Tagged With "Citroen 2CV"

Belongs in the pantheon of true "people's cars" along with the Citroen 2CV and (dare I say it?) the ugly duckling of the lot...the Trabi, which was advanced over its peers in a number of ways. Ironic, isn't it, to think the original Fiat 300s like this one were banished for smoking, and now we find that VW's "clean diesel" was smoking a pack a day on the road!

I wonder if this was what the Beach Boys had in mind with their song, " Little Deux Coupe ?" Don't think so, but I understand the fondness for a car. Mine was the 1974 Dodge Charger SE.... never owned it,, but my brother did and it was a lot of fun to ride in. And I think Winnie would have relished the moment as much as you...

I, too, have a fondness for the 2CV, along with the MG T series. I used to hear the story that you could go into a hardware store in France, and come back with parts, a wrench to install them, and change from a 10-franc note... RBCiao, a Gumbo member, has even found a service in Paris that gives tours of the city in a Deux Cheveaux! He posted a picture of himself on the tour a few months ago.

My view: the Trabant was not a good car, but it was a great car. Huh? Well, it didn't have a powerful engine, its oil/gas mixture (like your lawnmower) was noisy and spewed fumes, etc. But, it also showcased a lot of engineering ingenuity and "get by" spirit of its makers. The fiberglass body was a first. The use of recycled materials was decades ahead of the rest of the world. Construction and repairs were simple, perhaps matched only by the Citroen 2CV. And you could never have a failed...

The 2CV is already on my reservation list for next summer's trip (might be my birthday present!). I love the routing logic. JFK is my home so I can't avoid it, but I'm always searching for ways to avoid Heathrow. Last summer that led to 5 days in Barcelona on the way home from Portugal, and next summer we're having Basel as an add-on so we can fly from Zurich instead of through London. PS...here's a 2CV parked outside a restaurant along the Adige, in Verona last summer.

Old French "Citroen" cars are becoming a collectors item. Not sure if they are ugly pretty or pretty ugly !! This in the UK:

And virtually indestructible too. You had to drive the "deux chevaux" pretty hard to achieve a decent speed, but it achieved it well ! Its popularity peaked in the 60's when it was it was sold at half the price of a VW Beetle. Assembled in 12 countries across the world to meet demand. It once had a 5 year waiting list for new cars and used models were more expensive than new !

Wanted a used 2CV when I lived in Avignon, but another buyer got to it first. One of my favorites. Thanks for posting.

Very nice! (including the 2CV...). I was in your neighborhood last summer—it's only a 10-minute walk over the hill to "our neighborhood" in Clignancourt, and we passed nearby both on our way to Broceliande, a really nice Breton creperie at 15, rue des Trois Freres, and on our way to visit Montmartre Cemetery. Our impression was that the retail streets were significantly more gentrified than some of the other parts, which is true in Clignancourt area as well. PS...Montmartre Cemetery will be...

No Deloreans here, but PHeymont spotted quite a fleet of iconic small cars of the past in a Naples shop window.

In Vancouver, PHeymont spotted this pristine charmer, from the last years of 2CV production.

This past August we decided to visit Paris for the first time after traveling in Europe for thirty-three years. However, the primary reason to see Paris had more to do with Delta Airlines than the city, itself. Delta offers direct flights from...

The picture of the 2CV in use giving tours of Paris got me thinking. Last summer in Portugal, I spotted the beauty below, a BMW Isetta, in a maintenance area for the transit system in Vila Nova da Gaia, across the river from Porto. Unfortunately,...

This veteran Citroen truck, probably early 1950s, sits daily on a small triangle off the Champs Elysees, near the Grand Palais, selling organic fruit ices. We've seen a few other older trucks here this week as well, but none so prominent as this.

The cult favorite of many (I'm one), the Citroen 2CV was a true "people's car," designed to bring mobility to rural families. Designed before World War II, and with its heyday after, millions were sold. Legend has it you could fix any problem with a...

Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, in the Luberon area of Provence, is a small village with a big distinction. Its name comes from the spring that is the source of the Sorgue River, and that spring is the largest in France, fifth-largest in the world, pushing out...

Take a walk around PortMoresby's English home-for-a-week in Gloucestershire, Hidcote Boyce.

PHeymont spotted this especially fine specimen of a favorite car at a church in Basel, Switzerland.

  On my first sojourn in Paris I arrived New Years Day and stayed until June.  I had a friend, Winnie, with whom I worked, who had a car like this one, a Citroen 2CV called a Deux Chevaux, except it was a wreck as only a car that’s...

Gary, that pic is the "new" 500 (Cinquecento), now appearing in greater numbers in the U.S. as well, since Chrysler and Fiat are now one. But DrF's is the old one, from the 50s-70s, such as this one. I believe the last year was 1973; this is a 1967 model. Note the passenger-size to car-size ratio! This is part of a whole series of "people's cars" of the postwar generation. Others include the VW Beetle, the Citroen 2CV, the original Mini and a few more. It's been interesting to see the...

DrFumblefinger shares photo of a Citroen 2CV he spoted while strolling through Verona, near the Ponte di Pietra.

The Museum of Modern Art considers cars as art again, this time with a few cautions about their role in society.

When PHeymont made this image of a street below Sacre Coeur in Paris, he didn't notice how small it made the car appear.

PHeymont shares a selection of the most whimsical, unusual and just plain fun cars at Tacoma's huge auto museum.

At the German Technical Museum in Berlin, it's as much about the history of cars as it is about the cars themselves.

A visit to the 'Transport Center' of Munich's Deutschesmuseum gave PHeymont a history lesson on Europe's postwar 'motorization'