In 1989, the German Democratic Republic was about to celebrate 40 years of its regime and its leader wished to receive with great pomp French President Mitterrand. Wanting to impressive him with an exclusive French ride, Erich Honecker (a German politician who, as the General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party, and Head of State as Chairman of the East German State Council) commissioned the Swedish company Nilsson, who specialized in the design of “special” bodies, to build two lengthened Citroën CXs. Each were lengthened by 40cm and in the rear compartment folding seats installed the face the rear bench seat, – all at a total cost of 240,000 SEK (120.000 SEK per car).
Ironically, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the former Eastern Europe regimes caused the cancellation of the planned ceremonies. Both the CXs were never be used, and remained locked up for many years. The CX Nilsson on offer has only 17,500 original km and is in mint condition.
Offered with no reserve at the Artcurial auction during Retromobile on February 6, and estimated to fetch between 40.000 and 60.000 euro, no question it is certainly a rare opportunity to acquire one of the ultimate high-end Citroëns from that period.
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Update (Feb 9, 2015): This CX fetched an astonishing €95,360 at the auction!
I had not looked at this further until now, as I had sent a link out to some of my local friends, both of them had said ‘Nice’ €95K , 1989 CX Honecker. But then I looked closer and had questions. It’s got the flared arches on the front fenders, but look at the dashboard as well as the bumpers and do not be fooled. This tells me that it is at least a series 1, early or mid 1984/85 but certainly not an 1986, 1987 ,1988 or even that which it is stated to have been a 1989. But how did it have a 1989 stated in the first place?? It’s very odd….don’t you think? I would have liked to know the Orga number of this CX to verify the exact date that it was produced. Since it’s a CX 25, it’s only most likely going to show is it’s a 1984 and certainly not a 1989!
I have seen pics of Honecker in a CX, so either there were older versions that were used or the info in the article is inocorrect.