Let’s end this flawed Froggish four-door foursome with – in my opinion – one of the most horrid cars ever committed by Citroën, the indescribable Visa. The problem is that, although most contemporary critics lambasted the car for its questionable appearance, the buying public did not seem to mind it so much. Something’s not adding up. Was it the critics, the people or the car?
This ugly duckling is the fruit of Peugeot’s takeover of Citroën in 1974. At the time, the former marque had a very recent and modern supermini in the 104, while the double-chevron dealerships still had to sell the antediluvian (but still quite successful) 2CV and Dyane, born respectively in 1948 and 1967, or the Ami 8, which was a bit less old (1970), but was effectively a facelifted 1961 design.
The first quick solution to this problem was the Citroën LN, launched in 1976. It was the unnatural mating of the short wheelbase Peugeot 104 coupé body with the Dyane’s 602cc flat-twin. It was a first step, but it was met with a collective Gallic shrug. Something less obviously contrived would probably be better…
Peugeot looked in Citroën’s cupboards, as the in-house design team had spent most of the previous ten years thinking about what a new small Citroën would look like. Code-named Projet Y, the new baby Cit was supposed to use the Fiat 127 platform (the Italian giant was interested in a potential merger). The styling was already rather peculiar on this 1972 mock-up, but unmistakably Citroën, as well.
The Fiat deal and the Y car were put on ice shortly after, but revived in 1975, becoming Projet VD (!) and featuring the standard wheelbase Peugeot 104 platform. From there, the car was split between two teams: one would work on a three-door foreign production variant (the Romanian Oltcit, seen above), the other was to develop the domestic five-door Visa.
The family resemblance is clear. However, the Citroën design team, now under pressure and lacking the vision of Robert Opron, who had left for Renault in 1975, elected to graft a massive plastic snout on the car. How did anyone ever think this was a good effort?
When the Visa was launched in the summer of 1978, it was greeted as an interesting new model from a technical perspective, and a welcome sign that Citroën were renewing their lower range. But the car’s appearance was pretty universally hated. Not polarizing like the Ami 6 was, and not utilitarian like the 2CV had been years before – no, the Visa was just plain ungainly, especially the front.
Another point of contention was the dash, which followed the philosophy seen on the CX: nearly every control was supposed to be within reach of the driver without taking one’s hands off the steering wheel. A cylindrical pod on the left combined all headlights, wipers and turn signal controls, eliminating the need for column-mounted stalks. Ventilation and heater controls were on the right hand. A collection of additional switches surrounded the base of the steering wheel’s single stalk, the whole topped by an oddly-shaped gauge cluster. The only noteworthy controls that were outside this tiny radius were the handbrake, the gear shifter and the optional radio.
Here’s a clearer view, from the captain’s chair. Not your usual boring supermini dash, is it? It was a typical Citroën design: cerebral, well-designed, ground-breaking – and completely unintuitive. Some folks had the patience for it, many did not.
The rest of the car was deemed satisfactory: the cabin was decently roomy, as was the trunk, and the well-known Peugeot 104 suspension was given softer springing to give the Visa a properly Citroën feel.
The range consisted in three models. The Visa Super, at the top, featured the same 57hp transverse-mounted water-cooled 1.1 litre 4-cyl. that one could find in the Peugeot 104 GR. The base model Spécial and the Club, on the other hand, had a brand new Citroën motor. It was the final evolution of the immortal air-cooled flat-twin that was pioneered on the 2CV thirty years earlier. Back then, it was a puny 9hp 375cc, but that grew to 425cc in the mid-‘50s, then to 602cc with the Ami 6 in 1961. With all of 652cc and an electronic ignition system, the old air-cooled twin could churn out 36hp (DIN).
The Visa was priced competitively, although if its flat-twin (and its prominent nose) did make it stick out of the lot in other ways. Even in foreign markets (I picked the UK here, just for a change), the new Citroën had its merits. And some people did sign the dotted line, but the confusing controls and the challenging looks were proving very hard to overcome for many. Citroën knew almost immediately that something had to be done quickly.
Trouble was, the treasury was dry. Peugeot had just taken on Chrysler Europe – and their massive debt – and Citroën’s meagre resources were all employed in the future BX. On a shoestring budget, the Visa problem was outsourced to coachbuilder Heuliez, who devised a cheap but quite effective facelift dubbed Visa II.
The pig nose and grey bumpers were gone and a touch of additional plastic cladding was applied, making the car a lot more visually palatable. Bigger rear lights were also added for good measure. The Visa thrived. Citroën multiplied the variants, including very sporty ones like the Chrono or the GTI. Heuliez even did a limited edition “convertible”…
It worked a treat. The facelift cars arrived in 1982 and sales took off. The bulk of them had been of the 2-cyl. variant initially, but this changed with the Visa II: more affluent customers were now fine with the car, and they preferred a little more HP in their Citroëns. When production stopped in 1988, over 1.2 million had been made – a very respectable score.
So maybe this is not a great example of a French four-door fail. It’s more of a case of snatching victory from the jaws of an ugly defeat. It was not born under the best of circumstances, with the prettiest of mugs or the most powerful engine, but never did the Visa waver (ha ha). They genuinely put lipstick (in black plastic form) on this little pig, and it worked. Nice save, Citroën.
Related post:
Curbside Classic: 1986 Citroen Visa 11E – A Different Type Of Citroen, A Different Type Of Supermini, by Roger Carr
I remember the Visa because it was the car on which the small van C15 was based (I would like to see an article about it, as popular or more popular than the car).
Many Visas have been seen here in Greece between the 80s and early 2000s, almost all of them say that it was a very tough and indestructible car. The diesel engine, the 1.9 from PSA (which it shared with the 205 among others) was the best at the time.
In the above list of vehicles, note that only the Honda Civic has a 5 speed which makes a big difference on the highway. Something the Europeans adopted as time progressed.
Also, not the license plate of the canvas top as “DECAPOTABLE”.
I don’t think that would have translated well in the US if imported!!
I would image they would have followed the VW lead of “Cabriolet”.
The Daihatsu also does, and was a rocket in its day for what it was.
It is interesting to note that CAR magazine tested one against a Visa Club along with its cousin, a 104 GL in February 1980. For whatever reason CAR was smitten with the peculiarities regarding the design of the Visa, both inside and out, and gave it the nod over the second place Charade and third place Peugeot. They loved the seats and ride, and were extremely forgiving regarding the car’s meager performance (0-40 in 10.9 seconds, 0-60 in 26.5). Contrast that to the Charade, being 8 inches shorter yet noted as having “near-as-dammit” interior space and performance “a class or two higher” than direct rivals. It smoked the Visa (and Peugeot), getting to 60 in 16.1 seconds (0-40 in 7.2) and could “sing down the road at 75mph with no fuss”, a speed the Citroen couldn’t even reach. Despite this, the seats weren’t as good, steering as sharp, nor the ride as forgiving. Runner up it was. Understandable if the scope of one’s use was limited to town driving, I suppose, but hard not to suspect a strong Japanese bias factoring into the equation.
I suspect the bias was more pro Citroen than anti Daihatsu. Car magazine of this era loved everything double chevron.
Agree with you.
In Europe, most cars were and are small, specifically because of the high price of fuel (it was more expensive before as it is today). This is why hatchbacks were always an option.
The big difference in favor of small Japanese cars is that they incorporated the fifth gearbox, and that this made them consume much less fuel. Both the Toyota and the Charade (I add the Mitsubishi Colt) consumed much less than rival cars made in Europe. Only the diesel versions were efficient in fuel consumption, but the gasoline ones did not have good performance.
This was a point in favor for the Japanese when entering the European market.
The flat twin and the looks were possibly polarising, but here was still a Citroen appeal to these and to some of us that was lost in the facelift with the Euro-standard front grille etc. The dash is, IMHO, was great.
But that’s CC for CCs for you – some think they’re weird, some love them.
I liked them, but they did seem underpowered for 4 passengers with cheese, baguettes and garlic.
I like that dashboard as well, unconventional compared to anything else, but consistent with Citroen practice, melding a bit of the CX aesthetic with the traditional 2CV/Dyane/Ami approach of switchgear tightly grouped around the steering column.
I find it ironic that they designed a super cheap version destined for production on the other side of the Iron Curtain that looks SO MUCH better than the version sold locally by the designer/manufacturer. Long live the Oltcit!
The Oltcit was a proper Citroën – a sort of cut-down GS with the basic torsion bar version of the suspension from the failed Projet F. The GS was developed from the high-line version of the F, but ended up with little in common with either.
It got rejected really due to platform sharing, as it would have been too expensive to make. There was a story that it originally had 15″ wheels and looked ridiculous…
I cannot help wondering if it had been built to French(!) quality standards instead of Romanian ones in place of the Visa…nah, they probably made the right choice, commercially.
But I still quite liked the Visa for its pig-ugly quirkiness. It just wasn’t a proper Citroën.
I notice Citroens on the roads Ive been driving that brand for years I dont remember a Visa or for that matter a copy of the car Ive been in at the time, except once and I bought that one for parts.
I saw this beauty in East Auckland 10 years ago. Haven’t seen another since
The one with the red/blue, stripes looks good. The convert? H’mmm. Need to see top up.
It’s good that somewhere there was a “Project VD”. In Australia, Chrysler solved the problem by replacing the VC Valiant with the VE, Holden avoiding VD when the VH Commodore succeeded the VC.
Things work differently in different languages. I think I’m in the same boat with most non-native English speakers in not getting what’s wrong with VD, I had to look it up.
Its not only about different languages but about different eras too – may I remind you of the 1920s when Sunbeam, Talbot and Darracq were produced by STD Motors Ltd, based in perfectly English-speaking London. I guess back then, the medical term hadn’t been coined yet.
Yes that’s right. It wasn’t until the 1970s VD began to be replaced by STD (VD thought to have to have gained too many specific associations) but fortunately for AT&T, in 1951 they renamed their STD (Subscriber Toll Dialing) service to DDD (Direct Distance Dialing), apparently for no better reason than the alliterative appeal. Many countries in the English-speaking world continued to use STD for the phone calls, even after the public health specialists had re-purposed the initialization.
Some kind of facial resemblance: Mitsubishi Colt
I’m surprised by that Civic price – I had a recollection that the 5-door 1500 was quite expensive and one could not get hold of them for love nor money. Import restrictions…
One of the reasons the Ballade version got built here in Cowley.
Perhaps the 1300 was a loss-leader.
I had a GSA with all the controls on the pod – it’s brilliant and takes only a few minutes to adapt to using it.
Was at the Lane Motor Museum today and saw A LOT of Citroens and other weird French cars. They had a whole 2CV section of 10ish cars on display. Most of them weird customs, rebodies, an electric one, and my favorite a 4wd 2CV. Powered by two engines!!
Anyways, Im betting the Lane has a Visa but it wasnt on display. They did have a wild looking wide body BX 4TC, it was the street homoligation version, never raced in Group B. It had the same odd “bicentennial” red, white and blue paint scheme as the Visa pictured above