The Citroën AX is a supermini built by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1986 to 1998. The AX was launched at the 1986 Paris Motor Show to replace the Citroën Visa and Citroën LNA.
The AX started development since 1983, and was initially going to form the basis of a sister model from Talbot to replace the Samba; however, the falling popularity of the Talbot brand had led to Peugeot deciding to axe it by the time the Citroën AX was launched, and so the Talbot version never made it into production.
The car was available from its launch on 2 October 1986 as a three-door hatchback with 1.0, 1.1 and 1.4-litre TU-series belt driven OHC engines. Shortly afterwards, a five-door model and a 1.4 diesel were introduced; the latter was later replaced by a 1.5-litre unit. It had fully independent long travel suspension. It was initially backed by a memorable TV advertising campaign filmed in China, starring actress Janet Mas and an elderly gentleman, whose character was simply known as Mr Wong.
The first performance version was the limited-run AX Sport from 1987, with a 1.3 engine and twin carburettors producing 95 bhp (71 kW; 96 PS), wearing iconic white steel wheels (5,5" x 14") which resembled those on its brother, the Peugeot 205 Rallye. The AX Sport used Solex ADDHE 40 carburettors until 1990 and was then replaced with Weber DCOM 40s, just like the 205 Rallye 1,3. The AX Sport had a shorter inlet manifold than the 205 Rallye, to save room in the smaller engine compartment. Later on the sport was lightly revised, available in other colours and with optional GT wheels. Later, the AX 14GT, with a single-carburettor 85 bhp (63 kW; 86 PS) 1.4 engine also found in the Peugeot 205 XS, was introduced. From 1991, this model utilised fuel injection to coincide with the revamp of the entire range and to coincide with tougher 1992 EU emission regulations that introduced exhaust catalytic converters.
