Diminishing sales and increased demand in crossovers and SUVs have made Citroen retire the C5 from the United Kingdom.
The decision comes after the automaker delivered just 237 examples in the country in 2015, just 0.5 percent of the initial sales achieved by the D-segment saloon in its year of launch, 2001, when 45,502 units found new homes, as Autocar writes.
While the automaker struggled to sell the C5 in the UK, demand remains at a competitive level in left-hand drive markets. In its home market, 6,549 examples were delivered last year. However, not a few French car buyers support the local automakers and, additionally, this number represents just 20 percent of the sales achieved by the model six years earlier. This puts a possible replacement under the question mark on the European market, as the it will be reportedly offered solely in China in its next generation.
With one in four cars sold in the European Union being a crossover or an SUV, Citroen will follow this trend with a new family of vehicles inspired by the Aircross Concept and will also continue to focus on the C4 Picasso and Grand C4 Picasso MPVs too. Moreover, the manufacturer also has a new-gen C3 Picasso in the pipeline, which will share its architecture with the Opel Meriva, meaning that it will adopt a more crossover-like appearance.
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