Start with what the Citroën Ami 6 is: a 4-door notchback saloon (Ami 6) / 4-door fastback saloon (Ami 8) / 5-door estate / 2-door van with 602 , built from 1961 to 1978, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Flaminio Bertoni. 1,840,396 were built.
Where it came from
The Citroën Ami is an economy car which was manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1961 to 1978 over two generations, called the Ami 6 and the Ami 8. A family car, the Ami is front-wheel drive and was made in multiple body styles, including saloon car and estate car variants.
The later Ami 8 fastback saloon featured a steeply raked rear window, in contrast to the earlier reverse-raked rear window of the Ami 6 notchback. Over 1,840,396 units were manufactured over the entire production run. The Ami and Citroën Dyane were replaced by the Citroën Visa and Citroën Axel.
Under the skin
The engine is 602 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 620 kg. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2400 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the Citroën line-up the Citroën Ami 6 has a clear place: it handed the line to the Citroën Axel / Citroën Visa; the factory was Rennes. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Jaguar E-Type, the Volvo P1800, the Alfa Romeo Giulia. Nearby in the Citroën catalogue sit the Citroën K and the Citroën 2CV.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Citroën Ami 6 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.
Citroën1919
Citroën Ami