Francophilia is a common, if perhaps unexpected thing in these islands. Agincourt, Norman invasions, and centuries of general and endemic antipathy between France and Britain hasn’t diminished the reality that we have a grudging admiration for many things French.
“We started specialising in French cars because basically because we had Citroens. People at the time were scared of them,. “ Tony Williams tell me. Tony is co-proprietor of Paris Retro, a garage in the Somerset town of Temple Cloud specialising in all things French (as well as being dab-hands at anything on four, or two wheels for that matter).
“We can do anything from full restorations from the ground up of classic DS models, all the way through to simple day-to-day maintenance of everyday cars.”
The Paris Retro yard is litterred with mouthwatering examples of Citroen’s groundbreaking ‘goddess’ in various states of order.
“We have had a particularly great number of DS lately. The thing about them is that they are relatively simple to work on, despite people being afraid of the hydraulics.”
The prevelance of air suspension and electronic trickery is one of the the things about French cars that have made many British engineers turn sneerily up at the French fondness for super-mechanical jiggery pokery amongst French cars. But the fear is pretty much unjustified.
“French cars are built along the same principles as any other vehicle, “ he tells me, “ and Hydraulics are just a line. And what’s more, even though the design of the DS is around fifty years old, it remains a beautiful, practical and relatively fuel-efficient car.”
According to the expert, many of the examples of DS he has seen lately continue to reach around 30 MPG if they are treated right.
“And there’s one thing that remains true about Citroens is that they are a great ride.”
Ive been driving a DS everyday for the last six years. Its a design classic and I quite agree it is the most comfortable car ive ever owned. Some people dont like the soft ride particularly on corners, but if you reallywant to take them on two wheels get a bike!
I bought a DS because I had admired them for so many reasons for such a long time! Now that I have one, I have sort of recovered from the initial fear and worry of being the owner, and being responsible for the Goddess, despite being an average sort of mechanic, and not being in the position of having much cash to throw at it. Like Mike above, I use the DS as basically an everyday car because it is much more reliable than my ‘other car’, a relatively modern Peugeot. I love the super braking system, the good steering, the sheer practicality of the car, and yes, the pace of the car in modern traffic, (DS21 EFi), which coupled to the swift semi-auto gearbox makes progress very satisfactory! Regarding cornering, chuck it in as fast as you like, it tends to hang on nicely!
I think the DS, as a basic concept, could hold its own right now. Bring back the Goddess, Citroen! And don’t fill it will electrical tomfoolery!
Spot on John F, spot on: I don’t need gizmos to switch on the wipers when it rains, I can just about manage that myself, let alone all the other ‘electrical tomfoolery’ as you so succinctly put it.
What a greart start to Friday morning, reading about the good old DS!!
MAny years ago I worked in a Citroen dealership, looked on wiht envy at the owners of the ‘D’ models until one day one of our regular customers had problems with his & decided to ugrade to the C.X. & par ex’d his ‘D’ which once sales had put it right it went on sale. Being in the workshop gave me the first chance & I took it with both hands, driving “Bessie” as we called hergave us some good years motoring until some little cretin broke in & set fire to the interior, which in turn melted the roof!!
I also got involved with the 2CV6 when Citroen started up the Rally Cross with them. A couple of us out of the workshops brought a second hand French Post Office van from a dealer donw in Kingston on Thames got it back to Manchester set to work & converted it to right hand drive & inculded all the safety features necessary & then raced it at first of all Blackheath I think it was??
As I’ve already said Good old days (16 hours to change a clutch!!)
Tom Feeley
Citroen was always innovative and both the Ds and 2CV were technoligically advanced when launched. Unfortunately most peoples love for the querkyness and inovativeness of this marque harks back to the past (myself included).I own several Citroens both old and new and my C4 piccasso has gimmics rather than the ground breaking engineering of the past.
My Ds has steerable driving lights,adjustable Hydraulic suspension,a smooth hydraulicly operated gearbox and an appearance unlike any other car at the time. My C4 has a central steering boss that doesnt move, making the fingertip controls, in it’s centre,rarely at your fingertips except when you accidentally catch them when steering and loose the radio station you were listening to.A massive windscreen the top 25% of which doesnt get cleaned by the wipers,an electric gearbox which jerks through the gears and has such a slow take up when pulling out of junctions i’m surprised i havent been ‘T boned’. Citroen, like most of it’s competitors rarely comes up with anything truly innovative as most modern cars are now just white goods — you drive them 100k miles and they get scrapped, re-cycled and forgotten.