Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15 • Hacker News Board

Re: Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15

#191

Post by hedgehog » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:22 PM UTC

soared wrote: post #135

Aurornis wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder how differently cars would be built, if instead of maximizing for value extraction and crap nobody needs, they instead were optimized for utility and maintenance (and sure, fuel economy, aerodynamics and some sane environmental stuff). Auto manufacturers already have stripped-down base models of their entry-level vehicles. Many have commercial versions of their vehicles, especially trucks and vans, that ar…

Agreed - check out for example a Toyota rav4 le. This is the base model with effectively zero modern “subscription-esque” fancy features. It’s got a touchscreen and power windows, but otherwise it’s all the reliability/etc of Toyota and that’s it. About half the price of what most rav4s are listed at and $20k+ cheaper than a 4Runner.

Oh no, across the line Toyota still tries to sell you a subscription service that's required for things like remote start.

Re: Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15

#192

Post by tanjtanjtanj » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:23 PM UTC

jfengel wrote: post #138

Aurornis wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder how differently cars would be built, if instead of maximizing for value extraction and crap nobody needs, they instead were optimized for utility and maintenance (and sure, fuel economy, aerodynamics and some sane environmental stuff). Auto manufacturers already have stripped-down base models of their entry-level vehicles. Many have commercial versions of their vehicles, especially trucks and vans, that ar…

I wonder how much of that is due to dealers, who want to upsell. Do they even keep the base model in stock, or does it have to be special ordered (or today, we can give you a "discount" on the fancy model that still has a higher profit margin for us). I'm just speculating; the same reasoning wouldn't apply to the iPhone mini. But car dealers have a lot of incentive to skew the results. It takes a fair bit of willpowe…

Just as an anecdote - When I was buying my last car I went in and asked for just the base model with nothing added onto it, ie not even the "eXtra Special" designations, and the dealership said they probably won't have any for a long time and if I'd like to pay 50% more for one with some features added on.

I declined and kept looking at the inventory of the 4-5 dealerships nearest to me. For six months they never had a single base model.

I started looking at another maker and they seemed to have base models that just wouldn't sell, stuck on lots for that same time period.

Re: Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15

#193

Post by burnt-resistor » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:23 PM UTC

Similar to Nissan / Datsun 620, 720, and D21 trucks in the US. They ran forever, especially for folks who were mechanics and kept a stash of parts.

Re: Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15

#194

Post by cuu508 » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:23 PM UTC

jfengel wrote: post #147

Fiveplus wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be the absolute dream engineering brief. If I actually sit down and design that vehicle, it would have something like this. List, off the top of my head. 1. You keep the modern metallurgy and the crumple zones. You keep ABS and basic traction control because they are solved problems that save lives without needing cloud connectivity. 2. Instead of a 2000 USD proprietary touchscreen that will be obsolete in…

Incidentally, you're describing my 2020 Subaru Impreza. Under $20k for my dealer demo. I do wish it supported a later version of Android Auto so that I could run that via Bluetooth. (It does have regular Bluetooth but that's just audio.)

Were they sold with an option to have have no OEM infotainment? Just speakers and a phone mount?

Re: Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15

#195

Post by __turbobrew__ » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:24 PM UTC

KronisLV wrote: post #19

Fiveplus wrote: post #12

The C15 represents a time when a vehicle was a tool. I feel vehicles want to turn into a subscription service these days. I still see these running in rural Spain and France, usually held together with wire and hope, clocking like what 400k+ km? The XUD diesel engines are practically unkillable. They have no ECU to brick, no adblue sensors to fail and put the car into limp mode and thankfully none of those DRM locked…

> The C15 represents a time when a vehicle was a tool. I feel vehicles want to turn into a subscription service these days. I wonder how differently cars would be built, if instead of maximizing for value extraction and crap nobody needs, they instead were optimized for utility and maintenance (and sure, fuel economy, aerodynamics and some sane environmental stuff). Like take the C15 and add 2-4 decades of manufactur…

You would get the toyota hilux champ which is not purchasable in rich countries.

Re: Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15

#196

Post by kfarr » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:24 PM UTC

You know all those dark patterns in software? What if we applied the same concepts to gigantic mechanical devices, taking advantage of human psychological faults, and generate a profit margin on those? Sure seems what seems to have happened with motor vehicles

Re: Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15

#197

Post by jadbox » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:24 PM UTC

Unrelated to the article: What I find frustrating about mastodon is how I click a link and then cannot favorite a post as there's no unified login between federated servers.

Re: Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15

#198

Post by nico_h » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:25 PM UTC

I’ve been a passenger in the front and the back of a C15 and they are pure utility vehicule. You get heating in winter and ventilation in summer. The windows are manual, front seat are okay, and I don’t know if they have updated models with aircon before stopping the production.

Re: Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15

#199

Post by burnt-resistor » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:25 PM UTC

isodev wrote: post #141

eeeficus wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French fries is not a french invention AFAIK but belgian!

Yup, French fries are Belgian. Also - it's important to cook them twice, otherwise it's just McDonalds and not real French fries.

That's how my grandfather made them using peanut oil. Blanch and then fry, with a thermometer in the oil.

Re: Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15

#200

Post by benregenspan » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

hn8726 wrote: post #187

kube-system wrote: post #157

> The Ford Ranger (2020). One of the most popular pickups in the US. A key selling point is that the cabin is so high you can run over toddlers without even noticing. The craziest thing about this criticism is that it is phrased as hyperbole but the reality is that this is seen as a small truck in the US. The Ford Ranger actually is the best selling pickup truck in Europe for 10 straight years, but doesn’t sell as mu…

> The Ford Ranger actually sells better in Europe than it does in the US. And the larger F series trucks sell more than an order of magnitude more. Do you have any sources for this? I looked online and found a couple of charts, none of them support this claim. The Ford Ranger sales in Europe vs US are similar (who buys more varies by year) but the F series seems to be mostly bought in US

I think they meant it has much larger % share of pickup market in Europe vs US, not necessarily higher absolute number of sales (https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/feu/en/news/2025/02...)