Autoblog

With six employee suicides in the past 18 months, PSA/Peugeot-Citroen thinks it may have a stress problem. While experts have found no direct link between the suicides and work stress, one in five PSA employees has reported feeling extreme pressure at work, and many feel that there isn't enough time in the day to get their work done.

To ease some of the stress on its 114,000 employees, PSA has implemented several initiatives to help workers get relief from tension. It's is trying everything from reducing the size of manufacturing teams and keeping managers on a particular job longer to establishing a 24-hour hotline for employee counseling. PSA has taken the issue so seriously that the French automaker is going to the extraordinary step of hiring an additional 500 workers to help ease the heavy workload. With 26 new models launching in the next year, PSA workers will need all the stress management they can get. Hopefully that Citroen grille goes away with the new models, that thing stresses us out and we don't even work there.

[Source: Automotive News - subs. req'd]

Two children tragically lost their lives when French driver Catherine Kohtz lost control of her Volvo 850. The 1999 incident, which Kohtz blamed on a loss of braking ability in her Volvo, has led to French courts handing down a finding of manslaughter. The guilty verdict against Volvo also carries an €200,000 fine, though Volvo holds that there wasn't anything wrong with the car's braking system and will likely appeal. Driver Kohtz was fined €300 and also sentenced to a six-month jail term, which was suspended.

Kohtz's accident was initially attributed to reckless operation, and tensions in the town of Wasselonne have been stirred by the circumstances of crash. Rumblings of Kohtz, relatively wealthy, having bought her way out of a more serious outcome for the death of two ten year olds from lesser means have been dividing the town in eastern France. An investigation determined that the brakes in the Volvo 850 suffered from a problem known to Volvo. Rather than recall 180,000 850s, Volvo is alleged to have quietly asked its dealers to fix a rubber pipe prone to rupture or detachment, causing a loss of braking ability. An investigating magistrate contended that service documents instructing dealers how to repair the problem were overly vague, leading to an improper and ineffective repair on Kohtz's car. For a company with such an emphasis on safety, its surprising that it would try to cover up a major flaw in such a crucial system. Volvo argued that the service documents that were seized outline an innocuous fault, and that something else like a loose water bottle behind the pedal was to blame.

[Source: BBC via Winding Road; The Independent]

Renault and Citroen are winding up to launch a frontal assault on the German car market. Germany is Europe's largest automotive market, filled with über-drivers that demand cars that set the performance and luxury standard for the rest of Europe, and arguably the world. The French automakers want a larger piece of the German market, as well as further global expansion, too. Renault is bringing the fight to Germany with their new Laguna. The Laguna was designed specifically to appeal to the tastes of German buyers, with Renault's German marketing department making sure the car met the needs and desires of the Deutschland buyer. Hopes are high that the Laguna will bolster profits for Renault. It's an attempt to crack into the $35,000 price range, where profits are fatter, yet buyers are more demanding.

Citroën is also trying to push into the luxury market. Long known for small and medium-sized cars, the brand's C6 is attempting to mix it up on Mercedes, Audi, and BMW's turf. Citroën has a plan to bolster its credibility as a maker of luxurious cars, such as drawing the line from the DS to the C6, while also improving the dealer and support experience to keep customers smiling. Both brands don't yet have the volume in the German market that they desire, but have pledged that Germany is crucial to their survival plans.

[Source: Reuters]

The Citroen 2CV is already a unique-looking car, with Citroen's distinct mid-century-modern style and flair. The French auto could be considered the opening salvo in a styling onslaught that led to such heights of style as the DS. A regular 2CV could be considered a piece of art, and Andy Saunders saw his French runabout as a canvas for further experimentation. Inspired by Pablo Picasso, pieces of the CV were sliced, diced, moved hither and yon, and repainted to mimic the artist's 1937 portrait of Dora Maar. The car is street legal in England, and we can only imagine the double takes it garners as it motors on down the street. Nighttime visibility must be rather entertaining, with both headlamps on one side of the car, and since turn signals received similar treatment, you'd best know your hand signals if you don't want this art car to suddenly become a collaborative effort, painted by someone else's vehicle-shaped brush. Saunders's car was at Goodwood this year, and Autoblog photographer extraodinaire Frank Filliponio snagged a shot of it. Just like Picasso's work, this Citroen will garner diametrically opposed reactions, but love it or hate it, it is a brilliant homage to an artistic movement that was fresh and vibrant when this humpbacked, bug-eyed voiture first saw the light of day.

[Source: Caradisiac]

From the too much time on his hands file, we bring you this unfortunately customized Renault Clio. The owner of this little French runabout has a serious sticker fetish, and a hankering for knicknacks, too. This car is just bristling with stuff and we're surpised that it passes any kind of safety inspection. The outside is covered in more logos than a race car with actual sponsors, and looking underhood reveals zip-tie mania. There's either a small nuclear plant providing electricity, or lots of little wiring additions to run the various lights, gauges, neon bulbs, Star Wars action figure shrines, whatever. At least we know that the United States is not the only place where people do asinine things to their cars. We can only imagine how all that schnokery rattles around when the big subwoofer's moving air. Yikes. Enough words, check out the gallery and let the images speak for themselves. Hide the children.



[Source: caradisiac]

The American market is thirsty for diesels and for more fuel-efficient cars altogether. That's why PSA's recently-installed CEO Christian Streiff sees now as the perfect time to bring Peugeot back to the United States. And though he's new on the job, he's planning on pitching just that idea in a three-year plan for the company as early as May.

The last time Peugeot competed in the US market was over fifteen years ago, when the only model it sold was the 405 sedan. Since then, Peugeot's model range has broadened considerably to include even a crossover sport-ute (pictured) through partnership with Mitsubishi. If Peugeot decided to run the 908 LM racing car in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), it could position itself in the US market as the leader in efficient diesel technology like Audi did with the R10.

Peugeot is also a market leader in hard-top convertibles, a segment which is growing in popularity on American shores. If PSA decides to go ahead with the venture, it could be the best thing France has given America since the Statue of Liberty.

[Source: Motor Authority]

The French military may not be fighting in Iraq, but their tires are: Michelin just landed an exclusive $1.7 billion contract with the US Department of Defense to supply the American military behemoth with tires. For the next ten years (at least), every vehicle in the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps deployed around the world will be shod in Michelin rubber.

This isn't the first Pentagon contract Michelin has won, either. The French tire company previously won a contract worth $700 million to supply the tires for all US warplanes. In order to meet the enormous supply demands of the US military, Michelin has invested a reported $16 million. For the sake of our brave boys and girls serving overseas, let's hope the French tires don't throw up their arms and surrender at the first time of trouble. (No whitewalls, please.)

[Source: F1i.com]

We wonder if this thing tells you "Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!" whenever you shut it off. Hilarity aside, this long-wheelbase CX Prestige looks like it's made out of the same material that fashioned Darth Vader's mask. Maybe the hydro-pneumatic suspension even makes the same kinds of breathy noises. Probably not, as the seller claims the spheres are in good shape. Citroëns are pretty rare in the US, and the CX's are funk-tastic executive expresses.

This series-II car is a fine example of the last Citroën design before Peugeot purchased the brand. The long, tapered body dressed in black gives this thing an evil presence we think absolutely rocks. This is the car that replaced the space-capsule DS, and there's definitely a familial resemblance (though the CX looks more like Gumby's SAAB 900 than anything alse, if you ask us).

Underhood, there's a 2.5L four-cylinder that smokes Gauloises and is powered by croque monsieur. The price is up to $2650, which is actually pretty reasonable for a CX Prestige in good shape. 1988 was the second-to-last year for this smooth-riding teardrop that was first introduced in 1974, so any teething pains were long gone by then. Of course, the joys of maintaining a luxed-up European car with a very small support base are part of the thrill of ownership. We'd wear a Vader suit wherever we went. And limo-tint the windows. That'd make pulling up to the curb, any curb, the Best. Arrival. Evar.

more photos after the jump

Global Electric Motorcars (GEM), a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler that has produced over 30,000 electric vehicles that are silently traversing the roadways of America as we speak, has inked a deal with Matra Manufacturing and Services to market its EV wares in France. GEM produces two-, four- and six-seater partly enclosed EV vehicles in both consumer and light utility versions that are in use by universities, parks, military bases and other facilities that require ridiculously outfitted security guards like the one pictured above. The vehicles will be outfitted to meet European Union regulations for light and heavy quadricycles and be sold in the Light Electric Vehicle market in France. Mantra MS will be the exclusive distributor and plans to establish a platform in Romorantin, France from which it will service these decidedly on-the-grid go-karts for the French.

[Source: DaimlerChrysler]