The Citroën AX is a small car, built by Citroën from 1986 to 1998. It was launched at the 1986 Paris Salon motor show to replace the Citroën Visa. It was available in 3-door form, with 1.0 L, 1.1 L and 1.4 L engines. It was joined by a 5-door model and a 1.4 L Diesel version shortly afterwards. It was initially backed by a memorable TV advertising campaign filmed in Red China, starring actress Janet Mas and an elderly gentleman, whose character was simply known as Mr Wong.
The car was very economical, largely because of excellent aerodynamics for its class of car (drag coefficient of 0.31) and a very light weight of around 650 kg for the basic version. In 1989 it managed a figure of 2.7 L/100 km, totalling over 1000 miles from Dover to Barcelona. This was the longest ever distance travelled on 10 gallons of fuel and earned it a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most economical production car.
The fastest production model was at first the AX Sport, replaced in 1992 by the AX GTi, which has a 100 hp fuel injected version of the 1.4 L engine. It was the same year that the entire range had minor mid-life improvements, including a revised interior.
The car's replacement, the Citroën Saxo, is heavier mainly due to emissions legislation (catalytic converter, etc.), better crash protection and safety equipment such as airbags.
AX derivatives
Heuliez presented a Station Wagon called the AX Evasion at the 1988 Mondial de l'Automobile.
The Citroën Xanthia concept car was a small roadster derived from the AX (1988).
At one stage, parent firm PSA had planned to launch a Talbot Samba replacement as a version of the AX with a different grille and a Talbot badge, but this plan was not executed.
The Proton company of Malaysia produced a version of the Citroën AX, the Proton Tiara, from 1996 to 2000.
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