, with the points now re-set for the final six races of the year.

Australians Will Power and Ryan Briscoe had a tough time in the   classic Indianapolis 500 last weekend, although Power battled with eventual race winner Dario Franchitti in the early laps from second on   the starting grid and came home eighth. Briscoe, his Penske Racing team mate, crashed on cold tyres after a pitstop and was classified   24th after starting fourth.Garth Tander and Will Davison have all-new Holden Commodores for the next round of the V8 Supercar championship in Darwin. The new cars are   chassis numbers WR012 and WR013, replacing the Holden Racing Team Commodores which have run for more than three years, and Davison's is his first new car since coming into the championship.Sebastian Loeb is finally under threat in the World Rally Championship after being beaten by his Citroen junior protege Sebastian Ogier in the Portugal Rally last weekend. Ogier is the standout youngster in the championship and, after threatening to unseat Loeb in New Zealand last month, finally delivered a 7.9-second win in Portugal in an identical Citroen C4, with the third of the French factory cars in third with Dani Sordo driving.The deal for the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island has just been extended until 2016, with future options which could see the race at the Victorian track until 2026. The Australian GP Corporation confirmed the extension as it named truck company Iveco as naming rights sponsor for the MotoGP races in 2010 and 2011.Porsche driver David Wall dominated the third round of the Australian GT Championship last weekend at Eastern Creek, qualifying second and winning both mini-endurance events relatively easily. Mark Eddy had his best finish yet in his exotic Audi R8, finishing second ahead of Tony Quinn in a Mosler, after twin one-hour events at the Sydney track.FORMER V8 Supercar racer Darren Hossack was the big winner in the Sports Sedan feature event on the Shannons Nationals' program at Mallala in South Australia last weekend, driving from the rear of the field for one memorable win as he swept three starts in his V8 Audi.  Series leader Matt Kingsley was the winner in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge and Ben Barker emerged as a serious Formula 3 title contender after beating young New Zealand ace Mitch Evans.

And in traditional French fashion, the newest Citroen is designed to pamper its occupants.  Among some of its gimmicks is an in-car choice of different colours for the instrument display and a function that allows the driver to select their own polyphonic sound alerts.Some models will even be available with a massage function on the front seats.  Like other new European cars the C4 gets a host of new technologies, including a blind-spot monitoring system, a cornering light system, cruise control and speed-limiter with road speed memory settings and an innovative new service called eTouch.eTouch enables drivers to monitor their driving patterns and fuel consumption and receive advice on how to improve their fuel economy.  The system also constantly monitors the car's technical status and remind drivers of any maintenance or servicing requirements.The French newcomer ditches the quirky design of the current car, including the fix-centre steering wheel, opting for a more conventional look and a more upmarket cabin.  The hatch is 50mm longer, 20mm wider and 30mm taller than the current car and will be available in Europe with a range of new micro-hybrid e-HDI engines.These have the latest generation stop/start ignitions and C02 emissions as low as 109g/km.  Michelin Energy Saver tyres are also specified to help achieve these low emissions and to boost fuel economy.The latest C4 gains a 408-litre boot, which Citroen says is the biggest in its class, with square dimensions and a lower sill to make loading even easier.  The C4 also uses 15 per cent green materials to enhance its environmental credentials.The hatch will be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in September and is expected on sale here next year.

The successor to the Xsara is best know as the unbeaten World Rally Championship mount for fantastically fast Frenchman Sebastian Loeb, although most C4 deliveries in Australia are nothing like his $1.2 million hand-built turbo coupe.Now the C4 is heading for a complete re-make, although it's hard to see anything at all in these Carparazzi scoop pictures from rural France.  The bodywork is completely covered in black-plastic drapery to disguise any sign of the C4's shape, even though it is expected to be an evolution of the current chic look.The headlamps, at least, are partly visible and so is the general look. The car will continue as a four or five-door hatch, but there is a surprise in the C4's future ...Just like the latest development of the baby C3, the funky DS model, there will be a design driven DS4 sidekick for the regular C4.The DS4 is likely to be shown as early as the Geneva Motor Show in March, giving enough space before the official preview of the C4 on the Citroen stand at the Paris auto show in September ahead of sales in 2011. Then again, Citroen could easily delay the DS4 so it does not take too much attention away from the C4.Apart from the bodywork, Carparazzi in Europe reports the upcoming C4 could be fitted with the diesel-electric hybrid power pack which is expected to be fitted to the company's leading-edge RCZ performance coupe.

Somewhere under all this black plastic is the next C4, and while Citroen has tried to make sure there’s little to see under the camouflage, it’s easy to identify the car from its signature sharply raked windscreen and rounded rear.But this test car, caught out and about by spy-snappers Carparazzi, also shows new tail-light clusters and changes to the headlight components – although it’s unlikely Citroen will do away completely with the cluster’s current claw-like shape.The next Citroen C4, tipped to debut at the Paris motor show in September next year and be  launched at the end of 2010, will be lighter and more efficient than the current car, the company’s product boss Vincent Besson has revealed. Speaking at the recent Frankfurt motor show, Besson also said that the new hatchback is likely to be offered with three cylinder engines and, possibly, petrol-electric hybrid power during its lifetime, although not from launch. Besson also laid out the company’s strategy for hybrid and electric vehicles, saying that petrol-electric power is not necessary or economically viable in small city cars, and only for high-end versions of the next C4.  The smaller cars are likely to be developed from a model based on the Mitsubishi i-Miev.However, he expects that ‘a large part of a future C5 range’ will have hybrid power.

Proving that you can always try to squeeze one more creative angle out of a great idea, Citroen has released another dancing robot ad. The first of the series – in which a C4 unfolded like a Transformer and then grooved its way through some great dance moves developed by Justin Timberlake's choreographer to rave master Jacques Lu Cont ‘s infectious track Jacques Your Body – went viral when it was launched in 2005, and still logs views on the internet, as well as having spawned a million spoofs It was followed by Citroen putting a robot on ice the following year, and now with another parroting John Travolta’s swagger through Brooklyn in the opening scenes of Saturday Night Fever to mark the release of the restyled C4. The theme music, Stayin’ Alive, keys in with Citroen’s claim that the C4 is `alive with technology’ but the concept is starting to look as dated as the disco era it references. The ad has just started airing in Britain, but there are no plans yet to show it here.