Minneapolis Street Sighting: Citroen 2CV

While Germany introduced the Volkswagen Beetle as its people's car, the French had a different--but similar idea of what a car should be; simple, slow, but able to handle areas of land where there were  no roads. The initial task of the 2CV was to carry farming supplies and food across land without ruining its precious cargo. With only two horsepower (Deux Chevaux), the little Citroen was far from fast; that wasn't the point, though. For the job it did, it did it quite well. And Citroen learned from this, and all of their cars rode as smoothly as the 2CV--a trait that is lost in modern Citroens (thank, Mitsubishi!)

  I love spotting Citroen's cars; sadly, most of the ones I've spotted have been either oddball  2CVs or the ever-so-often Mehari, but that doesn't mean they get old. I am a sucker for the early cars, but I don't mind shooting later cars. In fact, most of the 2CVs I've spotted have been the later cars.I've seen them in a whole slew of colors, but I tend to prefer the two-tones versus the mono-tone cars; the two-tones look a bit more classy.

As with most cars, the earlier 2CVs look heaps better than the later cars; details, man, it's all in the details. From the simpler lighting, and more crease-free styling, the early cars were the most simple cars. This model, which is likely a 1980s model , has ugly taillights and bumpers.Other than those two nitpicks, I like the styling of almost all 2CVs equally-- because nothing drastic was done to ruin the styling theme.

 As far as Citroen 2CVs go, this one is fairly mild; the color combination is decent, but not amazing, and the paint itself isn't spectacular shape either. Like most other French cars here, this example shows no signs of rusting or patched up bodywork; however, there are little bits missing from the grille, which suggests a minor run-in with either another car, or perhaps an obstacle.

Inside was standard Citroen fare; but this interior shines where the exterior doesn't. Even though this is likely a daily driver in the summer, the interior is in wonderful shape, albeit a tad cheap-looking. I do quite like the steering wheel on these, even if this one does look a bit flimsy. On the plus side, it isn't ugly.

I do have fun shooting 2CVs, and I wish I had shot this one better; I know these pictures are horrible, but how often do you see 2CVs? Okay, I do see them fairly often, as far as "rare" cars go. I still like them, and shooting them will never get old.