Even though the first prototypes of the car were already built in 1939 the Citroën 2CV wasn’t introduced to the public before October 1948.
From 1949 to 1990 3,868,631 limousines and 1,246,335 vans were built. The vans were never officially sold in the UK but a few right hand drive examples do exist. They were originally built for the Belgian post office whose postmen preferred them to left hand drive cars as they could step straight out onto the pavement.
Right from the beginning the 2CV was a commercial success and already a few months after it went on sale there was a two-year waiting list. Second-hand 2CVs were even more expensive then because the buyers didn’t have to wait to get one.
The low-priced car was designed to enable two peasants to drive about 220 lb (100 kg) of goods to the market across muddy unpaved roads and to use no more than 3 litres of petrol to travel 100 kilometres (62.14 miles). Besides that the 2CV should be able to drive across a field without breaking the eggs it was carrying in a basket. And it should be a fairly cheap car.
The early cars had a 375cc engine developing 9 bhp, from 1955 on the 2CV was supplied with a 425cc engine producing 12 bhp and from 1963 on even 16 bhp. The most powerful 2CV came on the market in 1986 and produced 29 bhp.
In the Citroën factory in Slough the glass fibre coupé ‘Bijou’ was built as an attempt to satisfy British buyers who found the 2CV too radical. The attempt failed and only 211 cars were produced.
Due to the low price and the fairly low tax, the 2CV soon became very popular with university students in Germany.
In 1981 the 2CV Charleston in dark red and black came on the market as a limited edition. It was the first 2CV with front disc brakes.
As the Charleston was a great success it became a full model in 1982 in different colour schemes.
In 1961 the four-wheel drive 2CV Sahara was first sold it was equipped with a second engine in the rear also having a separate fuel tank. The 2CV Sahara could be driven with either the front or the rear engine or with both engines and became very popular with off road enthusiasts. Only 694 cars were built.
Tags: 2CV Bijou, Cars, Citroen, Citroen 2CV
