They also represented a move upmarket for the entire business, since during the early 1930s Citroën appeared for a time to lose interest in the smaller cars which had filled their dealerships during the 1920s.

The Traction endured a troubled and prolonged birth process, however, and was part of an ambitious investment programme which involved, also in 1934, the bankruptcy of the business, and its acquisition by Citroën's principal creditor.

In this troubled situation, availability of the larger Rosalies (although re-engined with a turned-around version of the new Traction's OHV four-cylinder engines) continued until 1938: it is only through the distorting prism of subsequent events that its reputation has been diminished when set against the technical brilliance of its successor.

[1] The smallest Rosalie, like the Citroën Type B of the first half of the 1920s, featured a four-cylinder motor of 1,452 cc, driving the rear wheels.

Commercially, however, it enjoyed greater success, possibly because of a wider range of available versions which included the lighter (and implicitly therefore faster) Rosalie 10 Légère.

Various body types and configurations were available, including a 15 Légère - effectively a 15CV with the shorter passenger cabin length of the 10CV - which was capable of a claimed 120 km/h (75 mph) top speed.

While "7" usually referred to tax horsepower in the French market, the Traction 7C's 1,628 cc engine was actually a 9 CV unit - it had had to be made larger and more powerful, in order to reach the design parameter of a 100 km/h (62 mph) top speed.