Citroen 2Cvs

[sandyRoe]

There's a few featured on MSN. Why do they hold their price so well?

[ChuckFickens]

Because they are now thought of as a classic car.

[tonyav]

Quite rare these days sandy, you don't see many around now. Although imo they were a crap car with a motor bike engine.

[ChuckFickens]

^ that's insulting to motorbikes!

[tonyav]

Very true, sorry about that chuck ;-)

[sandyRoe]

I saw one a month or so back and I thought the engine had a phut-phut tone about it.

[ChuckFickens]

They do "phut phut" as they are only two cylinder engines... to be fair to Tony's comment, the engine was largely a copy of the BMW 2 cylinder motorbike engine.

[baza]

I think they were banned in Sweden a few years ago as being unsafe.

[tonyav]

Now you know why sandy lol. If I remember correctly they had a small twin cylinder engine fitted.

[cazzz1975]

I wanted a citroen 2cv dolly when I was a child, it looked like a mobile barber shop. I think they are quirky looking and rare so the price will go up

[tonyav]

However sandy, this one is pretty quick !.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq0_pIwARUE

[joggerjayne]

They are cool.

They have chic and panache.

The only car at the moment that has so much style is the Fiat 500.

[tonyav]

Leave it out jj, they were bloody rubbish, well except for the one in the drag racing vid.

[jake-the-peg]

Well crap rather depends on the criteria on which you are judging

Yes if you are a Jeremy Clarkeson clone who want's Power and luxury.

If you're looking for a car that is simple and cheap to maintain, returns good mileage an will drive over rough ground then a Ferrari is a crap car!

Whether a car is crap or not rather depends on how well it fulfills it's design goals.

A 2CV was famously designed pre war to be able to carry two farmers, 50kg of potatoes and a basket of eggs across rough roads without breaking any of them at 50km/h

And by that criteria it suceeded brilliantly.

In modern terms classic cars do hold their prices well partly because there are a fixed (or declining) number of them and they continue to appeal.

I believe that appeal is partly to do with their character (and the 2 CV has that in spades) and their simplicity (many classic cars can be rebuilt with a limited toolbox in an average garage)

The key thing is that certain classics have a large enough base that parts supply is not an issue specialists are common and the parts are remanufactured- 2CVs fall into that category.

If you take a more obscure car parts can be difficult - If you fail an MOT on a cracked windscreen on a 2CV you'll be able to just replace it, if the same thing happens on a fiat 130 say you'll be hunting for months to try and find somebody who has a wreck you can salvage parts from.

[joggerjayne]

Tony, no no no, they were driven by stylish Parisian girls.

[tonyav]

Mmmmmmm, maybe jj, doesn't change my opinion though.

[ChuckFickens]

I was about to say pretty much what jake did... they are crap if viewed by most modern standards, but when they were first built they meet their design criteria brilliantly.

A guy a know bought one about a year ago on the mistaken premise he would be able to drive it on a motorbike license (you actually can drive the pre 1954 ones on a bike license) when I informed him he wouldn't be able to drive the more recent one he'd got on a bike license he decided to keep it as it's value will escalate... he's already being offered 50% more than he bought it for after only 1 year!

[tonyav]

Chuck, did the pre 54's have a kick start or no reverse gear then ?.

[dave50]

i thought they were all owned by social workers, and members of CND?

[tonyav]

So did I dave, also some school teachers.

[ChuckFickens]

Tony... people that passed a motorbike test before a certain date have "grandfather rights" to heavy quadricycles, which are 4 wheeled vehicles with an unladen weight of under 550Kg and power of no more than about 20HP... which very early 2cv's meet the requirements (although I think it would have to be the van version of the 2cv) (the need to have a kickstart or no reverse isn't mentioned in the definition of a heavy quadricycle)