At the Paris Motor Show in October, Citroën unveiled the redesigned version of the C4, with major changes to both the front and rear that could even make it look like a completely new car. Some time after its presentation, I suggest you see what the changes are compared to the first version and understand what the Citroën teams have tried to do.
The restyling of the C4 had two main aims: to simplify the design, which was considered to be too complex at the front and rear, and to visually widen the car, which suffers from a slight imbalance in width, mainly due to its height, which makes it look a little narrow, even though the width is average for the category.
A transfigured front
This is the part of the car that has undergone the most changes in this restyling, necessary because it had to adopt the brand's new style. The bonnet, headlights and bumpers have all been redesigned to incorporate the new stylistic codes introduced in series by the new C3, and the C4 has therefore evolved.
In order to make the car look wider, the design teams have made the headlights much smaller and tinted them black, so that they are prolonged by the thin radiator grille and thus cover the entire width of the C4, helping to make it look wider.
You will also notice that all the lines of the bumper have the same purpose: to make the C4 look wider than it is and to give it more character. So the headlights, the grille, the light signature, the air vents and the skid plates are all stretched across the width of the compact saloon with its chevrons.
In 2, you will therefore notice that the new Citroën light signature evolves on this C4 with three light points, all treated in width with a central element split for more finesse. Above all, you will notice that the brand's new signature, unique on the market and easily recognisable from a distance, is an evolution of the previous one which formed a Y, the lines have been horizontalised but the spirit remains.
This new front end breaks with the old style of the C4 and puts an end to the criticism of the headlights being too spherical, but above all it allows it to display lines that are clearly more modern and technological.
A renewed rear
Here, too, the two key words of the C4 restyling are at work to put an end to the criticism of the style of the first version, which was considered too complicated.
The design teams have simplified the style by removing the LED bar that used to hang down from the quarter panel, allowing the whole to be redesigned to give the C4 more shoulders, with the rear wings standing out more clearly in this restyling. Likewise, this reorganisation of the lights has made it possible to visually lower the car (2), while integrating more of the aerodynamic spoiler into the window.
Still with the aim of visually widening the car, the brand's teams have completely redesigned the lights (1), which are here treated in the width direction, allowing the lines to be stretched.
In the end, the C4 appears to be better placed on its wheels, with a rear that is visually slightly lower and wider, with better defined areas between the spoiler integrated into the window and the lights integrated into the body.
A profile also revised
Although the modifications are almost zero, except for the removal of the chrome stripes on the windows, the profile of the C4 2024 evolves more than you might think from the simple modifications to the front and rear:
Since the rear has been visually lowered and the front raised, the C4's profile has changed from a sloping position to a more balanced, springy one, which gives it more elegance, as can be seen from the much more horizontal roofline.
The simplification of the rear lights and the spoiler area has also allowed the C4 to adopt a style that is easier to read, with a real hatchback profile just crossed by the spoiler, giving it a much simpler profile with a very nice curvature that helps to give it more elegance. Previously, as part of the lights joined the quarter panel, the style was more difficult to read and the tailgate was loaded without having a real vision of a hatchback.
Finally, since its launch, the C4 has had a line on the front door, which was intended to visually lengthen the bonnet, as the C4, based on the CMP platform, had a rather short bonnet. In this restyling, the design teams have naturally kept the line on the door, but have sought to integrate it with a line on the front bumper in order to visually lengthen the bonnet and thus the whole car. This reformed assembly also allows the front wing and wheel arches to be much more muscular.
Finally, the placement of the Colour Clip on the rear door is not insignificant either, as it allows the eye to be drawn to the rear and the wheel, visually lowering the rear and helping to modify the C4's profile to give it a bouncing rather than diving appearance.
The result of many months of work, the design of a car is not trivial and has to comply with many standards that make things more complicated than you might think, even more so in a restyling that aims to apply a new stylistic language to a very old one. With the C4, the brand's teams have managed to pull off a masterstroke, radically modifying the C4 so that it appears almost like a completely new car, gaining in modernity and technology with a simpler, more comprehensible design that gives it more elegance. An exercise that was never easy, but one that ultimately paid off for Citroën.
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