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Is this another way of saying, "nothing is where it should be!"... ???
Yep...exactly. my brother once had a 1979 Renault 5 (LeCar). As I recall, if you (out of habit) pushed the left-hand stalk up to signal a right turn, you turned off the headlights. And, almost every time you reached for something in the middle of the dash, the tip of your hand would brush against the protruding wiper-switch on the right side of the column, and the wipers would swipe across the dry glass. The 4-speed manual shift-linkage felt like it was attached with rubber-bands. There were several other eccentrics as well. It rolled like a beach ball on corners..but was ultimately stable. And it had the ride and seat-comfort of a semi-luxury car...until the driver's seat fell off its mounts after about two years.
Last edited by mmarshall; Jan 9, 2023 at 03:16 PM.
Well, it was a typical cheap French car of the period.....Cream-of-Wheat suspension, ultra-soft ride (for its size) to the point of being decadent, plush living-room seat comfort, El Cheapo-quality parts, sloppy assembly, things falling off the car before it is a year old, and an eccentric control-layout that would have most Americans pulling their hair out.
To be fair to the 2CV it was designed in the 30s as a cheap way of getting a rural French population mobile - basically it was the French Model T. Production was delayed due to the war but it was actually a brilliant piece of minimalist design. Anything that wasn't absolutely necessary was removed (it even only had 1 headlight when released as that was all French law demanded). It could be dismantled and worked on with a minimum amount of tools. The soft, long travel suspension was so that, among other things, a basket of eggs could be transported to market across a ploughed field without breaking. The canvas roof allowed oversize loads to be carried and it delivered 80mpg US. It's amazing it survived in production until 1990 but some people had a real fondness for it.
The similar looking yellow car in my original post was the Citroen Dyane - an attempt in the 60s to update the 2CV with more up to date styling and a hatchback to complete with the Renault 4. The 2Cv saw that off as well.
^ 2cv may have had all those 'redeeming qualities' but it was awful to ride in one.
my best friend in england's first car was a 2cv (all he could afford at the time). i never understood how it actually worked especially that gear shift.
^ 2cv may have had all those 'redeeming qualities' but it was awful to ride in one.
my best friend in england's first car was a 2cv (all he could afford at the time). i never understood how it actually worked especially that gear shift.
Oh the gearshift was tremendous wasn't it! The lever came horizontally straight out of the dashboard with a short right angle and **** on. Twist left and push forward for 1st, pull back and let it return to vertical for 2nd, straight forward for 3rd, and then out and twist right for 4th. My then girlfriend, now wife's Dyane was the same. You could remove all the seats but the driver's and then roll the roof right back. Doing that you could get about 6 blokes standing vertically. It made the whole thing top heavy so you had to get them all to lean in unison the opposite direction to the next turn. After a football match we did that while setting rockets off as we drove round the town (before hiding it in a garage when the police came looking).
Anyway, coming out of a tunnel yesterday I nearly ran over one of these, it seemed tiny - I've not seen one since I was a kid:
Last edited by Big Andy; Jan 10, 2023 at 04:53 AM.
The soft, long travel suspension was so that, among other things, a basket of eggs could be transported to market across a ploughed field without breaking.
Yes, I've heard that before. France is a big country by European standards, wth a lot of farms in it.
Oh the gearshift was tremendous wasn't it! The lever came horizontally straight out of the dashboard with a short right angle and **** on. Twist left and push forward for 1st, pull back and let it return to vertical for 2nd, straight forward for 3rd, and then out and twist right for 4th. My then girlfriend, now wife's Dyane was the same. You could remove all the seats but the driver's and then roll the roof right back. Doing that you could get about 6 blokes standing vertically. It made the whole thing top heavy so you had to get them all to lean in unison the opposite direction to the next turn. After a football match we did that while setting rockets off as we drove round the town (before hiding it in a garage when the police came looking).
Anyway, coming out of a tunnel yesterday I nearly ran over one of these, it seemed tiny - I've not seen one since I was a kid:
my brother once had a 1979 Renault 5 (LeCar). As I recall, if you (out of habit) pushed the left-hand stalk up to signal a right turn, you turned off the headlights. 
