Life and times of the CX mirrors

Shared heritage (or part) more than you ever care to know about.

I AM of those people who take notice of such features on cars that have found their way onto other cars – particularly external parts. Sad I know.

I read an excellent post on AROnline by Robert Leitch on door handles that were first seen on Morris Marina, that were also extensively used on other cars by other car manufacturers. Read the article by clicking here.

There’s one particular part from one car I’ve noticed that were been seen and used on other cars. Like what Robert has pointed out with the Marina door handles, something I noticed is those door mirrors from the Citroën CX.

The CX was the long awaited replacement for the legendary DS. Citroën had a tough task on their hands but they delivered on making a worthy successor to the Gallic goddess that was just as quirky and mind-boggling.

Many would have said that the CX looked like something from the future upon its arrival in 1974. But I highly doubt anyone would have predicted that the big Citroën’s wing mirrors would have been used on other cars from the future – even long after the CX had ceased production in 1991. The CX’s mirrors later found their way onto a number of cars, and they were mainly on British cars.

One extreme to the next.

TVR employed the use of them onto a number of cars in their line up from the 1980s such as the V8S and the Tasmin, well into the 1990s on the Griffith and Chimaera. Lotus did too, as those wing mirrors were on the Esprit and Excel. Aston Martin also utilized the use of them that first saw use on the V8 Virage/Vantage and also on the DB7. They were also on the Jaguar XJ220 and the MVS Venturi.

Those mirrors were first used on the Series 2 CXs from 1985, when Citroën revised its flagship car. But it wasn't until 2004 that the last cars to have them was the Lotus Esprit. Making it 13 years since the CX went out of production, but the part itself had a lifespan of nearly 20 years.

So you could say that the CX  (in the loosest possible sense) lived on in one form or another.