Citroen 2CV with just 500 miles and ‘remarkable love story’ goes to auction with estimate of £20,000

It has been 76 years since Citroën introduced perhaps the most influential model of all time.

On October 7, 1948, the 2CV debuted at the Salon de l’Automobile car show in Paris. By the time production ended some 42 years later in 1990, more than 3.8 million had been sold.

However, few are in the timeless condition of this British registered example which goes under the hammer next month with an estimated retail price in the region of £20,000.

With just over 550 miles on the odometer, the 2CV being sold at auction in Birmingham tells a ‘remarkable love story’ between a father and his daughter…

The one-owner car was purchased by a father 34 years ago as a secret 21st birthday present for his then six-year-old daughter.

It is one of the last examples of the 2CV produced in 1990 at the Mangualde factory in Portugal.

It was delivered to the father in the summer of that year and registered in his daughter’s name, before being ‘wrapped in cotton wool’ and kept safe to give to her as a birthday present some fifteen years later.

The seller, whose identity has not been revealed but is said to be a former athlete turned sports journalist, knew the car growing up and there is an old Polaroid photo in the history file of her with the quirky Citroen.

However, she had no idea it would be given to her as a surprise gift for her 21st birthday.

The right-hand drive example, registration ‘H490 SYA’, is a 602cc, Vallelunga Red, 2CV6 Spéciale.

It was only driven 600 miles during its life, which certainly makes it one of the least used surviving 2CVs currently available in the UK.

Iconic auctioneers will offer it without reservation to the highest bidder at the NEC Motor Show on November 9. Still, the company predicts it will cost between £15,000 and £20,000.

The auction house said: ‘This 2CV comes with a remarkable love story for a little girl by her father.

“It was purchased by him as a surprise 21st birthday gift for his daughter, a lovely gesture but perhaps a tad impulsive as she was only six years old at the time,” it added.

Despite not being used during its first few years of life, the seller says it was started and maintained regularly to ensure it functioned correctly.

It is all original, save for the addition of an electronic ignition for convenience.

The engine is as it was when it left the factory; In fact, it still has many quality inspection stickers on it that would have been present when it rolled off the production line.

The seller, who has driven the vehicle sparingly over the past 19 years, says “loss of storage space” is the only reason the vehicle is being offered to collectors.

Gary Dunne, sales manager at Iconic Auctioneers said: ‘Rarely does a car of this age come to light with only one registered owner, even less so when it is a model with such a cult following, and offered as is without reservation, we expect that collectors will be in abundance.

“This is an iconic car at an iconic sale.”

The 2CV is without a doubt one of the most enduring archetypes of global car culture.

When it was launched on this day in 1948, it was intended to help the French working class get started after the end of the Second World War.

But it did more than that; it became a success story for the domestic economy, both from a transport and production point of view.

The name ‘deux chevaux’ translates to ‘two horses’, referring to the number of taxable horsepower at launch.

While £20,000 may seem like a lot of money for a 2CV, rare, low-mileage examples have been known to change hands for six-figure sums in recent years.

John Mayhead, classic car valuation expert and editor of the Hagerty UK Price Guide, says the 2CV enjoyed a post-Covid price increase in line with most other collector cars, although this has declined in recent months .

“The very best examples, especially the very early ones, still command a higher price, but only in France do they fetch really huge prices… that’s where all the records are set,” he told us.

Even if this example sells at the high end of its estimate, it will pale in comparison to the most expensive ever sold at auction… which is a unique story in itself.

That’s because the title of most expensive 2CV to go under the hammer is one that is sculpted from wood.

French carpenter Michel Robillard sold the piece last summer for €210,000 (£181,000 at the time of sale), after spending 5,000 hours on it as part of a project dating back to 2011.

The driveable model is made of four different types of wood: walnut for the wings and a combination of pear, apple and cherry wood for the rest of the body.