Citroen cars for sale

Overview

Citroën is the carmaker that has been consistently strangest and most inventive, and it has the engineering record to justify it. Front-wheel drive in a mass-produced unitary-bodied car, self-levelling hydropneumatic suspension, aerodynamics taken seriously decades before anyone else — Citroën did all of it first and then, characteristically, made the result look like nothing else on the road.

History

André Citroën founded the company on 4 June 1919. The 1934 Traction Avant mass-produced three revolutionary things at once: a unitary body with no separate frame, four-wheel independent suspension and front-wheel drive. It also bankrupted the company, and Michelin became the principal shareholder.

The 2CV of 1948 motorised rural France and ran to nine million units through 1990. The DS of 1955 introduced hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension and disc brakes and placed third in the Car of the Century vote. The SM, GS and CX carried the same hydraulic system across more than nine million cars. Peugeot acquired 89.95 per cent on 9 April 1976, creating PSA; Citroën is now part of Stellantis.

In Australia

Citroën has an Australian claim most people do not know: a 1923 Citroën 5CV was the first car driven around Australia, completing the circuit in 1925. It is preserved at the National Museum of Australia.

Buying a used Citroen

Depreciation is heavy and the dealer network is small, which is the trade. A used C4 or C5 Aircross is a lot of comfortable car for the money if you have a good independent French-car specialist nearby — find one before you buy.

On any hydropneumatic classic (DS, CX, XM, C5), the suspension is the whole car: have it inspected by someone who genuinely knows the system, and budget for spheres and fluid as scheduled maintenance rather than repair.