what is it about citroens? (QUIZ)

vanny · Post by **vanny** » 14 Feb 2005, 23:08

Well almost a quiz!
I've been looking at loads of pictures of old (Pre CX) Citroens and well they all look totally totally different from anything st the time, and amazing in comparison to todays Euro boxes, and to me the Citroen Marque is the most unique and 'splendiferous' range of cars ever made.
And i got to thinking how to sum up my over whelming interest in a brand of car that always strived to push the boundaries of how a car should look. How to properly sum up just how unique every single one is (even failures), and capture that lust for more of them!
So i had a few thoughts, and just couldn't quite put my finger on it!
So this is the challenge! In few words as possible i want you to sum up just what it is that inspires you about Citroens. Maybe it's just because they go up and down or possibly because there cheap second hand maybe it's because there so spectacularly different. What ever the reason, in as few words as possible,
Sum up just what it is that inspires you about Citroens[/b]

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 14 Feb 2005, 23:10

alternativity without inferiority.

Post by **martyhopkirk** » 14 Feb 2005, 23:32

Because....

Post by **martyhopkirk** » 14 Feb 2005, 23:36

Actually - people may consider that a bit Zen.
So hows about....
Its cheap, cheerful and does what it says on the tin (most of the time)[^] and there is rarely a dull moment with a Citroen - plus you get to speak with like minded (read bonkers) folk on the Citroen Forum. Oh and it tows my caravan (see profile) far better than anything else I have tried with its Hdi engine and HP suspension set up. Parts are no more expensive than any other eurobox, the design is different (well Xantia excepted which was less than inspired[:0]) to anything else on the roads and you can probably still carry a tray of eggs accross a field without breaking the eggs (though the rear struts may well be bu**ered by the time your through). And so far its proved itself patient theft resistant in my job ( none of them like it[}:)]).
Now, I know Tom beats that hands down for succinctness, but then again how do you describe in less than a hundred words why you chose a Citroen over a similarly priced Mundaneo?????[?]

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 15 Feb 2005, 00:02

Citroen have always dared to be different and Imaginative, from single spoke steering wheels to innovative switchgear on to oleo systems, they seem to look forward rather than at the rest of the tin box market, eccentric maybe but ahead of their time certainly, perhaps it is being ahead of their time that has led lots of us to persist in running these vehicles when lesser cars would be consigned to the scrapheap, a forum like this one is a means of us sad lonely types to communicate with fellow propellorheads;)
Stewart

Dave Bamber · Post by **Dave Bamber** » 15 Feb 2005, 00:56

Eccentric. Rarely a dull moment. Different. Dare I say, with my red BX.........Sexy[:0]

Post by **Jon** » 15 Feb 2005, 01:08

I guess the thing about Citroens is that once you get right into them, its life changing. I've been affected for 20 years now, and the problem took root in about 1981 when my Mum had a 2cv.
I'm sure that if I'd have owned a selection of mundane cars, I wouldn't have met Mrs W (we met when I sold her a 2cv), I wouldn't know Alans, Dave Bamber, Tom and the rest of you. It is a social thing for me. I still have friends that I met was I was 17 when I attended the infamous "Bucks & Berks" winter 2cv camp when I first met Louis Barbour, Pete Sparrow and the like.
Oh, and I quite like owning and driving the cars as well! And occasionally mending them.

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 15 Feb 2005, 01:37

Jon has a point. I've been a member of a few car clubs (And only thrown out of one!) It is the shared enthusiasm of the other people who drive them. The Citroen is for car people.
Those who cheerfully admit that they know nothing about cars do not buy them - QED.

bikeboyz · Post by **bikeboyz** » 15 Feb 2005, 01:46

I have just watched a film about Bournemouth's old tram and trolly bus network which used to exist. In one shot in the archive film on the very last day of operation, the trolly busses are filmed at the Pier. The cars around are all like Austin 1300, Morris Minor, Ford Anglia, all a bit boring. Then gliding through, a Citroen DS I just went wow! It stood out and looked amazing.
I cant claim this phrase but "Fashion fades by style remains", as its a slogan from Retromobile, but sums it up well.

dillosk8ter · Post by **dillosk8ter** » 15 Feb 2005, 02:17

I first got really into Citroen's when my uncle got a silver turbo diesel BX estate as a company car when I was a kid. When I was little (1980's) I thought that any car that was aerodynamic/streamlined looking and had no visible grille was futuristic....the BX was a really futurstic design for me (at the time) being aerodynamic, grille less and having half covered rear wheels. Still remeber being parked behind uncle's BX in our Renault 18 and my dad saying "watch this" as my uncle started BX and it levetated to drive height....after that every time we saw my uncle and went out I traveled in the floating car!!!

Oscar Too · Post by **Oscar Too** » 15 Feb 2005, 15:24

I posted elsewhere that for me, it started in 86 when my Dad bought a CX Safari to transport the family chattels to Spain. I was fascinated by the levitation, the dash design, the cachet of the car. I had never been interested in cars before, and wasn't terribly interested after.
Then I saw a DS in a French film and remember some sort of glandular stirring. I didn't then know it was a DS or a Citroën. I was still cycling everywhere and a strong campaigner for fewer cars in London. Several years later I passed my driving test (aged 32), went to a used car lot and fell for a BX. I bought one privately from another Citroën nut.
I didn't understand what went on under the bonnet (in fact the depths of my ignorance frightened me when I opened the bonnet). I never did more than change a wheel on that car. Got rid of it when times were hard, then bought a ZX. The ZX never worked for me - it was nippy, economical and reliable, but it wasn't a real Cit. So, as most people here know, I sold the ZX, bought an MoT failure BX and am bringing it back to life. I enjoy the engineering nerve of the Citroën designers at their best: taking an aviation Hydraulic system and sticking it in a car! Designing a car that is instantly and always distinctive, as Bikeboyz shows above.
To sum up what the marque means to me:
Cachet
Intelligence
Technology
Reminiscence
Opportunity
Engineering
Nice……….

406 V6 · Post by **406 V6** » 15 Feb 2005, 18:09

If it's not hydraulic, or has a double chevron on the bonnet, it stinks!
Unresumably:
It's the fascination about brilliant cars never thought out before, their nuances, the beauty and the fact they do all the other cars didn't/don't 50 years ago.
Also talking with like minded, passionate folks - this is what's most important (i never chatted so much with someone, until i met a guy who loved and knew HP Citroëns). That's love for the "<<"!
Francisco

yangreen · Post by **yangreen** » 15 Feb 2005, 22:46

Beautiful to behold but beautifully engineered too. The 2cv would have made Brunel himself go "wow" and a DS would surely have left the great man speechless. 2cv's are laughed at for being crap despite the people who claim this knowing sod all about them. These are people who choose an Audi A3 when a Skoda Octavia is the same bloody car.
Hydraulic Citroen's also share the 2cv's "scary" mechanics. "Normal" people run a mile because it doesn't look like anything that came out of a Ford or Vauxhall factory. Yet despite this, the 2cv is soooo easy to work on! Ok, so maybe a clutch change in a DS is a little fiddly but I'd still have one!

DLM · Post by **DLM** » 16 Feb 2005, 01:33

Cars different enough in looks and mechanics to make the majority of the British public run a mile in the other direction - always a good pointer.
Cars which give you feedback - but not in the sense that motoring journalists use the word.
Cars that remind you of two oft-forgotten automotive design goals -
(1) Transporting driver AND passengers comfortably and pleasurably.
(2) Transporting their goods and chattels without compromising comfort or safety.
I could go on.....

DLM · Post by **DLM** » 16 Feb 2005, 01:37

....but I think Tom said it very well. TO put it another way Like the original mini: fun, classy, but classless.