The Citroën C15 is a panel van produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1984 until 2005.
The C15 is based on the long-discontinued Citroën Visa, and uses a 1.7 or 1.9-litre diesel engine. As well as standard van configuration, the vehicle is available with rear side-windows and a rear seat, which can be seen as a forerunner to today's utility vehicles such as the Renault Kangoo, Citroën Berlingo and Peugeot Partner.
As of 2005, production has reached 1,181,471 examples, last three examples were given to:
* The government of Vigo city in Spain, where the production of this car was held for last few years
* Museum of Citroën cars in Aulnay
* One of Vigo car factory workers
Over its 18 year production run there were various minor changes and upgrades made. Models with 600 kg and 800 kg load capacities were introduced (the original was 500 kg). Trim details were changed to give it a facelift in the late 1990s: side plastic trims were added and the bonnet trim changed.
The design was simple, but very reliable and effective, resulting in a remarkably successful production run in comparison to the not-terribly-successful Visa hatchback upon which it was based. Th vehicle is very basic by modern standards but this made it cheap to build, cheap to run and hard to break.
The van was also used as a camper-van base by Island Plastics, branding the resulting vehicle the RomaHome. It was a surprisingly practical small camper for two people.
[] Variants and history
The C15 was introduced in the UK 1986, originally badged with the pun 'van blanc' or 'van rouge' according to body colour. UK models were always shipped without rear wide windows, as is usual for UK vans due to Tax regulations. European models had side windows, and a 'combi' version with a rear bench seat. There was also, in France at least, a rather rare 'stretch' version which was about 0.5m longer than a normal C15.
Early models had a single wide rear door, but this was awkard for loading in a tight space and prone to snapping off in a high wind, so after a year or two only conventional 2-door versions were sold.
The engine used was the extremely reliable PSA XUD series: XUD7 (1.7l) and XUD9 (1.9l on later models). Both Bosch and Lucas/CAV/Roto-diesel injection systems were used.
Numerous changes were made to the engine ancilliaries over the years. Early models had an inline electrical diesel heater, which invariably stopped working after a couple of years but this made no difference unless used in very cold conditions, so it was not fitted on later UK models, the fuel passing over the thermostat housing to warm it up instead. The fuel filter moved from the wing to the top of the thermostat housing. The oil filler moved from the crankcase cover to the dipstick housing.
The front indicators were originally combined with the headlights, but later were separate items fitted to the bumper.
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