Citroën does not build many cars like the Citroën 2CV: a 4-door Sedan (automobile) / saloon / 5-door hatchback (3CV) / 2-door van / panel van / 2-door pickup truck / pick-up / 2-door coupé utility with gasoline engine, built from 1948 to 1990 in a decade split by war, when civilian production stopped and restarted. Its designer of record is André Lefèbvre / Flaminio Bertoni / Walter Becchia / Marcel Chinon. Production ran to 3,867,932 cars.
How it came about
The Citroën 2CV (French: deux chevaux, pronounced [dø ʃ(ə)vo], lit. "two horses", meaning "two taxable horsepower") is an economy car produced by the French company Citroën from 1948 to 1990. Introduced at the 1948 Paris Salon de l'Automobile, it has an air-cooled engine that is mounted in the front and drives the front wheels. Conceived by Citroën Vice-President Pierre Boulanger to help motorise the large number of farmers still using horses and carts in 1930s France, the 2CV has a combination of innovative engineering and straightforward, utilitarian bodywork.
The 2CV featured overall low cost of ownership, simplicity of maintenance, an easily serviced air-cooled engine (originally offering 6.6 kW, 9 hp), and minimal fuel consumption. In addition, it was designed to cross a freshly ploughed field with a basket full of eggs on the passenger's seat without breaking them, because of the great lack of paved roads in France at the time, with its long-travel suspension system that connects front and rear wheels, giving a very soft ride. Often called "an umbrella on wheels", the fixed-profile convertible bodywork featured a full-width, canvas, roll-back sunroof, which accommodated oversized loads, and until 1955 even stretched to cover the car's trunk, reaching almost down to the car's rear bumper. Michelin introduced and first commercialised the revolutionary new radial tyre design with the introduction of the 2CV. Between 1948 and 1990, more than 3.8 million 2CVs were produced, making it the world's first front-wheel drive car to become a million seller after Citroën's own ear
The hardware
Under the skin sits gasoline engine. Kerb weight is 600 kg. The gearbox is a 4-speed manual. The wheelbase is 2400 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Where it sits in Citroën's history is not in doubt: the Citroën Dyane / Citroën AX (indirectly) / Citroën Acadiane (for van models) followed it; it was built at Levallois-Perret. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Porsche 356, the Chevrolet Bel Air, the Toyota Land Cruiser. Its Citroën stablemates include the Citroën K and the Citroën Activa.
The money
There is no federal ownership record for the Citroën 2CV — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.