I've fallen in love, I think

I had a colleague who bought an original Zoe - he described it as the worst built car he’d ever owned, and at the time he was also running a Vauxhall Astra as a family car. Body panels were very thin, materials were of low quality, electronics were glitchy, and from his behaviour in it I think handling was probably poor too (he’s not a ‘driver’ and wouldn’t really recognise handling qualities other than not feeling safe and in control). Strangely it didn’t put him off, and he did buy the second gen version which was generally better made.

Admittedly it was a "courtesy " car so probably not in the best condition and only the second EV I’d ever driven. The ride and handling were poor, instrument panel/dashboard/interior didn’t really work for me and it was gutless.

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And the european crash test agency gave it nul points.

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From the AA
“Safety is a tale of two halves, with the original 2013 car receiving the full five star rating from Euro NCAP, thanks to an 89% adult occupant, 80% child occupant and 85% safety assist score.”

These early cars still performed badly for pedestrian protection, but things got a lot worse with cars made from 2019 onwards. Not only did Euro NCAP’s testing become more stringent at the time, but Renault downgraded its side airbags and lacked the active safety systems required to achieve top marks.
As a result, it scored zero stars, with 43% adult occupant rating and 52% child occupant safety score. The onboard safety assist systems scored just 14% overall."

Some of the lower score is due to the absence of active safety systems, the systems some drivers would like deleted from their own cars as being intrusive.

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Hahaha, I had no idea that there was an ‘original’ Citroen Ami. It was a bit before my time so I just looked them all up… all I can say is that some were prettier than others :rofl:

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As it’s gone through several updates since then I wonder if it has improved, post 2016 larger batteries and improved motors.

There was an original DS too. This was when Citroen were innovators and produced technically advanced and original looking cars in France. I think it was Famino Bertoni who designed the Ami based upon 2cv mechanics and suspension. There was an Ami6 and Ami8, both available as saloons and estates. Very popular in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, i doubt the new Moroccan AMi will get anywhere near their sales volume

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It’s the ugly 6’s that are most in demand now. The look grows on you

Ahh, the active safety systems. My neck was snapped back recently when my son was reverse parking into a space on a lane as the active safety system avoided us hitting a leaf on a very thin branch, by doing an emergency stop. It was so violent, he thought we had hit something!

From what I understood, it was one of the first cases of having multiple models using one platform, the 2CV, the Ami, the Dyane, and perhaps the DS, all shared the same basic stuff under the hood.

Citroen are betting big on ‘reimagining’ the old models after the success of the Ami, there are prototypes for a new 2CV and DS, electric of course, that look very interesting. I think the new 2CV is definitely happening, not sure about the DS.

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How about one of these? Took this photo in 2002. Are they still around?

… Or you are a 16 year old girl. With flower decals.

:cherry_blossom:

Or maybe again,
“I really, really, do not care what anyone at all thinks”?

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Or you are a lycéen or student, of either sex. Or anyone really. How brilliant it is to be able to get around autonomously without getting soaked or cold and not have to depend on parents or have to rely on friends.

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not broke or with generous parents :money_mouth_face:

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They were rubbish when they first came out Carl, and they are still rubbish today, unlike the 2CV which was ground breaking.

The classic car market has exploded over the last thirty years, it’s become an investment class in its own right. So the real classics that real car enthusiasts, like myself, would consider buying have been pushed to silly prices. The stuff that was rubbish from day one and should have been crushed years ago has filled the vacuum. The Ami, a face-lifted 2CV is in that category for me. Also, as the generation that has only bought rubbish for nostalgic reasons die, the rubbish will plummet in value.

I’ve a friend, who I have mentioned on here before, that is a Citroën head. He has an SM, a DS, a GS a C6 and probably a few more he hasn’t told his wife about :face_with_hand_over_mouth: He had a Usine (as opposed to Chaperone) DS convertible which sadly he had to sell during a slight cashflow glitch. it was very valuable.

But the one car he has that I dislike is his dog poo coloured Ami. It’s pointless. Here he is trying to get it going yet again while I distract the Gendarmes from seeing we have a water bottle full of petrol under the bonnet connected directly to the fuel pump due to the pipe from the tank being blocked.

And people worry about EVs bustsing into flames, they’ve never lived :joy: One spark and we were gone. just like being in a Tesla Cybertruck, at a fraction of the cost.


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IIRC with a CGC vehicle one also needs to have a “modern” vehicle for everyday use/shopping etc and that “modern” must be suitably insured, of course. :thinking:
EDIT: of course, one can have an old/classic car on an " ordinary cgrise"… then one can use it all the time, CT’s regularly and normal insurance… I know a few who love using their old/classics on a daily basis.

Just your opinion! Over 2 million of all the Ami variants were sold and it answered the need for a car bigger than the 2cv and cheaper than the ID. How can a car ,which shares all of its mechanical components with the iconic 2cv, be rubbish? Fuel starvation on a 50 year old car, whatever the make or model, is down to poor maintenance, either the tank is rusty and all that sediment has been sucked into the fuel filter, or the diaphragm on the simple mechanical fuel pump has perished and is no longer pulling fuel from the tank. The Ami’s only shortcoming was using the same 602cc engine in a heavier body made it slower than the 2cv. This was addressed later in its life using the GS engine in the Ami super. What is or isn’t a classic car is pretty subjective . Either through ownership or as company cars, I have had over 80 cars from the 1950’s on. The worst have certainly been Vauxhalls and Fords and Land rovers. I have owned dozens of Citroens, some from new, five I restored as barn finds . Of those 80 cars, the ones that stand out as being truly awful were a Ford Escort MK3, Ford Sierra, Vauxhall Viva SL90, Vauxhall Victor vx490 fd and first generation Seat Ibiza . They were truly rubbish due to poor design and unbelievable unreliability some even from new, The vx490 never made it to old age as my 1971 model was terminally rotten at just 8 years old!

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The only constraint on a véhicule de collection is that you can’t use it for commercial purposes. My insurer insists that I have another car to get the cheap rate on the VdC (less than €100) but there’s no government constraint.

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yep… I thought it was something like that…

mind you, less than €100 ?? (per month I presume) makes me wonder what you’d actually get paid-out if you smashed-up your VdC ??