The Citroen CX Is an Amazingly Quirky and Weird French Luxury Car

This is a 1986 Citroen CX-25 and it is very strange, that is by design of course, because French cars of that era were very rare. I've received hundreds of requests over the years to review a French car on my channel, so today I'm going to do just that before we get started. Great news: This CX is being auctioned live right now on Cars and Bids, which is my enthusiast car auction website, if you like rare cars or French cars or just want to try something new. You're in luck because this cx is located here in Maryland, fully legally imported into the United States, already here and titled here and now you can buy it on cars and deals so once you're done watching this video click on the link in description. below you will be able to go to the live auction of this citron where you can bid on it and buy it only on cars and offers so let's talk about the citron cx this was

citroen

's flagship

luxury

car from the mid 1970s to the In fact, it was sold until 1991.

Many people consider this to be the last true Citroën model before Pujo bought the brand because it is the last distinctively strange Citroën model in many ways, which I will show you were offered. these cars. many countries around the world, although only a small number of these were brought to the US when new, not many came, although as this car is now 25 years old it is completely legal to import. Now under the hood you have a 2.5. A one-liter turbocharged four-cylinder makes around 170 horsepower, which, frankly, was a pretty big number for a European car of this era, and there's a lot more, of course, and today I'll show you everything first.

I'll take a tour of the CX and show you all of its cool quirks and features. These

weird

quirks of a crazy French car from 30+ years ago, then I'm going to take it out on the road and drive it, which I'm really excited about, and then I'm going to give it a dig score, okay. I'm going to start with the quirks and features of the CX by going into the door handle here and to open it, you simply press this button at the end of the door handle and then the door opens. It's not particularly strange or unusual, although it is oriented the wrong way for right-handed people, which is easier for most people to grip with their left hand, but this is probably the least peculiar thing about the whole car; in fact, the peculiarities begin to become wildly obvious.

The moment you get in and start noticing all the

weird

things here, probably the most immediately obvious strange element is the steering wheel, which is a single-spoke, single-post steering wheel that comes out of the middle and is centered on the back. bottom, there you can see. The Citroën logo is in the middle of everything, very, very strange compared to basically the steering wheel of any other car. Now there are a couple of benefits to the single post steering wheel, for one, great gauge visibility which you don't have to like. Look through the steering wheel and it's kind of a narrow opening to try to read your speed or engine speed or oil temperature pressure, whatever is easier to do with the single post wheel.

It's also pretty easy to move this thing, just grab the pole. and move it, you don't have to worry about competing with the other spokes, but the strangest part of the steering wheel is not the spoke itself, which sounds strange, but it isn't, but how it works. You drive this car. You turn the steering wheel and then it is designed to center immediately once you let go, meaning no matter how much you have turned it, the moment you take your hand away it goes straight again, now this is strange when you are driving because you are normally used to just pointing the steering wheel in one direction and then it naturally straightens out as the car moves, not here in this car you have to keep your hands on the steering wheel turned where you want it to go or else it will fixes immediately, which is one of the strangest and craziest quirks if you're not used to it.

I think you'll get used to it over time, but when you first drive the car, it's very strange how it fixes itself basically every time you leave it. Off the wheel it's very strange, but there are other interesting quirks in this vicinity anyway. Now the problem with making a single post steering wheel like this is that there is no real steering column in the center where you can mount your inputs for your turn signals, your headlights, your wipers, so all of that is on the dash around the gauge cluster your turn signals are here on this little switch you press left to turn on the left turn signal and you press right to turn on the right turn signal and it doesn't Don't cancel because in In a normal car, the rear-center steering wheel clicks on the steering column-mounted turn signal and that cancels out the signals.

This car doesn't have that, so you have to remember to turn off the turn signal every time you start it. The headlights are also in this small panel to the left of the steering wheel. This switch at the bottom turns the headlights on and off. You can see the zero or the parking light or the headlights and when you turn on the headlights with the car off. makes a crazy warning chime, listen now, next let's say you want to flash your high beams at someone in a normal car, you just pull the end of the turn signal and your high beams flash, but this car doesn't you have a turn signal to do it, press this little button at the end of this panel to the left of the gauge cluster and that makes your lights flash or you can press the button a little longer and that permanently turns on your lights and of course.

You press it again to turn them off, so it's not the typical high beam operation. The same goes, of course, for the windshield wipers on the right side of the gauge cluster area. You have this little piece and that's how you turn on the wipers or the windshield. windshield wipers in this case, because this car only has one, you can see there are a couple different positions and here you also have the windshield washer with this top mounted switch, also in the wiper area you have the horn, there is no horn. in the center of the steering wheel it's not designed like that, so you turn on the horn, you press the end of the little wiper area, this little button and that sounds the horn and of course the horn in this car sounds strange, listen, ah, that.

With a speaker there are now many more quirks and features to cover and so far we have only focused on this area. Next I want to move on to the driver's door panel, where you have some interesting controls. The electric mirrors are normal. In reality, you just move. this switch and then you can move the mirrors like in most cars, the power window switches are also pretty normal, although the rear ones are suspiciously missing. We'll come back to that in a few minutes here, but there's a very strange control on the driver's side. door panel and that would be the exit latch, it's not a typical door latch, but it's like the trigger of a gun, you put your hand here around the door handle and then you use your index finger to open the door with this gun trigger look. latch and that's how you get out of the car, all four doors have this latch designed as a trigger to get out, it's very strange, I've never seen that on any other car, it's certainly a strange operation and also a little strange is the door lock door, which is this to lock or unlock the door that you turn, this circle looks like a climate control for the fan speed or the temperature, but in this car it is the door lock and again you have it on all four doors, like this like the circular lock on the revolving door and then, talking about the doors.

Let's go back to the gauge cluster and you can see this little diagram on the left showing the car from top to bottom. It also shows when the doors are open and specifically which door is open, which is a nice useful feature that many cars didn't have. It had this feature, especially in the mid-1980s, but this one did and it's quite useful. Also here you can see the font they chose for all the indicators. tac, they are very proud to have a turbo back then, it wasn't that common and this car has one so it has the gauge to go with it.

Now, next, let's move on to the center control console where you have a small door above it. the center piece and then the left and right are exposed when this car was sold new there were actually small doors over each of these small pieces but these doors have been known to break and only the center one is working you can See if you push it, it opens and reveals a fairly large coin storage area. You can store many different currencies in your Citroen CX. Now on the right you have a little control panel that looks like a phone dial pad like a touch tone phone dial pad, but if you press these different buttons different pieces of information will appear on these little screens right above this area .

Unfortunately, these screens are a known point of failure with these older CXs, so they don't work here, but you can see exactly what you would do. When you press one it says km one says liters, I guess it would indicate your fuel economy or how many liters you have used or you have left that kind of thing. It's basically like an old trip computer and early infotainment system that uses a phone-style touchpad because that's what people would have known when this car was new. Now, next we come down from the phone's little touch panel and you can see the climate controls here along with a couple of air vents.

How the climate control on this car works is actually quite simple, on the right you have this little wheel that you can use to adjust the temperature, on the left another wheel that you can use to adjust the fan speed and then in the center is this small wheel you can adjust where the air comes out, everything is nice. It's actually simple and you also have the front defrost button here, everything is organized very simply and in an easy to access place except the rear defrost button is on the roof for some reason nowhere near any of these other things completely out of place, but that's where your rear end is.

The defrost button is everything else on the climate controls is pretty simple and I especially like the air conditioning control. You have a little snowflake. You can press it to turn it on or if it's a particularly hot day, you can press the two little snowflake buttons and then. You're going to get more air conditioning, more snowflakes, more cold, more air conditioning, and by the way, back to the roof in the center, here next to the rear defroster, this little button with the light on turns on the reading light for the front passengers. It's located here on this little black cover, it's currently not working.

I suspect the bulb is burnt out, but this is how you turn on the reading light on the

citroen

cx, in case you're curious. Now, the next one is also in the center, back to the center console. A rather cool feature is the radio which is mounted here in the center console between the seats and facing towards the driver's seat, meaning it is very accessible for the driver and passenger, although if the passenger wants to make any adjustments they will do so. the other way around because the radio points towards the driver when the adjustment here is done from the opposite direction, which is a rather strange quirk.

It's also a strange quirk on the center console. The gear selector is here and you can see that the gear pattern is not printed anywhere, so don't do that. I don't really know where the gears are, they are reversed to the left or to the right. You're not sure they could have put it here to be useful, but now they didn't. Also between the seats you can see cup holders here. These are aftermarket. They are not original cup holders, but they are designed for this particular car. When you take them out you can see that they are meant to fit into this little slot in the center console that has no clear purpose and they also cover these four blank spaces. switches that also have a clear purpose Why didn't Citroën put cup holders originally?

No one knows, but you now have this cup holder installed aftermarket and it doesn't seem to take anything away from the vehicle since there was nothing there before. Next we move to the passenger side of the CX and the strangest thing here is undoubtedly the glove box that opens like a normal glove box, but why is it only half of the glove box? They have this little padded surface above the glove box. where you can put things, but the downside to that is that the glove box itself is only half the size it could have been.

As a result, I think most peopleI would prefer to have a larger glove box as this padded area will just fly away while you are driving but they gave you the padded area instead, take care of some other interesting quirks on the passenger side, one is the window switch, you can see that the power window switch is right here and to the right of that switch you now have a blank space, interestingly Of course, this switch controls the window which is on the right side of the car, but it is on the left side of this small window area obviously for right hand drive cars both switches would have been used for the left and right windows but instead you have a left window switch to control the right window which is a little strange now here, like I said, you also have this door lock with trigger once again on the passenger side, you put your hand in here and then you pull the trigger like you're shooting.

A weapon just to get out of your Citron, but of all the interesting quirks and features of this car, probably the most peculiar is the suspension. This car has a hydropneumatic suspension that provides various benefits or drawbacks depending on who you ask, but most peculiar. about this was that it would raise the car. You have this little control on the center control console and you moved it to the left and you can see there's like a step pattern moving it to the left would raise the car all the way up, if you move it to the right it will lower the car all the way and right now I'm going to show you what it looks like when the car goes from its lowest position to its highest position, you can see it.

Take a look now, as I mentioned the suspension had benefits and drawbacks, the biggest benefit was probably the ride comfort. I'm not going to get into the mechanics of how the hydrohydropneumatic suspension works, but it was carefully designed so that when you go over bumps. You don't really feel the bump much and you can see from just a second ago that it has a lot of suspension travel, so the wheels have a long way to go before they start to really affect the body and ride of the car. After World War II, the roads in France were said to be quite bad, so Citroën decided to start developing and perfecting suspension technology to make cars more comfortable and compliant on bad roads, but hydropneumatics has other benefits.

Suspension one is ground clearance, as you can see, this car can go from having very low entry and exit ease, good low aerodynamics for speed, to being completely high, as you saw before, it has ground clearance style SUV, so if it is going to happen. in a field that you can do, that wasn't done by many cars at the time, although adjustable suspension has become more common, the other big benefit of suspension is that it is self-leveling and that means that if you put heavy things in the car several times. things in the back the car will stay completely flat it won't like to sink backwards or to the side or whatever because it always stays level thanks to this hydropneumatic suspension but there were also drawbacks, on the one hand it is very complicated to work on the suspension and if it breaks, it can be expensive to fix or difficult to find someone who knows what they are doing.

Furthermore, it was this suspension that caused this car to be banned from sale in the United States at the time when American regulators wanted everything. That the cars had a relatively uniform bumper height and adjustable suspension meant that their bumper height would not be uniform in an accident, which they felt was dangerous now that the regulation went away and Citroën was allowed to sell these cars in the United States. United, which I did in small quantities, but originally that was a problem for offering the car here, which is fun to think about now, since a lot of cars have adjustable suspension these days in the '80s, this was pretty much the unique and then we move on.

To the back seat of the CX, where there are quite a few more quirks and features before we get in, I want to talk about an interesting design aspect of this car because there is no rear wheel arch and because the rear wheel is positioned very far back. On the car, the tailgate doesn't have to have a curve around the wheel arch and can be absolutely huge and completely full size, and as you can see, this tailgate is not only big but it's basically flat on the back. rear for easier entry and exit easier, you don't have to deal with the wheel arch when you get in like basically any other car, an interesting trick of the citroen, but anyway, next we move to the rear of the cx and you quickly discover one of these.

Other important benefits of the car are how it was designed and how far the wheels are in the back and that would be that there is a lot of space back here, as I said this was Citroen's flagship

luxury

car at the time and actually it was used as a presidential state. Car in France Jacques Sharok had this when he was president and other countries also used it to transport their head of state. It was a very comfortable and spacious car, so it made sense for that purpose. so comfortable and spacious, in fact, it has few footrests.

In these pockets behind the front seats you can take out the footrest and then place your feet on it if you want your feet to be in a slightly different position than they would have been without the footrest, that's a luxury and there are many more. The luxury features of the rear seats go beyond that, for one, a cigarette lighter and ashtray in both rear doors, on the left side and on the right side, so that the rear passengers did not have to bother when share the same cigarette lighter. They both light their cigarettes separately, after all, it was Europe in the 1980s and a lot of people were smoking another interesting quirk back here, the power window switches I mentioned before.

I'd go back to those rear power windows, it's not too strange on the door panel. You can see there's a single switch that lowers the rear window, it looks pretty standard, but you also have rear power window switches located here on the back of the front center console and you press them and it also lowers the rear window. The switches are there so that the front passengers have access to lower the rear windows, but the rear passengers also have that access with those switches, so if you are a rear passenger you can choose where and how you want to lower the rear window. with the switch on the door panel or with the switch in the center, they didn't really have to put those front rear window switches that far back since the rear passengers had their own switch, but they did it anyway because they're weird and extravagant.

This is further demonstrated by other interesting features back here, for example the sunshade that comes down from the roof for the side window. You can fold this parasol and it protects you a little from the sun. Obviously today luxury cars have sunshades that were automatically in place, but this was a first attempt at creating a sunshade, a sunshade for the rear passengers and the side windows, and speaking of sunshades, how about behind the seats, where you have this little sunshade that you can lift up and put in place and then attach it to this part right above the rear window and then you have a rear sunshade in this car.

Again, not as good as modern cars with their electric rear sunshade, but it had something and they were individual rear sunshades, meaning both rear passengers could choose whether or not they wanted their sunshade instead, you had two separate ones for the two separate seats back here, a very interesting and luxurious feature and next we move under the hood where of course you have the engine of this car, it was a turbo four-cylinder with about 170 horsepower, not a huge amount , especially for the flagship luxury sedan, but many low-performance cars in Europe back in the 70s and 80s didn't have that much power, it was considered totally enough for the Today you can see that the engine is mounted quite high in the compartment of the engine, which is not really what you want, all that weight hanging over the front wheels, but it was important that they put the engine there because they had to make room.

For the spare tire there is always a fantastic spare tire location that shares the engine bay with the hot engine, where you will get burned if you try to remove the spare tire and accidentally touch the wrong thing. I never love to see a spare tire in there, but that was where they had room to put it in the CX, so you have the engine and the spare tire in the engine bay. One thing I love down here, you can see it says turbo and metal right on the engine. They were very proud of the fact. that this was a turbocharged car, like I said a lot of cars in this area weren't turbocharged except for some performance cars but this was and they wanted to make sure you knew that, in fact the badges in general are kind of funny in In this car you also have a turbo on the front fender to make it very clear that it is a turbo but it is also a luxury car and that is why it says prestige and a beautiful italic on one of the rear pillars, so turbo but also prestige and then On the back it just says everything, you have this giant black badge that specifically tells you everything you need to know about the car, then another black badge that tells you it's a Citroen and finally another black badge that tells you it has abs.

I really wanted you to know everything. As possible about the car with the badge on the back, so some strange badge decisions here, but that's what they did, but probably my favorite piece of the badge is on the top of the hood. You've got this bulge on the hood, as you can see, and then a t. Right up front, something stylized looks almost like a Ford Thunderbird t-shirt, but that was also intended to remind you that this was a turbo and not just a regular Citron CX, a turbo with a pretty strong 170 horsepower and the next one from that I.

I'm out of the CX, let's talk about probably its most distinctive feature of all, except perhaps the suspension, and that would be its design. It has a very distinctive design and probably the most distinctive elements are here on the back where you have this teardrop shape. Even the rear of the car and it has no rear wheel arch is covered, which certainly gives this car a very specific appearance. You know what you're looking at when you see that teardrop shape and the covered back arch, it's definitely a lemon color. In fact, they used this design philosophy for many years on many different vehicles.

The teardrop shape was totally crazy at the time, although it has now become quite common on electric cars due to the drag coefficient and aerodynamic benefits. The covered rear wheel arch never really caught. That also benefits the dragon's aerodynamics, but most people think it looks weird and that's why most car manufacturers don't do it, but the current generation Honda Clarity has basically the same shape as this car, the teardrop shape and the covered rear wheel arch to improve aerodynamics. and improve its range for efficiency, so perhaps Citron was a little ahead of the times with this design, although frankly I never found it particularly attractive.

Some people think these were beautiful cars with this design philosophy. I think they are a bit strange and very clearly Citroen, let's put it that way and finally we get to the back of the cx-25 and talk about the hatchback, although this car is so strange and peculiar that by now you should have learned that you can't assume nothing about and in fact it doesn't have a tailgate, it does have a trunk even though it is shaped like a tailgate, as you can see this is just a pretty standard opening trunk rather than an actual liftgate as you would expect from a car with this shape, just get a trunk because the lemon is strange in all aspects, including, by the way, the trunk itself, which is a fairly standard full size, nothing too strange except that there is no lip on the back of the trunk or there's just a very small one and that means if you park up a hill and you have stuff in the trunk it's probably just going to roll off, that was kind of a reality that you had to live with and against. to protect yourself, don't separate yourself from climbing steep hills with valuable things in the trunk now, another strange element back here, something very distinctive about this car is the rear window, which you can see, it is not flat at first glance, it looks flat , but actually it is like concave, it bends inward from the sides and then bends towards the other.

On the side you can see that it is like in reflections and it is a very strange piece now, whyDid you decide to do this? I don't know, they really didn't do it on any other model except a newer citron called the c6. It's just not something you see very often and it would probably be very difficult to replace this broken glass, but it certainly looks cool if you notice it and those are the quirks and features of the Citron CX-25, now is the time to bring it to market. road and see how well it drives driving the CX.

I had never driven a French car from this era before. I really have no idea what to expect, but here's the first thing you notice: the address is very strange in the sense that it writes itself. immediately so you come back to the center no matter what you do and that's a bit of a strange situation certainly the car isn't fast and it doesn't feel fast and it's never intended to be fast uh that's not really what it's about, but it's acceptably fast, I mean, you can reach normal speeds and drive normally and it's not a big deal in terms of handling, you know, it's kind of interesting, I mean, the hydropneumatic suspension is very beneficial for the ride quality and I have to say that.

I mean, I'm going over bumps and it's like you don't feel much, you really don't, but in terms of the actual handling capabilities of the car, it feels a little floaty, there's some body roll and that kind of thing. . It doesn't feel tremendously precise and that feeling is assisted by the steering, which really doesn't feel very precise. The car is not really a driver and it was not intended to be a sports car, it was a luxury car and in fact. The ride feels pretty luxurious and frankly this is just a cool car, it's just a cool car, you drive this thing, you don't really expect to have that much excitement when you drive it, huh, but it's cool. the feeling that you know this is one of the most extravagant and strange things and everyone is staring at you because it's a very strange look, no one is really used to seeing a vehicle like this and it's a strange thing to find, yeah, I mean Frankly, it doesn't feel fast with 170 horsepower, even that feels a little generous, although this car is sized at 170 which is probably an accurate figure.

What I think is great about this car is that it's just interesting, it's weird, it's

quirky

, it's fun and it's interesting and, frankly, I just like it. Everything about it is a little stranger and more different from a normal car and that's the cool thing. You're definitely not going to have the most fun driving experience. throw it around corners, but you'll also walk up to your car every time you park it and say this is the best thing on the lot. Everyone will ask about it, it's just a very distinctive and very special vehicle, frankly, I think it's a lot of fun to drive, it's definitely a

quirky

experience between the steering wheel and the self-centering steering and the comfortable suspension and obviously just the look of the car is It's very strange that if you're sitting in the back, you get those nice luxury seats and you're a good car to transport people.

I think what's really fun about it is the fact that no one knows what it is, no one sees it, no one has driven it. before and you have all these weird features and things that it has that are so weird and that make the experience especially interesting and exciting and I think it's cool for someone who likes wacky and weird cars, I think that makes it pretty cool . quirky and strange car and that is the citroen cx hi this car is strange it is so strange strange and strange but as someone who loves strange cars it is strange in every way I am delighted to have had the opportunity to pass by the day. with this car and show you all its oddities and its interesting quirks and features, and if you want to experience all this for yourself, you can buy this car at cars and deals anyway, now is the time to give the cx a doug score with weekend. categories and style some people find these cars magnificent, frankly I have never felt that way.

I think it's actually a little unattractive and gets four out of ten acceleration, it's not particularly powerful and gets one out of ten handling, okay, nothing. special and gets a three out of 10. The fun factor is higher, although you get a surprisingly enjoyable driving experience and the fun of knowing you're driving something so strange that it gets a 4 out of 10, which is a great number for this type of car. The coolness factor of the car is even greater, this would make the cars and coffee turn heads like crazy and gets a 6 out of 10 for a weekend score of 18 out of 50.

Next up are the daily categories and features, This car is relatively well equipped, but not very well equipped by modern standards and it gets a 4 out of 10. Comfort is excellent, surprisingly comfortable thanks to that excellent suspension and it gets a 7 out of 10. The quality is good, the internal materials are quite Good ones, but reliability is a big question mark. especially for parts support in North America and gets a 6 out of 10. Practicality is normal for a car like this. The back seat is larger than usual but the cargo area is quite small and gets a 5 out of 10.

Finally, the value and these cars are reasonable. Prices range from 20 to 30 grand, which isn't much to spend to enjoy all the excitement of cars and coffee. The real problem here would be reliability or at least for me, you would be afraid of breaking down and having trouble finding a solution. a 6 out of 10 for a total daily score of 28 out of 50. Added up and Doug's score is 46 out of 100, which puts it here against other slightly relevant cars, although nothing comes close to rivaling this, the cx is great . weird, quirky, cool and special, and it was so much fun to see this car.

You know what you're looking at when you see the teardrop shape and the archless back arch, it's definitely okay.