A  very special car ended production for good.

To most people, the Citroen C6 was an oddball car which was just too eccentric to earn their attentions. But to petrolheads and car fans, the Citroen C6 was perhaps the most charismatic and beautiful saloon car made in decades.

In its seven-year life, Peugeot-Citroen built 20,000 of the swoopy four-doors. Some say that's the number Citroen wanted to sell each year, while in the UK dealers sold hundreds, not thousands.

Citroen finally pulled the plug on the UK market in May 2012, finally coming to the conclusion that adapting the car to right hand drive was just too expensive.

In its homeland, the C6 was well respected even if it didn't sell terribly well. But in the UK, the allure of supposedly more premium German brands was just too great, and the buying public spent their cash on 5 Series BMWs, Audi A6s and Mercedes E-Classes instead.

Consequently depreciation on C6s was horrendous (its three year residual value was a shocking 30 per cent at one time); today you can pick up one on the used market from around £8k for a 2006 example with 70k miles on the clock.

The reason why the C6 didn't appeal to UK buyers was not for its equipment levels. Top-drawer C6s came with every conceivable luxury as standard, but a near-£40k price tag did its best to persuade snobby customers to spend their money with the Germans.

The C6 wasn't alone in this respect. Citroen has been trying to tempt the UK motorist into French luxury cars for decades. But it seems like Peugeot and Renault before them, Citroen has finally thrown in the towel. Citroen points to the even more oddball DS5 as a replacement, but we could hardly agree. Styling – yes; confusing powertrains – no.

Don't think the C6 will be the last big Citroen, however. Peugeot-Citroen is considering putting a flagship DS9 into production, but its a virtually full-gone conclusion the UK won't be getting it. China is the market where Peugeot-Citroen is targeting growth, not here  Au revoir, mon ami - Citroen axes C6 after seven years