Citroën Xantia  The Citroën Xantia, pronounced "Zan–ti–a" is a large family car (D) produced by the French automaker Citroën, and designed by Bertone. Presented to the press in December 1992, the car was produced between 1992 and 2001, with a facelift in the end of 1997. Citroën sold over 1.2 million Xantias during its nine years of production. From January 2001, Xantia`s production line started in SAIPA, Tehran Iran. Production in France, however, continued until October 2002, which overlapped with the C5 by eighteen months. Iranian manufacturing ended on September 2010. The name "Xantia" like some other names on Citroën models before (like Athena or Pallas) is coming from ancient Greek history and mythology. "Xantia" is derived from Xanthos, mean golden or blond in Greek Language. Xanthos is name of an ancient Lycian city (meaning "golden city") in ancient Lycia region. The name is also known for Xanthian Obelisk, An bilingual Obelisk from Persian Achaemenid Empire era found in ruins of Xanthos city. The Xantia replaced the earlier Citroën BX (which straddled both small and large family car segments), and maintained the high level of popularity of that model, but brought the car more into the mainstream to compete harder with its rivals, such as the Ford Mondeo, Nissan Primera, Rover 600, Toyota Carina E and Opel Vectra/Vauxhall Cavalier. The car was built from November 1992 to October 2002 in France, totalling almost ten years, including the facelift in December 1997. It signalled that Citroën had learned from the reception given to the staid Citroën ZX, introduced two years earlier, and criticised by contemporary journalists for its lack of traditional Citroën flair, in engineering and design. Citroën addressed these concerns in the Xantia. The Xantia also used the traditional Citroën hydropneumatic suspension system, which was pioneered by the older DS. It was initially only available as a hatchback (notchback) (Berline), but an estate (station wagon) (Break) version, built by Heuliez, appeared in September 1995.