Did you laugh at or judge the Citroën 2CV back in the day? Well, with prices on the rise and iconic status certified, the Deux Chevaux is having the last laugh.
Why were we laughing at the Citroën 2CV?
There are few cars out there that stereotypically symbolise an entire nation on the whole. Britain has the Mini, Germany has the Beetle, America has the Ford Model-T and Italy has the Fiat 500. Cars that develop a cult following are almost always vehicles that helped the masses to move around, often for the first time. It comes as no surprise, then, that Frances little baby is the humble Duex Chevaux.
Upon the mere mention of Citroën, the 2CV will almost immediately spring to mind. Talk of France and it’ll be on the forefront of your mind. Mention a tin shed and most 2CV owners will assume you’re talking about their mode of transport. For decades, the Citroen 2CV was one of many laughing stocks nuancing the UK tarmac - compared to an upturned pram and dubbed the ‘tin snail’ - but now, the 2CV is enjoying a monumental surge in value.
The idiosyncratic French creation rolled out of showrooms in Britain for £4552 back in 1990, the equivalent to roughly £8764 today. Refurbished examples now cost upwards of £11k. That’s beyond the amount a much-more respected Jaguar XJ40 of the time exchanges hands for.
As with any insanely popular car, its regard stems from a result of crafty engineering and uncomplicated design. Unveiled to the public in 1948 as a follow up the Traction Avant, the little French creations remarkable 40-plus years in production saw five million examples - with variants including vans, Dyane hatchbacks, 4x4s, twin engined cruisers, pick-ups and convertibles. A truly versatile vehicle indeed, and yet, not everyone took the Duex Chavaux to their hearts.
Some found the interior scary - some had metal rimmed steering wheels while the seats held a simplistic deck-chair design which acted like a hammock - while the fabric roof and flip-up side windows may indeed have saved weight, but that made the utilitarian 2CV a tad frightening to those comfortable with their post-1980 automobile comforts. A speedometer and battery charge display is all that early models featured and later models didn’t really come with much more.
What seemed to really impress people however, were the mechanicals of the 2CV - long traveling suspension supplied anoutstanding ride and while the handling may have been a bit on the wallowy side, its grip on the road was exciting to say the least. Not that you could get to exciting speeds, even the very last examples churned out a paltry 29bhp. Early vehicles, working with 12bhp, could just about crack 45mph on a long, straight road while later ones could hit 60mph in the same length of time Stephen King takes to write a new book. 29.8 seconds to reach 60mph in 1990 proved how outdated the 2CV was, but those focusing on speed with a Duex Chavaux were missing the point.
The engine could run at high revs for over 50,000 miles before it needed some TLC and fuel economy reached an incredible 50mpg. According to 2CV experts, engines from the 1970s onwards could happily run on unleaded, too.
The original looks might not have been overly appreciated, with a ridged corrugated bonnet and a single headlamp like a wart on its face, but as slight tweaks to its exterior came about it won an army of appreciative followers. The beatniks seemed to love them, too.
However, motoring journalists and those with the ability to shower their opinion on us whether we like it or not - we are talking about you, the ex-Top Gear trio - turned many against the stalwart Citroën. It was true, engines could smoke badly, the chassis rotted, the body rusted, certain jobs were surprisingly difficult for such a simplistic design and clocking is still a problem.
Those jumping on the Clarkson-opinionated bandwagon will lampoon the 2CV for a ‘beardy’ look and bemoan that safety is non-existent, thieves can break in with a spoon and many owners find their keys open other 2CVs without so much as a hint of protest. Final models were built in Portugal, and apparently, held up so badly that they didn’t last very long before falling back into component parts. Then people attacked it for being slow, bouncy, old, feeble, unable to cope with side winds, unable to cope with life and unable to change with the times.
Yet, the car is having the last laugh with a fan base ever growing and prices skyrocketing above levels no one could have predicted fifteen years ago. If you want to grab hold of a decent Citroën Duex Chavuex these days, expect to pay more than ten times that of a decent condition BMW 5-Series or Jaguar XJ from the same era.
It appeared to be the car equivalent of Marmite - people loved it, or hated it. Whatever way you look at it though, its one of the immortals housed within the automotive hall of fame and if you fancy one brand new, yes - brand new, then you can contact www.frome2cv.co.uk and relish in a new, shiny cultural icon.
However, if we were to recommend one particular example for sale – it would be this one. This one rolled off the production line on July 27 1990, the last day of 2CV production. It's in absolutely immaculate original condition with only 1300km on the clock.