KEY POINTS:
If you have any kind of automotive soul, it's impossible to assess Citroen's flagship C6 in a rational way. It's more than a car. Look at it and you see a direct line of descent through magnificent machines, such as the XM and CX, down to what is one of the most beautiful and innovative cars ever designed, the DS of the 1950s.
Citroen's pseudo-limousines have always been elegant, other-worldly and quite timeless in their appeal, if not their mechanical health.
You don't travel in a car like the C6, you experience it.
In a market such as New Zealand, the $109,900 C6 is a niche product with extraordinarily limited appeal.
You'd have to be a devotee of the French marque to own one; - so far local importer Ateco Automotive has found just six people who qualify. Talk about exclusive.
The C6 is an old-school Citroen. Forget about its smaller siblings that share (conventional) underpinnings with Peugeots.
The C6 may borrow its 2.7-litre turbo diesel engine from a Peugeot-Ford joint project (it's magnificent, by the way), but it rides on weird "Hydractive 3+" fluid-filled suspension with electronically controlled springing and damping, which allows just the right degree of waftability in urban driving.
Corners are not this car's friend, although there's a sport setting for the suspension to reduce the floaty feeling.
But if you're rushing around corners in this, you're missing the point.
The interior architecture is more akin to designer furniture than a car cabin. High technology is all around you, such as the "head-up" display that projects the digital speedometer on to the windscreen, or the every-which-way power seats - including the rear chairs that came with our car's optional Lounge pack. But overall the C6's fixed-hub steering wheel - or naturally illuminated instrument panel - is just cool-looking design, like the super-clean switchgear or sliding wood-panelled storage bins in he four doors.
It's not perfect. The cushy suspension can still be caught out by low-speed ripples and the conventional boot seems odd in a car with a hatchback profile - surely a fifth door would make more sense? But as a car designed with the singular focus of providing stand-out style and an overwhelming impression of luxury, the C6 is stunning.
It's devastatingly quiet at 100km/h, superbly comfortable front and rear, wonderfully fitted out, and very safe with nine airbags, automatic tyre pressure sensors and a bonnet that raises on impact for pedestrian protection.
Lose yourself in the C6 experience for a few days and you might even decide the $109,900 price is fine value for such a magnificent machine.
But unless you are wearing double-chevron shaped glasses, you'll probably come crashing down to Earth quicker than a faulty Hydractive suspension system when you realise what you'd be taking on.
Citroen's C6 is of limited appeal. It is destined to depreciate at an alarming rate and is an infinitely more risky ownership prospect than some German or Japanese luxury brand.
And yet, if you have the attitude and financial wherewithal to buy and enjoy this car, I think that you are very fortunate. The weird, wonderful C6 is an impossibly cool car, just like big Citroens are supposed to be.
