Automobiles Citroën — a brief history

If you live in the U.S., where there are no Citroën dealerships and almost no Citroën cars on the road, you may think that the name Citroën applies mainly or exclusively to the famous old car called the 2CV or Deux Chevaux. You know, the car that looks like an old VW Beetle that might have been put together by somebody on an LSD trip.

I know that the name Citroën looks a lot like the French word citron, meaning "lemon." That's unfortunate, isn't it?

One of Citroën's first cars was this model A.

The Citroën car company was founded in 1919 by a French engineer (polytechnicien) named André Citroën. His factory was in Paris, on the Seine at the quai de Javel in the 15th arrondissement. Nowadays, that name has been changed to name the quai after him, along with a big park where the manufacturing facility used to stand. By 1920, Citroën was making more than 12,000 cars a year.

Célestine is one of Susan and Simon's Citroën Traction touring cars

In the 1930s Citroën designed and manufactured the revolutionary Traction Avant automobile. That's the one that came in any color you wanted as long as it was black, and it might be associated in your mind with 1930s-era gangsters. Traction Avant means "front-wheel drive." The Traction saved Citroën from bankruptcy. Our friends Susan and Simon of the Days on the Claise blog have two 1950s-vintage Tractions that they use to ferry tourists around on custom tours of the Loire Valley.

The legendary 2CV or Deux Chevaux

The Citroën 2CV was manufactured from 1948 until 1990. It was a "people's car" — inexpensive and sturdy, but basic. The name "two horses" didn't mean the car had just a two-horsepower engine, as some people might believe. The "horse" is a tax term in France. The Citroën C4 that I am buying has a 5CV engine, for example. It's real horsepower rating is 90.

A Citroën DS that I photographed in Alençon in 2001

The other model that Citroën was famous for was the DS, which was more of a luxury car — DS is partly a play on words because in French déesse means "goddess" — that the company manufactured from 1955 until 1975. It's the car with the famous hydraulic or hydropneumatique suspension. When you started the engine, the back end of the vehicle would rise up to the driving postion, and when you turned it off it would settle back down to its crouching position. The car's ride, as I remember it, was like that of a boat floating on gentle swells, and could almost make you seasick until you got used to it.

Today's little Citroën C3 is a "wink" at the old 2CV in looks.

In 1935, when André Citroën died, the company was taken over by the French tire manufacturer Michelin. In the 1970s, during the great oil crisis, Michelin tried to sell Citroën to Italy's Fiat, but the French government vetoed that move. Finally, in 1975, Citroën was taken over by Peugeot, and there it remains today. Citroën and Peugeot cars share many components and platforms, but the two brands still exist.

These days, Citroën has more than 13,000 employees and produces a full range of passenger and light utility vehicles. The C series has been successful — I'm acquiring a C4 — and the new DS series, while very different from the original DS cars, seems to be successful as well. The two brands Citroën and Peugeot combined produce nearly three million vehicles a year. None are sold in the U.S., however.