Strange Sighting

[THE PILGRIM]

The other day I was coming out of a store. As I approached my SUV, I noticed an unusual car parked next to mine. A lady was getting out.
I say 'what year is that?' She says 1972.
Can you still get parts? She says yes, you can.
Almost made me want to buy one. Not really! I have never wanted a Citroen.
When's the last time you saw one?
Have you seen any unusual machines lately?

 

[the ringo kid]

I just saw a Citroen for sale here in town, I dont know what year it is? probably made in the 50s.

Originally I thought your "strange sight" was a Pallet-full of bricks of .22.

 

[rburg]

Not sure I'd trust a french car. Chances are its got a button on the dash and If you push it, a white flag pops out! But then I'm not very adventuresome with my cars. I want them all to be luxury models, with the luxury being they start when I turn the key. I'm waiting to see if we have any french apologists on the board. That last should antagonize them enough to get a pitiful response.

 

[turnerriver]

C'mon, Dick- a Peugeot or Citroen driver on this board ? I don't think so...
Regards,
turnerriver

 

[RichardWA]

Only unusual car I have seen in the last few weeks is a 1957 Nash Metropolitan my wife bought last week.

She used my kind of reasoning, She said it goes well with my Studebaker

here is a pic of it on the way home

 

[Harkrader]

Growing up in the '50s and 60s I knew two families with Citroën DS's. One was a high school classmate's parents. The other was a professor at the college I attended.
Neither one actually owned one. They owned TWO, one to cannibalize for parts to keep the other running while they waited for parts from France!

I thought they were very interesting cars. And I NEVER wanted one!

We spent this past January in Argentina where we saw Peugots (UNfondly known as "Piggouts" around here), Fiats, VWs, Toyotas, Fords, Chevys and others that we never see in the US.

BUT, *my* fave on the roads around here, summer only, is my '66 Volvo P1800.

 

[deadin]

All I know about French cars is if there was 5 ways to do something, the French would come up with a sixth.

 

[therevjay]

Not sure I'd trust a french car. Chances are its got a button on the dash and If you push it, a white flag pops out! But then I'm not very adventuresome with my cars. I want them all to be luxury models, with the luxury being they start when I turn the key. I'm waiting to see if we have any french apologists on the board. That last should antagonize them enough to get a pitiful response.

My Dad a professional mechanic all his life and a WWII veteran. Liked and collected Citroens. My stepmother (French) who lived through the German occupation tells me the French Army may have got whipped, but they weren't running.

If your plan was to get someone PO'd . You were successful.

 

[Cpo1944]

For the very first time I approved of what I saw a "Smart for two" doing. It was a pizza delivery car. That is all those things are good for!

 

[G.T. Smith]

Back yard ornament!

This is a crummy picture, (the only one I could find), of my 78 Datsun 280Z. I traded an old Chevy pick up for it and drove it for about 8 years. It ran great but developed a vibration in the drive train. I parked it and bought something else to drive. after it sat out there for about 5 years, some guy made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Took a little of the money to get my CCW. While it sat out there the pack rats and whatever made a den out of it and ate up anything they were able to chew. I still kind of miss that little gem. It was a fast car.

Peace,
Gordon

 

[Marshwheeling]

I owned several Peugeot 504s back in the '80s, and really liked them, especially their road manners after driving a number of Volvos. Very comfortable and nicely finished, not fast, but fast enough. They held the road well enough that I could get through tricky sections quite quickly despite their modest power output.

You didn't see too many of them around, but I knew a couple of motorhead connoisseurs who were quite keen on them. They were rust-prone, and didn't last long in Minnesota.

One summer in college on the West Coast, I house-sat for a professor who drove a Saab 96 and a Citroen DS. I rode in style that summer. They were both a lot of fun to drive, for different reasons. The Saab, even though it had the Triumph V4, still had the freewheel toggle left over from when they had 3-cyl. 2-strokes. The Citroen was very comfortable, and very good at elevated highway cruising speeds. The list of unusual features is too long for a quick post.

These days, the Citroens you see are more likely to be the funky tin-can 2CV, unless you watch The Mentalist.

 

[shouldazagged]

Anybody heard of the Simca? In 1960 I owned a 1959, briefly. Looked like a slightly larger version of the Renault Dauphine of the period. Column-mounted four-speed manual. Ran well, gave good gas mileage, but had a couple of tiny quirks. In a snowstorm, especially at night on a narrow road with cars behind me, the driver's side wiper, arm and all, would fly off to parts unknown, never to be seen again. And it sheared an A-frame mount in the front end so that it would only drive in a tight counter-clockwise circle. Took a month to get the part from France. Soon thereafter I unloaded it.

"Vive la France", my elderly bum.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Anybody heard of the Simca? In 1960 I owned a 1959, briefly. Looked like a slightly larger version of the Renault Dauphine of the period. Column-mounted four-speed manual. Ran well, gave good gas mileage, but had a couple of tiny quirks. In a snowstorm, especially at night on a narrow road with cars behind me, the driver's side wiper, arm and all, would fly off to parts unknown, never to be seen again. And it sheared an A-frame mount in the front end so that it would only drive in a tight counter-clockwise circle. Took a month to get the part from France.

Simca? A buddy of mine had one. I have ridden in it. One time we went through a blizzard to a Gun store where he bought a drilling.
But that's another thread!

 

[galena]

A saying in Europe, something to the effect: "The most dangerous thing on the Autobaun is a Frenchman in a Citroen trying to pass a German in a Mercedes."

 

[Old TexMex]

Citroën was the fellows name, and he was of Dutch parentage. The word "Citroen" in Dutch means "lemon". I rekon that's funny. I drove one when in the French/Spanish border country back in '70. It was pretty comfortable, with the hydraulic suspension and red velvet interior. It was green, looked like kermit the frog.

 

[Stevie]

Yeh..used to be a few Citroen's around.

As far as Simca..I had owned a Simca/Matra 'Rancho' while stationed in West Germany...It was what it was..and it was wheels...

 

[jag312]

A man down the street from me has a Citroen 2CV. Either he has a sense of humor or he is a masochist. The only French car I would like to own is a pre-WW2 Bugatti Type 57SC.

 

[BaldEagle1313]

A man down the street from me has a Citroen 2CV. Either he has a sense of humor or he is a masochist. The only French car I would like to own is a pre-WW2 Bugatti Type 57SC.

Long ago, when I worked in a tire shop, a guy brought in his 2CV for tires. 3 bolt wheels with no center hole so you couldn't spin balance them off the car. Had to use the twice-as-expensive-because-it-takes-twice-as-long on-car balancer. Like it would ever go fast enough for him to need that.

Finally got it done and looked at the work order and saw the name. Naw, it couldn't be. Yup. My eighth grade Current Events teacher for whom a daily lecture on the evil that was the Viet Nam war was the opening of nearly every class (in the fall of 1970 Viet Nam was definitely a current event), and expounded at length on the failures of the US Military. In whose class I got a "D", mainly (I think) because I didn't toe his line in class discussions.

As to a Simca, friend of mine had one in high school. No idea why, except it probably got better mileage than using his mom's Pontiac Safari Wagon with the 455 in it. I think you could have almost put the Simca in the back of the wagon if you put the back seats down.

 

[Fishslayer]

When I was in high school a GF's mom had a Renault Dauphine...

My first 4 wheel vehicle was a 70s vintage (I think) Renault Estate. Right hand drive since I was in Scotland at the time.

 

[meaneyedcatz]

I know of one in Danvers IL and Madison IL

 

[meaneyedcatz]

Only unusual car I have seen in the last few weeks is a 1957 Nash Metropolitan my wife bought last week.

She used my kind of reasoning, She said it goes well with my Studebaker

here is a pic of it on the way home

When I was young we had one of these. A family of five in that little thing. It was cool.

 

[bgrone]

Only unusual car I have seen in the last few weeks is a 1957 Nash Metropolitan my wife bought last week.

She used my kind of reasoning, She said it goes well with my Studebaker

here is a pic of it on the way home

Nice pic but I want to see the Studebaker

Jim in iowa

 

[Cyrano]

Visited France in 1984, and had a rental car. They upgraded us to a Citroen. It took some getting used to; when you started it up, it would sort of unfold the suspension until it was up at the right height. When you shut it off, it would give a sigh and collapse several inches. It was very comfortable, plenty fast, handled well in the curves and had plenty of room I sure would have liked to bring it home. Unfortunately, there's no Citroen dealership in the US, and getting parts is slow. Also, since everything on them is hydraulic, US mechanics just don't have the knowledge, skills or tools to handle them, and don't want to learn.

 

[LVSteve]

My dad had a Citroen GS Estate Car (a station wagon smaller than a DS) in the UK in the 70s. It was very comfortable and gripped like a leech while rolling like a galleon. The joke in England about many French cars was that you could roll them without the wheels ever leaving the ground. The suspension had LOTS of travel to deal with some of the awful roads in rural France. I suspect many SUVs on the US market have less suspension travel in standard form.

As for seeing strange cars, we've got 'em all here in Vegas. Some brave soul even drives a 1960s mini, complete with gear whine.

 

[captorquewrench]

strange sight? not even a vehicle. I saw a a *VERY* strange "convertible" a couple of months ago. It was a boat that had been fitted for road use. A boat hull cruising on wheels down I-10!!!

And I did see a Citroen this past week. I do about 100 miles on the interstate daily, so I see some very, very unusual things sometimes.

 

[quneur]

I wouldn't mind a Citroen GT. Strangest car, there's a AMC Pacer for sale I wouldn't mind one of those either.

 

[moe smith]

I totaled my Renault LeCar. Had to climb out through the sun roof. I don't think the paint was even scratched on the bicycle that hit me.

 

[gm272gs]

I saw a Nash Metropolitan just three days ago. It was a convertible - and I had never seen a convertible - until then.

My brother and I wanted to go in on buying one, back in the late 1970's. The guy wanted $500 and we had the money, but Mom wouldn't let us buy it. Darn her.

 

[David LaPell]

There is actually an annual get together here locally for Citroen's and while I have never attended, I do see quite a few of them during that event when driving through. Somewhere I have a picture I took of one a few years back at a different car show. They were not my thing and I am not sure where one gets parts for the older ones, but they have a dedicated following. Every so often a weird foreign car pops up in a parking lot during the summer being there is the resort towns nearby, I have seen quite a few older Alpha Romeo's and even the odd occasional Lancia or Fiat (my cousin had a green 74 Fiat back in the late 80's). It's nice to see old cars once in a while that are not Mustangs, Camaros, and GTO's. While they are nice cars, I stopped going to car shows for a long time because you would see the same make and model cars in every other space. Now that those cars are out of the price range for most of us unless you have $$ or had one before the market went up on them there are plenty of alternatives that ten years ago no one would have considered. Now foreign cars are really starting to show up. One guy locally took a Volvo sedan and shoehorned a 350 Chevy into it. Definitely gets some looks there. But the strangest car I saw recently, how about a 1949 Studebaker? When's the last time you saw a Studebaker?

 

[gm272gs]

I must say that I have always wanted a 2CV (aka: "deux cheavaux").

They are so incredibly ugly and under-powered, that they're nifty.