From air to water
The Citroen Visa was designed as a model series that would attract customers from the 2CV, Dyane and Ami. Chassis with long suspension travel as well as a slightly "crazy" design of the car, dashboard and interior should make old Citroen customers feel at home. The first cars even had the same engine as the 2CV6 – long-stroke, 2-cylinder, air-cooled boxer engine of 652 ccm. Later they got transverse, four-cylinder water-cooled inline-fours. You can say that these engines were a big improvement for Visa, but in retrospect it is the 2CV engines that are most sought after on the "hobby" market. But for Citroen, Visa became a model that took the 2CV line over to a new generation. It was also the last model in the legacy of the 2CV.
Sister model to the Peugeot 104
The Peugeot 104 was also offered with a 2CV drive back then the was launched. Despite the fact that Visa and 104 each had their own 'personality', they were sister models and shared a drivetrain and platform. The Peugeot 104 was a precursor to what we today call the B-class, where we find models such as the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo. The Citroen Visa is only marginally larger than the Peugeot 104, although it appears to be a car in the Golf class. It is, it is not.
Model history
Visa received an important facelift in 1981 which removed part of the distinctive character from the model. The new model was called Visa II. It was especially the front that was reworked so that it looked like "normal" cars. Series 1 had a small grill which was perhaps intended as a continuation of the grill in the 2CV, but which was compared to a pig's snout. In 1985, another facelift came. In 1988 production stopped.
Engines
Only water-cooled, 4-cylinder engines were delivered to Norway. Most cars were delivered with a 1,1 liter engine of 50 HP (RE) and 60 HP (Super E). Cars with a 1,4 liter engine of 60 HP (14 RE) and 79 HP (GT) were also delivered. A GTI was also made with a 1,6-litre engine, first with 105 HP, later 115 HP - the same engines as in the Peugeot 205 GTI. Visa was also delivered with diesel, but they were not taken into Norway through the ordinary importation.
Gallery Visa
About the pictures
The main picture was taken in a residential area in the south of France. This is a Club from the first series, with an air-cooled 2CV6 engine. The red car below is a Visa GTI 115 hp that was supposed to compete with the Volkswagen Golf GTI. The green car (rear end) is photographed in the countryside outside Perpignan, France. The red Series 1 car was sold through an auction house in Paris. The car is one of several that were sold from Citroen's own museum. The contract price was approximately NOK 70.
Citroen C15
Immortal van
The C15 is a commercial vehicle based on Visa. The designation 15 comes from the fact that the car fulfills a French weight class for commercial vehicles of 1,5 tonnes. The C15 could be had with both petrol and diesel engines, but it is diesel that dominates today – because these are cars you see everywhere in France. The success can be explained by reliable engines, simple mechanics and the fact that the cars can be fixed "everywhere". For the French, the C15 is a piggy bank on wheels.
Model history
The C15 was produced from 1984 to 2006 – i.e. 8 years after the production of Visa was discontinued. Throughout the years of production, the C15 received two facelifts – in the spring of 1989 and in 1992 for the 1993 model. At the first facelift, the grill was changed, and the car got double rear doors instead of a side-hinged door. The vast majority of the cars received diesel engines "17D" and "17RD". What both Visa and C15 have in common is that cars with diesel were given screen widths made of plastic. The diesel engine required a slightly increased track width at the front.
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See
Citroen Origins presents the Citroen Visa
