Citroen has dropped the price of the C4 Picasso diesel by $5000 for this month only. Fitted with automatic transmission, both the diesel and the petrol models will be priced alike -- $39,990.
The C4 Picasso has been in short supply since its launch last year, according to Citroen distributor, Ateco Automotive. Yet the importer began offering the C4 Picasso with the incentive of free fuel to keep consumer interest at a higher level late last year (more here).
It's even more unusual for an importer to reduce prices -- as Ateco is doing this month -- as that can affect resale values and, consequently, consumer sentiment.
Ateco cites VFACTS figures that show a 50.6 per cent rise in sales of privately owned diesel passenger cars this year -- so the need to offer shoppers further incentives to buy the C4 Picasso HDi is perplexing.
"People movers are, for obvious reasons, predominantly bought by families and it is families who are usually the first to feel the affects of a tightening economy," says Miles Williams, General Manager for Citroen in Australia.
"So we have moved to make the best family car on the market even more accessible in the diesel version, which will go on saving money throughout its life on the road, as well as saving at least $4,000 at the point of purchase.
"Add in the C4 Picasso's long list of standard equipment, intelligent design, the environmental advantages of cutting fuel consumption with a diesel and its five star EuroNCAP safety rating and the C4 Picasso is, clearly, the ideal family car."
Car companies aren't usually so generous and journalists are a cynical mob. Would it be out of line for us to suggest that after cranking up supply on three separate occasions over the past 12 months, Ateco now finds itself with a glut of Picassos on hand? Such is the lot of product planners... one day you're the pigeon, the next you're the statue.
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