ANYTHING BUT A LEMON

One hundred years ago, Andre Citroën, a man of Dutch descent — whose name, incidentally, means ‘lemon’ in Dutch — announced his first car: the Citroën Type A. Citroën was flush with cash from his company’s munitions manufacturing during World War I. Even before the end of the war, he had seen a need that would enable, post-war, his business to progress and the general public to become motorized.

The Citroën Type A was launched in March 1919 — only three months after the armistice — in a showroom on the Champs-elysées, Paris. To this day, this is a Citroën showroom. In the intervening time between then and now, Citroën has gone from a start-up car manufacturer to being the part of the PSA Group. Along the way, it has launched models such as the Traction Avant and the DS — both world leaders in car technology — the quirky 2CV and derivatives, and the Citroën H van. They all contribute to the French marque’s position in the automotive world. Some of the technology that Citroën invented along the way has helped to cement the company in its place towards the top of the list of automotive innovators.

Today, the cars have lost a lot of the individuality that made them Citroëns, but then the company is no longer a single-marque company. PSA incorporates both the Peugeot and the Citroën brands, and they share technology and projects with a very wide range of vehicle manufacturers. It has been manufacturing cars in China for decades, as part of the Dongfeng Peugeot-citroën group there.

Citroën may no longer intrigue us with announcements of modern-day versions of the Traction Avant or the continuing innovations of the DS, but it has left us some great classics to examine and even to want to own.