About Citroën

The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in 4 June 1919 by André Citroën. He built weapons for the French military during World War I. After the war he realized that unless he planned ahead he would have a modern factory without a product. The decision to switch to automobile manufacturing was taken. In 1917 Citroën contacted the engineer, Jules Salomon and asked him to produce an all-new design for a 10 HP car that would be better equipped, more robust and less costly to produce than any rival product at the time. The result was the Type A, announced to the press in March 1919, just four months after the war. The first production Type A emerged from the factory at the end of May 1919 and in June it was exhibited at a show room at Number 42, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This show room is still in use today. This C42 showroom is where the company organises exhibitions and shows its vehicles and concept cars. Citroën also used the Eiffel Tower as the world's largest advertising sign between 1925 to 1934, as recorded in the Guinness book of World Records.     In 1934 the Traction Avant (French for front-wheel drive) was introduced It had three revolutionary features that are still in use today: a unitary body with no separate frame, four wheel independent suspension and front-wheel drive. During the second world war, Citroën researchers, including Paul Magès, continued their work in secret, against the express orders of the Germans, and developed the concepts that were later brought to market in three remarkable vehicles – a small car (2CV), a delivery van (Type H) and a large, swift family car (DS). The Citroën H-Type vans, introduced in 1947, are a series of panel vans and light trucks that are memorable for their Industrial design, using many corrugated metal outer body panels, to save material, weight, and costs. The Citroën H-types were developed as simple, low-cost, front-wheel drive vans. A total of 473,289 of their variants were produced in 34 years in factories in France and Belgium.     A year later Citroën unveiled the Citroën 2CV  at the Paris Salon in 1948. The car became a bestseller, achieving the designer's aim of providing rural French people with a motorized alternative to the horse. It was unusually inexpensive to purchase and, with its small two cylinder engine, inexpensive to run as well. This car remained in production until 1990 and was a common sight on French roads until recently; 9 million 2CV variants were produced in the period 1948–1990. 1955 saw the introduction of the DS, the first full usage of Citroën's hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system. The DS was also the first production car with modern disc brakes. Production from 1956 to 1975 totalled almost 1.5 million cars. The streamlined car was remarkable for its era and had a remarkable sounding name – in French it sounds the same as déesse, which means Goddess. This car caused quite a stir at it’s introduction being way ahead of it’s time both technically and aesthetically.  

EZ Power Steering and Citroën

The DS has power steering from the factory, but those other wonderful Citröens did not. In our webshop you can find kits for most Citroëns. If you have a car that is not listed, please contact us.