Citroen

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Oddly enough, I happened to see a 2CV just yesterday. These are very uncommon in the states and it caught my attention because it looks exactly like a car Inspector Clousseau drives in the Pink Panther cartoons.
 
I had a Citroën Xantia as a company car many years ago. It was fairly conventional as Citroëns go, but it had hydro-pneumatic height-adjustable suspension (to quote the sign above). That was quite something - it had a really good ride, and when I was bored in a traffic jam I would gently adjust the ride height to rise imperiously above my fellow motorists or to sink slowly in the west.

The other thing I remember about that car was that there was a problem with the handbrake, which meant the car could roll away if you didn't leave it parked in gear. It would sometimes do that while idling too, particularly when the gas suspension decided to level itself. Citroën recalled the vehicle, and do you know what they did to it? They snipped off the first few teeth of the handbrake ratchet, which meant you needed to be Arnold Schwarzenegger to pull up the lever with enough force for it to latch. A crude fix, but it didn't roll away again after that.

-R
 
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My parents had a series of Citroens from 2CVs via Visa / GSA and BX. I even owned an Ami 6 at some point (a 2CV with a weirder, uglier body).

As cool as the hydro pneumatic cars were, I still think the 2CV are the coolest Citroens ever.
 
My parents had a series of Citroens from 2CVs via Visa / GSA and BX. I even owned an Ami 6 at some point (a 2CV with a weirder, uglier body).

As cool as the hydro pneumatic cars were, I still think the 2CV are the coolest Citroens ever.

I had a BX as a company car in the 1990s. It took me a week to find the radio which was hidden under a flap on the centre console (I managed to convince myself that my employer was too tight to pay for a radio).

Best thing about the suspension was that if you raised it to the wheel change setting you could wade through 8 inches of water or get yourself out of an overnight snowfall without 'grounding' the car. A bit bouncy on that setting though.
 
I very nearly bought a Citroen Dyane in the early 1970's.
However, a friend of mine was a subscriber to 'Which' magazine and they showed me one article.
After testing the car, it said don't be fooled by that folding sunroof.
When rolled back , basically it left an angled piece of steel above the windscreen and that if you did an emergency stop without wearing a seatbelt, you were likely to be decapitated.
A horizontal guillotine, as it were.

I opted for a VW beetle.
 
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