Citroen history

[Vic Evans]

Just found this on youtube comments re the DS reliabilty & found it interesting.
SOME THINGS ABOUT CITROËN YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW
I grew up amongst a succession of DS sedans and recall my dad having no problems with reliability. The bodies tended to rust out very quickly, however. The manufacturer provided inlets for oil-spraying nozzles around the car, so in winter the most rust-prone areas could be protected, but nobody bothered to use them. (With equal alacrity, they designed a crank starter into the engine. On a freezing Canadian morning, faced with a dead battery, rather than call AAA my father retrieved the jack handle from the trunk and used it to crank start the engine like a Model T Ford.)

The DS’s velvety suspension was supplemented with the entire interior of the car, except the headliner, covered by a two-inch thick layer of foam rubber. Even the floor mats were made from a durable fabric that encapsulated this very thick layer of foam. The seats too were largely filled with foam rubber. All that foam, combined with the soft-riding oleo-pneumatic suspension, gave the occupant the sensation of, as they say, riding on a cloud.

On a curvy road you’d think a car this softly suspended would wallow and induce road-sickness, or at least be cumbersome to manage. But the suspension valving incorporated anti-roll, anti-dive, and anti-squat properties, meaning the car cornered flat and handled exceptionally well. Along with augmenting the car’s ride smoothness, all that foam rubber insulated the occupants from road and wind noise, and in our Canadian winters seemed to make the car cozier. (Canadian DS models came equipped with a high-capacity heating and ventilation system.)

Put all the above together and you have a driving experience that is utterly unique. Riding in a DS, at least for a kid, was like being transported in some futuristic Jules Verne time-bending device that spoiled me for anything in the years to come, including far more expensive cars.

The company ran out of money (not for the first time) during the design phase of the DS series, and could not build the flat-six engine intended for this car. Instead they had to make do with the previous model’s inline four-cylinder. Though it made under 100 hp in its original form, thanks to the car’s light weight and aerodynamic design, it gave 30 miles to the gallon at 70 mph, and was capable of a top speed exceeding 110 mph.

André Citroën, the founder of the company, was ahead of his time in the sense that he could spot a concept or product that was superior but never properly implemented. Rather than merely take note, Citroën capitalized on such novelties as the double-helix gear set, buying the patent then licensing its use and making his first fortune. A graduate of France’s famed Ecole Polytechnique, Citroën was able to adapt Henry Ford’s mass production concept to the production of munitions during WW1, and later to car manufacturing, eventually starting his own company.

Unlike Henry Ford, who brutally suppressed his employees’ attempt to build a union, Citroën was an enlightened magnate. He paid his workers well and provided maternity leave and other benefits that were generations ahead of their time. In the part of Paris where his factory once stood there is a small park named after him.

Under Citroën’s leadership, in the early 1930s the company produced the Traction Avant model, in its way as revolutionary as the DS21 in several ways: His factory in Paris was a model of efficient production that was emulated by all his European competitors. The Traction Avant model’s novel front wheel drive architecture gave it superior handling and comfort, to the point it was the get-away car of choice by French bank robbers. Later, when Paris was occupied by the Nazis, the Gestapo commandeered every Traction Avant they could find due to its superior speed and other qualities.

A bon vivant sans pareil, Citroën lived lavishly even by the standards of an industrialist. He was a gourmand and a womanizer, but what finally brought him down was his addiction to gambling. When the Depression struck in 1929, his company’s profits having been lost at the roulette table, Citroën eventually was forced to transfer ownership to Michelin. (Development cost of the Traction Avant also burdened the company beyond its means.)

A man of good taste to the end — he was to die in 1935 of stomach cancer — Citroën immortalized himself and his brand by funding the lighting of the Eiffel Tower. His combined engineering and aesthetic standards put him in the elite of auto makers — Ferrari, Maserati, Bugatti, Henry Royce, William Lyons who founded Jaguar, and a very few more — in that his product transcended its original purpose, as a transportation device, by providing its occupants with a sense of luxury and futuristic design that to this day impresses even those among us who are not car lovers.

The original post posed the question of whether the DS series was reliable, and the answer is a qualified yes. The car was well built and reliable, but it was not built to last. In their quest for efficient manufacturing and superior fuel economy, the car’s designers incorporated hard plastics throughout the interior. They do not age well and were disappointing even when the car was new. The switchgear also was mediocre. A look under the aluminum hood reveals a gigantic engine bay, crammed full of power plant, the spare tire, and what seem to be miles of high-pressure hydraulic lines. It is this car’s rubber and plastic components, because of their use in every part of the car’s functioning, that make owning this car in modern times contingent on eventually replacing everything that flexes.

After Citroën pulled out of America in the mid-1970s (for them, the 5-mph bumper requirement was the last straw), you could buy a DS for next to nothing. As late as the 1980s and maybe later there was an American source of spare parts. Its founder bought up Citroën parts worldwide and sold them at reasonable prices.

But that was 40 years ago. Now, I suspect, any DS still running has been restored — not by a speculator who seeks to profit from it, but by a genuine enthusiast. They will be discerning about what lucky person is the next owner of their DS.
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[NewcastleFalcon]

If there are still loads of Citroen DS on the roads of Brittany Vic, get the camera out and start filling your thread with them

Citroen DS are a very rare sight on the roads of the UK. You have the pristine ones which never move, and a crop of others which trundle a few miles a year, but very few that get regular use. Rare to spot one outside of the showfield on the road.

This spot by me was my most recent back in May 2023.

Prior to that
December 2021

Neil

[Vic Evans]

If there are still loads of Citroen DS on the roads of Brittany Vic, get the camera out and start filling your thread with them

Citroen DS are a very rare sight on the roads of the UK. You have the pristine ones which never move, and a crop of others which trundle a few miles a year, but very few that get regular use. Rare to spot one outside of the showfield on the road.

Neil

Still see a few with a regular most times I'm in Concarneau where there's a DS garage. I'll try to get a piccy if I'm not driving.
Fanch, an ex. scrappy chappy up the road from us had a pristine Traction which had been completely restored & was very rarely driven. The car passed to his son on his demise.
I offered to buy the car from son but he was adamant he wasn't going to sell his dad's car.
Sonny Jacques used to drive it like a loony & a few months later the d'head rolled it badly. It now forlornly resides in his garage where it'll never get repaired.