The new Citreon DS3 has an individualistic design

I always find it mildly disquieting when a large established company feels the need for a rebrand. It generally suggests there is something intrinsically wrong with the brand and indicates that radical change is necessary to turn things round.

In the case of Citroën, the introduction of the DS Automobiles brand across most market segments indicated that the company’s recent dumbing-down of its core products had not had the desired effect in sales terms and that something else was needed to breathe new life into its products.

Bad enough that the great French marque was now aiming to lock horns with the Asian hordes invading Europe, but reinventing a classic Citroën icon to mask management failings smacked, frankly, of desperation.