Most of you haven’t heard of Citroen and unless if you’ve vacationed in Europe, like I have, you’ve probably never seen one. But, for just under a century, it has provided motorists with cutting edge innovation and lovable quirks.
Andre Citroen was a successful businessman. In 1900, while on a vacation to his native homeland of Poland, he came a cross a man working on a type of gears with a fishbone structure. They were quieter and smoother than traditional helical gears and Citroen bought the patent. The pattern on the side of the gears would be the inspiration for the Citroen logo.
In 1908, Citroen became chairman of the Mors auto company and was very successful in that capacity. When World War I broke out, he helped direct armaments production. After the war ended, he first bought into an attempt to sell steam powered automobiles, but by this point internal combustion was clearly superior and the business failed. In 1919, Andre founded the car company bearing his own name.
On July 7, 1919, the first Citroen automobile, a 10hp Type A was sold. For its final drive, it used the aforementioned double helical gears. His new business would quickly turn into a success. So much so that in 1925, he could afford to buy out his old employer Mors.
Already, Citroen was showing its quirkiness. In 1925, Andre had the “Citroen” name plastered on the side of the Eiffel tower and illuminated. Until it was taken down in 1934, it was the world’s largest billboard.
To promote the Kegresse half track system, where the rear wheels on vehicles were removed to make way for caterpillar tracks, expeditions in remote parts of the world were conducted.
The company would also show its innovation. Through a partnership with American engineer Edward G Budd, they introduced the first ever steel bodied car in Europe, the B10.
In the 1930s, Citroen’s desire to push the envelope would nearly ruin them. The Traction Avant (literally “front drive”) was an absolute revolution in design. It had front wheel drive, independent suspension, and a unibody construction with no running boards. It was very lightweight, allowing it to go 62 mph and get 24 mpg. Its low slung height of 60 inches made it very distinctive in that era. American cars would not be that low until the 1950s!
Sadly, this was the Great Depression, and while Western Europe (with the exception of Germany) was much less impacted by that than the United States, it still put a huge dent in car sales. And with the enormous costs of developing the Traction Avant, Citroen was forced into bankruptcy in 1934. Michelin would however bail them out. Andre Citroen died of stomach cancer in 1935. This meant he could not see his wonderful front driver become a huge success and save his company.
Pierre Boulanger took over after Andre’s death. He wanted to design a new spartan economy car. The requirements were stringent. Most famously, it would have to be able transport a basket of eggs across a plowed field without any of the eggs breaking. On August 28, 1939, the car, to be dubbed 2CV (Indicating the tax horsepower bracket) was approved for sale and was to be unveiled that October at the Paris Auto Show. But I think you know what happened next.
4 days later, World War 2 started. And 10 months after that, France surrendered to Germany. The 2CV prototypes were put in hiding and the factories were seized by the Nazis. Thankfully, unlike many French industrialists, including competitor Louis Renault, Boulanger did not collaborate. He had his employees sabotage the trucks they built by putting the notches on the oil dipsticks in the wrong place, causing engine damage. His refusal to cooperate would earn him a place on a Gestapo list of Frenchmen to be arrested in the event of an allied invasion.
When the war ended, the new government drew up plans to reorganize and rationalize the auto industry under the “Pons Plan”. Citroen was to focus on the upper echelons of the market while Peugeot and the now nationalized Renault were given the lower levels. But Citroen would break the plan in 1949 when the 2CV finally arrived. It was lowlier than anything else offered. It’s not fair to say the 2CV was the French Beetle. The Bug came with a steel roof and could easily hit 60 mph. The 2CV had a canvas roof and its air cooled 9 hp (tax horsepower and actual horsepower were very different by this point) 2 cylinder engine could only manage 40 mph. It didn’t even have electric wipers. But in this time of austerity, the 2CV provided basic transportation for a nation that needed it bad.
By 1955, the Traction Avant was a 21 year old design, and while it was still more advanced than most cars of the day, it looked like a 1930s relic. So, Citroen brought out a new luxury sedan, and once again would be way ahead of its time. The DS (which in its French pronunciation “day-ess” sounds just like godess) was frighteningly revolutionary. It had a wind cheating aerodynamic body and front disc brakes, the first car ever to use them. After a redesign in 1967, the car gained the ability to swivel its headlights with the steering wheel.
But its most awesome feature was its hydraulics. It had hydraulic brakes, steering, and clutch, all very advanced, but it even had hydraulic suspension. The hydropneumatic suspension had variable height adjustment and could keep the body level even on the roughest roads. That suspension system would save the life of Charles De Gaulle. In 1962, an assassin, bitter about the President’s decision to recognize Algeria’s independence, fired a machine gun at his DS. But because of the suspension system, the car could get away on 2 flat tires.
As the 50s went on, Citroen was facing a more and more apparent problem. They were selling the 2CV, a car that didn’t even have roll down windows (they folded up) and the DS, a car which had adjustable height suspension. Citroen was missing out on the French middle class’ endless appetite for cars. In the 60s, they made some half hearted attempts to close this price gap. The Ami and Dyane were less spartan variants of the 2CV and the ID was introduced as a less expensive version of the DS with some of its gadgets removed. But still, there was a gaping hole in their lineup, and Citroen could not just watch helplessly as buyers gobbled up Renault 8s and Peugeot 204s.
That hole would be filled with the arrival of the GS in 1970. It brought hydropneumatic suspension, 4 wheel disc brakes, and very aerodynamic styling to the small car field. And it was a huge hit.
You could say that 1970 was the peak for Citroen weirdness, because in that same year, the totally insane SM arrived. Using help from Maserati, which Citroen bought in 1968, this French automaker came out with a Grand Tourer. It was essentially a DS coupe (including the crazy headlights and suspension and so on) with a large (by French standards) V6 engine. This made it into a genuinely fast car by the standards of the day. And because it was front wheel drive, this could’ve made for tremondous torque steer. But Citroen managed to innovate its way out of that problem. They produced the first ever self centering variable assistance power steering system. This kept torque steer to a minimum.
In 1974, Citroen replaced the DS with the CX. The CX was not very technologically advanced, it even lost the steerable headlights. Also that suspension system’s variable heights put it in violation of new US bumper height regulations. There was no way to remove it cheaply, so Citroen opted to pull out of the US market. Citroen, sadly, would be a victim of the rotary engine craze. The CX was designed around the Wankel with a very small engine compartment. Only one Citroen would ever get the rotary, a powerful version of the GS. The costs associated with the CX and the rotary project plus the energy crisis forced Citroen into bankruptcy in 1974, exactly 40 years after the last time. In May 1975, they were bought by Peugeot.
The new company, PSA, brought Citroen closer to the mainstream. The whacky Ami was replaced by the Visa. It was very much like every other European subcompact. In 1978, PSA bought Chrysler’s unprofitable European operations and as the 80s rolled around, the whole company was struggling financially.
In 1981, the 2CV got a new claim to fame when it was used by James Bond in For Your Eyes Only. The car they used had a larger engine from the GS fitted. In what was pretty blatant product placement, the bad guys were driving Peugeot 504s, made by the same company.
In 1983, the Peugeot 205 came around. It was good looking and very fun to drive, especially in GTI form. It sold by the boatload and saved PSA and therefore Citroen.
In 1990 came the end of an era. The last of the famous 2CVs rolled off the assembly line in Portugal. In total, nearly 4 million of the “tin snails” were produced.
The 1990s were a low point for Citroen weirdness. They were now stamping out bland Euroboxes. When the XM, which replaced the CX in 1989, was discontinued in 2000, it looked like Citroen was headed for being just another car company.
But then, at some point in the early 2000s, the Citroen engineers found the place where PSA managers hid the bongs. With new quirky shapes. they were once again doing something different. They even added features such as steering wheels where the center didn’t move while the rim does.
Then in 2005, Citroen came full circle and brought back a quirky luxury sedan in the form of the C6. But it was not to be however. Europe’s white collar executives stuck to their BMW 5 Series and the C6 was discontinued in 2012.
But still that weirdness lives in their other cars. And hopefully, they and their awesome quirks will last another century.