Airbag deaths in France: Citroen tells C3 and DS3 owners to stop driving cars
The French government earlier this month urged Citroen, part of the Stellantis group, to issue an immediate immobilisation order to owners of the impacted models after a 37-year-old woman was killed when her car's airbag malfunctioned during an accident.
It was the 13th death linked to the defective airbags in dozens of accidents in France, according to prosecutors.
Until now, Citroen had only asked drivers to make appointments to have the airbags replaced, a process carried out in stages since early 2024, but did not tell them to stop driving the vehicles.
'Given the circumstances, we have decided to issue a 'stop drive' to accelerate their repair,' Citroen CEO Xavier Chardon told AFP.
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The order affects around 441,000 C3 and DS3 vehicles in Europe, on top of the hundreds of thousands already recalled by Citroen since early last year.
Other major manufacturers including Volkswagen, Nissan, BMW and Toyota have recalled millions of vehicles containing the airbags.
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France 24
03-08-2025
- France 24
Citroen 2CV lovers gather in Slovenia to take the slow road
"Once you sit down, all the stress from your office is gone," Karmen Uglesic, one of the organisers of this year's 25th world meeting of Citroen 2CV fans, told AFP. "You stop worrying and simply enjoy," she said. As head of the Slovenian parliament's public relations office, Uglesic has more than 20 years' experience working with politicians and managing events as the tiny former Yugoslav state transitioned into a fully fledged member of the European Union and NATO. Preparing for retirement, Uglesic says she owes her mental well-being to her passion for the "Spacek", or "little freak". That is what one journalist, bewildered by the car's appearance, called the 2CV when it appeared in the Yugoslav market in the early 50s. "When I get home from work and my husband asks me if I would go for a ride with our 'Spacek', I'm immediately for it! I put on my Citroen T-shirt, open the foldable roof and go for it," Uglesic said. 'A different world' The Citroen 2CV was launched in 1948 as the French carmaker Citroen's answer to Germany's Volkswagen Beetle. The 2CV stands for "deux chevaux" (two horses), a reference to its original horsepower. Admired for its simplicity, utilitarian design and low-cost maintenance, more than five million 2CVs were built until 1990, when production stopped due to tougher emissions standards. Uglesic is one of more than 300 volunteers who organised the 25th world meeting of 2CV friends at an airfield near the Postojna cave, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the capital Ljubljana. The previous gathering was in Switzerland in 2023. "If you want to, you can repair it yourself thanks to the engine's simplicity," 55-year-old Italian Gabriele Salvoni told AFP. He was sitting with friends, drinking a beer, eating popcorn and surrounded by four 2CVs in different colours. His group did the 400-kilometres-long trip to Postojna driving at 80 to 90 kilometres per hour, letting traditional Italian supercars shoot past them. "This is a different world, we travel in peace, that is our way of living," Salvoni said proudly, displaying tatoos on his chest representing two 2CVs with the names of his two children. 'A piece of art' Their cars were parked in one of the many camping areas marked by organisers to leave space for more than 3,000 2CVs to parade around. The vehicles came in many colours -- some equipped with loudspeakers, others covered in rust, or in yellow with a giant duck on the roof. "This car is a piece of art," Uglesic said. "Many here take it as a white canvas on which you can paint whatever you like." As she spoke, a limousine-like 2CV, extended to double its usual length, passed by. The camp appeared to be a series of parties happening at the same time but in perfect harmony. From time to time, a column of cars formed to drive along the kilometre-plus main "road" separating two sides of the camp. They sounded their horns as passers-by sang along to the music from their loudspeakers. Many of the participants were not even born when 2CV production stopped. "It was my dream for years," 26-year-old freelance artist Jamie said as she sat with her 32-year-old boyfriend Mike under a tent hanging from her blue 2CV. "I went to France and I fell in love with the car." 'Chill a bit' Mike, who works in aircraft maintenance, is teaching her to repair it herself. He admitted that, when it rained, their recently restored foldable roof "drips a little, but just on one side, but we don't really mind". They drove from Hamburg in Germany, where highways have some of the fastest speed limits in the world. "I don't mind being the slow one on the highway," Jamie said. "I think it's better to slow down. Maybe they should learn something from us: to chill a bit." Not far away, 16-year-old Aleksandar Dincic from Vranje in Serbia and his father were checking out a tent where 2CV spare parts were being sold. "I adore these cars, they are very good and can easily be driven in the 21st century," Dincic said. And his father had promised him one for his 18th birthday, he added. "It's a car that you drive with pleasure," he said with a smile. © 2025 AFP
Local France
31-07-2025
- Local France
One in 5 French drivers admit throwing trash out of the window
If you've ever driven on a French autoroute , you might have noticed quite the collection of rubbish at the side of the road and in the grass verges. The culprits? Your fellow motorists. A survey by Vinci , one of the companies that runs France's motorway network, found that one in five motorists admit to throwing rubbish out of the window of their vehicles while driving on the autoroutes . That rises to one in three people who admit to throwing rubbish on any public highway, whether while driving or walking. Advertisement Cigarette butts and plastic bottles or packaging are the most common items thrown onto the highway - while all of these are unsightly, during the summer cigarette butts pose the added risks of starting wildfires on the dry, parched grass verges. The survey is part of Vinci and the other highway companies' ongoing efforts to raise awareness of the problems caused by debris at the roadside, and encourage people to save it and throw it in the nearest bin. Bernadette Moreau of the Vinci Autoroutes Foundation told RMC radio that the percentage of drivers who do this has actually been falling in recent years, although "it is still too high". Fines of up to €1,500 can be levied on people who are caught throwing trash onto the public highway.
LeMonde
31-07-2025
- LeMonde
European automakers stuck in an impasse
The automotive industry has always been cyclical. Boom periods have routinely been followed by spectacular drops in sales and profits, which are driven by economic conditions or phases when car models are renewed. The turmoil the sector is experiencing today, however, has little in common with its past upheavals. The current crisis is a structural one, and it is uncertain how French brands will manage to pull themselves out of this rut. While, up until recently, Renault and Stellantis (Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Chrysler, Opel, etc.) boasted about their profitability, which was unprecedented for the industry, both manufacturers posted heavy half-year losses of several billion euros in the first quarter. The setbacks have since mounted. Dealerships have their inventories pile up, and these cars must be cleared out at steep discounts, which undermines profits. Renault also faces the depreciation of its stake in the Japanese company Nissan, which is also going through a difficult period. The European car industry is also paying the price for not having prepared for the transition to electric vehicles and for the rapid rise of its Chinese competitors. This painful shift had been further exacerbated by the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump. With the specter of decline looming, car manufacturers have desperately scrambled to contain the crisis, which threatens millions of jobs. According to them, the main culprit was the European Union's decision to ban the sale of combustion-engine cars from 2035. This measure has been criticized as a purely political choice, disconnected from the market's realities, and the 2035 deadline has been targeted by intense lobbying efforts aimed at pushing it back. Automakers have already succeeded in postponing penalties for exceeding CO 2 emissions limits, as they were initially scheduled for 2025 before being pushed back to 2027. Everyone has understood that this is just a step, as the real goal is to challenge the entire regulatory timetable. Bargaining for a reprieve, and thereby focusing on the short term, has proven to be a strategic misstep. European carmakers had 15 years to prepare for the transition. That is the time it took for China's automotive industry to become the undisputed world leader in electric vehicles and achieve a decisive technological lead over Western companies. Those Western companies instead chose to keep one foot in the old world by continuing to sell large SUVs, which generate higher profit margins but are now too expensive for most consumers. The Chinese strategy was to go for mass production with affordable models, allowing them to achieve unbeatable production costs and a highly effective pace of innovation. European car manufacturers now argue that the European market is not meeting expectations. Yet, in about 10 countries where a favorable ecosystem has been created for electric vehicles, with tailored tax policies, available infrastructure and affordable charging costs, the percentage of electric vehicles in total sales is ahead of schedule. Rather than making the transition out to be a scapegoat for the sector's problems, car manufacturers should redirect their lobbying efforts to demanding public policies to support the transition. Pushing back regulatory deadlines would only widen the lag behind their Chinese competitors, who will not stop innovating simply because Europeans have decided to extend the life of outdated combustion technology at any cost. This backward-looking perspective only worsens the impasse in which the sector now finds itself.
