Voici l'auto

Wow! Now that is a beauty!

It's a beauty alright.

... still, the first rule of motoring, is to never buy a french car outside of France. You're asking for trouble if you do. The current owner being french, may be immune to this rule.

I drove a Peugeot 505 STi in Yugoslavia 1984-86. Picked it up at Amsterdam airport and drove down, made a trip to England and back, plus one down to Greece.

Lovely car, great handling and ride, could cruise all day on the Autobahn at 100 mph (with my wife sleeping nicely), and no significant problems. Hated to part with it but could not bring back to Canada as it was Euro-spec.

Mark
Ottawa

"When his job at a nonprofit education service brought about a move to Princeton, N.J., from Paris, last year, Mr. Daumas ..."

Only a man with a job in a non-profit educational service... whatever the hell that is ... could afford such luxury. With his car hobby and his touring of the world in it. ... When does this guy actually find time to do whatever it is he does in his 'non-profit' gig?

Is it just me, or does something not look right about this elitist and ostentatious display?

He's a car guy, Abe. He built the thing himself.

Gearhead is the international language, whether the dialect is Mustang or Citroen.

My husband has altogether impressed me. We looked at the picture, minus caption: it turns out there wasn't one.

I said, "Is it an old Bentley or Rolls?" Looking at the picture, my hubby immediately said, "It's a Citroen". And it is!

What a lovely car and delightful little story. Thanks, marc.

My late father drove a 'Traction Avant" through the Pennine Chain (mountain roads there) in England and said it stayed glued to the road like no other car he had ever driven (and that was a lot). I got to ride in one In Belgium; with the six-volt electrical system we ran on parking lights and only used the headlights when there was oncoming traffic as the generator couldn't keep up. I'll stick to vintage Mercedes though.

darn.....makes my little Neon look like nothing.But then,its(the Neon)is still running great after 300,000 mile,with only $1K worth of maintenace.Suck on that.

darn.....makes my little Neon look like nothing.But then,its(the Neon)is still running great after 300,000 mile,with only $1K worth of maintenace.Suck on that.

What probably is the world's most famous Peugot, that nobody knows about:

http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/car.htm

My all time favourite car.
When I lived in South America I would wait for my morning company vehicle ride next to a large old (eight foot stuccoed brick
wall with bottle shards cemented on top) walled estate with a powered wrought iron gate. Each morning the gate would open
and a Citroen TA would exit carrying a driver and passenger, two "very serious looking" apparently French businessmen,
probably brothers judging by their similar physical heft and middle aged appearance.

What an impressive car, more so as the lines were not spoiled by the extended trunk of the later models.

The 1930s cars also came with independent torsion bar front suspension, radial tires, and unibody construction,
very advanced for the times. The early bodies were made in the USA and shipped to France as a compromise
until Citroen worked out the settlement of a patent violation dispute with Budd and restarted their own production.

Hah! The Traction Avant is a true classic icon... no arguments there.

But ... the 505?

I think you'd be hard pressed to find any working examples today .... usually a sign that there is little reason to keep them alive.

Cars in the past had charcter. What we have now are bubbles with weeels.

I learned to drive in one of those!!

Did anyone visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' exhibition "Moving Beauty" in 1995. This was one of the truly great exhibitions of classic autos.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0010431

I had 3 - 505s (including the Turbo) - wonderful cars but unfortunately they were sold and serviced by Chrysler who didn't always teach their mechanics how different = advanced they were - from ordinary products.

When Chrysler threw in the shop towel, other independant auto repair shops (mainly European types) took over and kept them going well into the mid to late 90s.

Even today, the Station wagons are a staple of Vermont and Maine alternate life folks.

I saw a 505 in lovely running condition in an Ottawa shopping centre a couple of years ago.

Mark
Ottawa

LOL Mark - if it was a Black 505 Turbo with a red stripe on the side = it was mine.

A nice young lady flew out to PA to pick it up after an add in the Auto Trader.

Now if only if can find a 2CV out in the boonies?

The traction avant wasn't just "innovative" in 1934, it was close to "state of the art" in passenger sedans, and still had advanced features compared to many cars in 1957 (or 67) when they ceased production.

Front wheel drive, disk brakes that are located on/close to the centerline ( not in the wheels, that makes the wheels lighter and the suspension better)unibody frame, alumnium rims... the list of avant-garde features is quite long.

Citroen was for a long time one the auto technology leaders in the world. The next generation sedan after the the T. A. had radical streamlining and hydro-pneumatic active suspension.

Lovely & pretty cars. Though as someone opined, due to the poor dealer network, a terrible car to buy in North America.

I remember when the Citroen SM came out in the 1970's. For a car that wasn't made by Ferrari, Lotus, or Lamborghini, I thought it was really swoopy.