There’s an old saying about French engineering. “The French imitate no one… and no one imitates the French.” (It’s funnier if you say it in a haughty French accent. “Zee Franch eeemitate nogh wahn…”).
Thus it was with no small amusement that I explored the Citroën C4 Pallas factory on Fields island. It looks like it was put together by Media Contacts, the marketing company that owns the island. As such, it may be less a demonstration of the C4 Pallas as it is a demonstration of what Media Contacts can do for you… if what Media Contacts did for Citroën is something you want done to you… or for you. Whatever.
Once you make it through the rather cryptic entrance (keep trying, you’ll find your way in eventually) you’re faced with a long factory tour corridor with a number of assembly stations behind glass. Don’t be put off by the fact that the signage is all in Portuguese (not French). The assembly animations are well thought out, and you can pretty much figure out what is going on just by watching.
The tour is interesting enough, but everything falls apart in the parking lot. It’s as if they went out of their way to make the car seem boring and conformist. In he parking lot you can pick a C4 Pallas from the row upon row of grey cars . Actually, you can only pick one (the one closest to the door) and it’s not a freebie. You just sit in it and take it for a drive (with a fve minute limit) on the oval surrounding the factory. That gets old after, oh, one lap.
My guess is that someone was really excited to build the factory animations, but couldn’t care less about the car. They could have been toasters. Which, come to think of it, is what rows of grey cars rather look like. Maybe they’re on to something. It does explain why the factory paint station only sprayed grey paint. I watched it for a few cycles expecting the paint color to change. Silly me!
Have no fear. Not all is lost. Next week I’ll show you at least one case where a car manufacturer gets it right, and then some.
Posted by Garth Goode 
