CHRYSLER CITADEL, 1999

CONCEPTS THAT TIME FORGOT

- Sam Burnett

Strange to think of an estate being a retro design, but a concept car with a wagon rear end immediately dates itself to that halcyon period of the late Nineties/early Noughties before all our cars got inexplicably taller and heavier and slightly shorter.

Especially an American concept car, like the Chrysler Citadel, which appeared at NAIAS in Detroit in January 1999, a motor show as all-American as apple pie and concealed weapons. This was the year after Daimler and Chrysler had merged to form an ultimately doomed industry behemoth (DaimlerChrysler - very unimaginative back then), and perhaps they wanted to show that some of that European flair had rubbed off.