The Honda Clarity Could Be a Citroën DS for Our Time

Journalists the world over have spent hundreds of millions of words and much more brain cells attempting to outdo one another contextualizing the introduction of the Citroën DS. The much-teased French aide blew heads as it broke cover 1955 with futuristic looks and severe (for now ) high-tech credentials. Earning rave reviews, the DS could be credited not just because of its continued salvation of Citroën but also because of its cultural impact, including the scholarly experiments it prompted.

The most famous of these navel-gazers has been Roland Barthes’ “La Nouvelle Citroën” (“The New Citroën”-RRB-, that emerged as a chapter in Mythologies, a collection of experiments. A lot of a journalist could give their right arm to be able to twist high-falutin’ snow like the word-blizzard Barthes summoned for the launch of this four-cylinder sedan. The letters DS, the writer notes early , are conspicuous “diesse,” like the French word. Then he’s away to the races.

Automobiles were the day’s Gothic the era’s creation, & ldquo; cathedrals. ” I agree if no longer that was then.

Attempting a similar meditation, today’s essayist first faces the problem that automobiles, for all their advancement and wonder, haven’t shifted enough to maintain society interested the way they used to. Objects have emerged to captivate markets as customer mindshare is steadily lost to non-automotive offerings. No way General Motors can do obsolescence as rapidly and completely as Apple, along with it is known by the stock market. It’therefore not reasonable, you might argue–having a vehicle, everything is so hard to create and big and easy to see–it’so true.

It doesn’t help that lots of modern cars do seem boring. Not that there wasn’t even a lot boring about a 1972 Torino, to provide one of a thousand examples. However, the simple fact that it had been a car affording mobility seemed to imply much more then than it does now. And now there are so few radical machines. For its part, Citroën has backpedaled in the pesky technology which made the DS exceptional for decades.

This return to conference is a shame, especially on the eve of both PSA’therefore return to America. Citroëns (and Peugeots, as PSA makes ) could be credibly marketed as premium brands. Nevertheless, they won’t even be should they fail to supply cars of interest and true style rather than the crossovers in which they seem to specialize on firm ground.

Searching elsewhere for literary inspiration, even then, some may rightly understand the Tesla Model S sparking the mightiest of literary snowstorms, but not from me, fine machines which its owners believe their automobiles to be. I enjoy Teslas, and rsquo & now there ;d definitely be a lot to say on the style front, because they became for a moment a fashion accessory for certain subclasses, though not, I would suggest, for reasons of true styling.

Honda Clarity. It’s been little commented upon; indeed, its arrival went almost completely unnoticed, but in fact it not only seems quite unusual (if not up there with all the DS), but also and more important it stands out as a incredibly nice automobile whose technical specifications stage squarely at a future which has already arrived, using an extreme facility for saving gas, at an almost impossibly reasonable cost.

We could talk of its styling, that manages to appear different these days, like other cars which look different, by looking bad, as this result is achieved. Believe Toyota Priusitself a potential candidate for innovative reflection once but also a vehicle that simply doesn’t even do it for me now. The Clarity Plug-In Hybrid Touring I drove 600 miles does.

The Clarity drives and looks greater than a Prius. But it should, with 212 hp in relation to the Prius Prime’s web 124. And at $37,495 versus greater than $34,000 for the Toyota, it isn’t even costed considerably greater. It handles better and rides better, too, if not a car to be mistaken with the Alfa Romeo Giulia. (Dirty secret: Citroëns didn’t even handle fantastic, either.) Further setting the Clarity apart is suede finishes and the interior whose leather track decidedly upscale, plus every electricity and gadget convenience you can hope for at half again the cost.

The article The Honda Clarity Could Be a Citroën DS for Our Time appeared first on Automobile Magazine.

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