The tin snail is back! Citroen is planning to evoke memories of its legendary 2CV with an all-new model. And thanks to our French sister magazine, Auto Plus, we have details and exclusive images of the car. Dubbed the DS2, the compact hatch will be the entry point to the firm’s new DS range when it arrives in 2012.
Its styling is based on that of the Revolte concept seen at the Frankfurt Motor Show back in September, but toned down for the showroom. This means it gets a more conventional double-chevron grille, larger headlights and a narrower track. But the rear-hinged doors remain – they open like the MINI Clubman’s driver’s side passenger door.
The bonnet creases, arching roofline and flat back end take cues from the 2CV – the original people’s car. The focus of the new DS family is to provide more luxurious, image-conscious alternatives to the established models in each class.
But in order for the DS2 to succeed, it will need to offer affordable indulgence. So, to keep development costs low, its platform and engine range will be borrowed from the new C3 – on sale in February.
There will be a range of fuel-efficient three-cylinder petrol motors, which will debut on the C3 when it gets a mid-life update in 2011. The only diesel option will be the existing 70bhp 1.4 HDi.
Other DS models include the MINI-rivalling DS3, due out next year, and the C4 and C5-based DS4 and DS5. These are slated to arrive in 2011.
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The 2CV oozed character. The roof rolled back like a sardine can. You wore woolly jumpers in the summer and feared hitting a wasp head-on! You could put it in gear, pull the choke, sit on top of the paper-thin seats and steer it down a country footpath with your feet! Where is the essence of the 2CV here? Rear hinged doors! LMAO!
I seem to recall that one could take apart a 2CV like a big Meccano set - removable wings, front end, doors, interior and the body was only attached to the chasssis by a few bolts. Try taking this new one apart! Frankly, this assumption or proposal that new niche sector cars are the reincarnation of old favourites is ridiculous. It also credits the public with a less-than-sound memory. The 'new' Beetle was bad enough, the new Fiat 500 a joke, so this DS2 the 'new' 2CV? Credit us with some intelligence please.
You can't please everyone and this Citroen will divide opinion, Thats what Citroen are good at and it makes them different to the rest!
Viva la difference
No! No! No! It looks like a dreadful pastiche. No one, apart from the incredibly cute Fiat 500, (yes it is a great car) is yet to come up with a retro car that really works.
Why on earth would anybody want anything that reminds them of the original 2CV...unless you're an ageing long grey-haired hippy walking around with flowers in your hair still sadly wanting to live the 60's. The best thing about the old 2CV is seeing them race around an oval track in France demolishing one and another lol. Citroen aren't trying to replicate the 2CV with a retro model, just re-use the name.
The stipulation that a 2cv should be able to cross a ploughed field without breaking a load of eggs was a good one, because that’s where the 2cv belonged, in a field.
They were a load of dangerous rubbish and I saw one break into three pieces when it was hit by a transit van, does anybody actually think that Citroen would re introduce something as bad as the 2cv.
Citroen can not be seen to make an unconventional little narrow car with little narrow tyres and 1930’s styling that will be unpractical, quirky, and uncompetitive, in today’s market.
Citroen can only make a small modern and safe car, that will stand alongside its competition, and they will be lucky if it creates a following comparable the Fiat 500 or Mini.
Whilst it's always good to see designers trying to make something stand out from the crowd, this is somewhat disappointing and would have been better if they'd been a bit bolder.
Incidentally, it appears to be a photo of a RHD car that has been flipped to look like a LHD (note the numberplate). What's going on there, then?
It would take a good bit of imagination to figure this car looks like a Citroën 2CV. I would only hope that it is made to today's safety standards and not the "no safety standards" that the original 2CV possessed.
For the last few months it has been sort of an insult to a great designer like Flaminio Bertoni to find Citroën bringing back the great DS badge and using it on just another set of "jelly bean" shaped cars. I do hope that the DS 4 and 5 versions are a little more interesting.
Thanks for the article,
Denis
They design something, keeping in mind something! They want to recreate a car with a successful innings! They do all the tricks in the book to succeed.
That has been true for the original Beetle-New Beetle, original Fiat 500 and new Fiat 500 and now this one posing as a gap filler for the original 2CV, but is a DS 2 !
These are just clones and can never ever be anything like or even near the original.
I'm a short-haired old non-hippie who has had the Dyane 6 with the nice thick seats, 5 original Beetles and Karmann Ghias including the last German made Beetle the 79 convertible, one Autobianchi
Gardinieri 500 and has been driving for the last couple of years the
Jeep Wrangler 4 dr because it is about the only vehicle that does remind me of the old days. I don't need to be reminded of today & I don't want to know about the future where I know the only place I'll be living will be in a small cigar box on top of the mantlepiece.
Where are the typical character lines in the bonnet and body sides?? Where is the 3rd side window? And overall... where is the goofy look?? Non monsieur... this creation doesn't come close to the original thing... at all... désolé...
... but they axed it recently. I'm talking about the original shape Berlingo Multispace.
n common with the Tin Snail it was practical, comfortable without being luxurious; definitive early versions had a simple fabric retractable roof, economical, spanned social classes and paid scant regard to styling, ie it was 'non-styled' like the original. It was that a shape because it needed to be, not because market forces dictated. Sadly in replacing the Berlingo they made the successor too large. The new Nemo is too small. Both are poor value if you add essential safety kit. Berlingos also had decent depreciation; the only Citroen until recently to be able to claim this since the 2CV.
The "DS2" is not a 2CV. It has three doors and is contrived to look a bit like a 2CV. It will not be simple in execution nor as long-lived and repairable. Nor of course is it a DS. Nor is the DS3... But therein lies another rant.
... but they axed it recently. I'm talking about the original shape Berlingo Multispace.
n common with the Tin Snail it was practical, comfortable without being luxurious; definitive early versions had a simple fabric retractable roof, economical, spanned social classes and paid scant regard to styling, ie it was 'non-styled' like the original. It was that a shape because it needed to be, not because market forces dictated. Sadly in replacing the Berlingo they made the successor too large. The new Nemo is too small. Both are poor value if you add essential safety kit. Berlingos also had decent depreciation; the only Citroen until recently to be able to claim this since the 2CV.
The "DS2" is not a 2CV. It has three doors and is contrived to look a bit like a 2CV. It will not be simple in execution nor as long-lived and repairable. Nor of course is it a DS. Nor is the DS3... But therein lies another rant.
Jaguar Mk 2. 1400 quid. Rolls Royce 5 thousand pounds.
VW Beetle 600 quid. Autobianchi in 1969 I got a 6 month old LHD
unit from Pride and Clarke for 300 pounds. Who couldn't dig that.
Cheap cars,cheap gas, cheap hotels, cheap restaurants, cheap
booze and inexpensive women. Plus the music cooked.
What more could you ask for. ?
The original 2cv was loved by a certain type of person, perhaps weekend tree huggers who went to work during the week. In their minds, this car was seen globally as the planet friendly mode of transport; a kind of cabbage on wheels. The truth is, that even compared to its contemporary rivals, it wasn't particularly environmental. Nor was it safe.
Any reincarnation of the 2cv for today's market would have to be so different from the original that it would be difficult to include any of its features or character whilst complying with present day legislation. I think it's just a marketing ploy to sell yet another small car to the fashion concious. It's kind of like bringing back Tuberculosis and being proud of it.
im looking forward to this...
ok its not a 2cv dolly but it will be a car that will put citroen back in the frame with the competion and im looking forward to this...
the new DS range will be excelent !
i have seen the ds3 in person and im on the list to get mine already !
Stevepilk might not be old enough to remember the notices in the mens public pissoirs in England warning people that spitting spread TB.
In just about every country I've travelled to and also the area in N.America I reside in all I see is guys spitting in the street and they can be white black or asian. I guess its considered hip.
If I have to choose between unpleasant louts hawking every 2 metres on sidewalks and an unsafe old-fashioned pre-historic
looking vehicle that gave me a lot of pleasure well I guess I don't need to tell anyone that 2CV's never were responsible for
any life threatening diseases.
Does the new 2CV have an independent chassis NO .
Does it have bolt on panels for ease of replacement NO.
Does it have a horizontally opposed engine NO
Does it have an air cooled engine NO
Does it have seats that come out quickly for picnic's NO.
Does it have in-borne brakes NO
Does it have 5 doors NO
Does it have a hand brake on the FRONT wheels NO
Does it have a full rag top NO
Does it have a crazy gear change NO
Does it have wonderful suspension NO
Does it have 2 cylinders NO
IT IS A 2CV NO errr well NO
But it does have a very nice badge!!.
What the manufacturers of these dreadful pastiches don't reaslise is that it should be the CONCEPT they should be revisiting, not the appearance. Thus mini should be 'amazing space withing small exterior' NOT fat, cynical ripoff. 2CV should be ' most economical way to transport 4 people in comfort' NOT expensive, cynical ripoff. When will Citroen introduce a model as far ahead of its time as the original DS, or a shape as pure as a GS? Never again, I fear!
This is a joke, as is that 'reborn' DS. Where is that standout style and character of the originals??? I hope Citroen goes bankrupt like SAAB. People have had enough of decades of timid reheats!
why don't every so-called critics realise that no manufacturer can "reproduce" their icons from the forties or fifties...Has anyone ever seen the thousands of regulations, safety requirements, technical directives IMPOSED on all car makers these days? How can anyone expect a 2CV in 2010 to be a copycat of 1943's? You all miss the point: it's the spirit of the tin snail that's being re-created. Cheap to buy, run, maintain.
That's all you can hope for...Drive for efficient engines, safety for passengers and pesdestrians, recycling of materials, airbags, bla bla bla.....has killed off any remaining ideals and Citroen cant escape this anymore than Fiat or Volkswagen....
You and me demand ever better, more equiped, faster, safer vehicles: don't then complain that you cant take apart your new toys and fix them with a spanner and a hammer any longer! So if you don't like the new concept from Citroen, well look elsewhere...Ford , for example,or Vauxhall/opel, makers of such adventurous and avangarde designs.....talking about cynical rip offs!
Excuse me - Citroen are only said by AE to be 'planning to evoke memories' - Citroen call it a 'DS2" without any of this speculative '2CV' crap - looks like a good funky little car - let it stand or fall by its utility & value.
Quite clearly it is not a '2CV' in any shape or form - indeed who in their right mind would want a '2CV' in the 21st C?
KM
To all of you who are complaining that the Beetle/MINI/500 and now 2CV (or is it a DS2?) are just pastiche's of the real thing then I have a suggestion for you. Go and buy an original of any of the above and then tell me you're happy with them on a daily basis, or transporting your family and all their luggage to Brittany in it for your holiday. It'll sound like a hoot ... but I bet you'd only do it the once!
Get a life - the manufacturers have to build cars for todays market and in today's market regulations. You'd soon complain if they built the cars like the originals and they folded like wet paper cups at the merest hint of contact.
They are just using a name and styling cues from the originals to offer a degree of nostalgia. By any measurement the latest models are better built, offer better performance and better fuel economy - and if truth be told they also offer better value for money too.
Those who complain are the one's who are living in the past. Those who buy these cars accept that they are NOT the originals but that they offer a a little bit of fun with the practicality and reliability of a modern car.
Tsk ... some people ...
The FIAT 500 I bought in 1969 was six months old and cost me
in London 300 pounds or at the time 720 dollars.
The cheapest 500 in North america today will be 15 thousand bucks or more. An increase of appox 21 times.
I have no point to make except to say life was a lot better when I could go out and buy a brand new VW Beetle for 600 pounds in
the mid 60's than it is today where I just cannot for the life of me dig these new vehicles out there. Where is the charm I ask ?