OK, all you Falcon-driving hipsters in San Francisco, Seattle and Portland: time to step up your game, because the Falcon is getting a bit old and predictable, like your pork pie hat. I guarantee you, if you show up in a Citroen Ami 6, the real world will bow down in front of your impeccable irony. Because as of today, I have declared the Ami 6 as the hippest car, period. Now the trick is to find one…
Like the Falcon, the Ami 6 is eminently practical, seeing that it’s just a 2CV in a new suit. Maybe a bit slower than the Falcon, with its 22hp 602cc boxer twin, but that only adds to the appeal. In an age when Camry V6s are faster than Ferraris of just a couple of decades ago, a slow car is as cool as slow food.
But if you’re shopping for an Ami 6, make sure it’s not the upscale “Club” model, (right), with the quad headlights. Not nearly as cool as the google-eyed original (left).
Look what washed up on the shore; it looks like the waves have worked on it a bit.
In an age of ridiculously wide tires, the bicycle-sized ones on the Ami are the perfect counterpoint. Sliding windows: who else has those?
And you’ll really impress your friends when you take them on a winding (or just windy) road.
Time to get on the program…repeat after me: must have an Ami 6.
I saw one of these on the street in Fontenay-le-Comte last time I was in France, in a lovely turquoise with a light Vendéan patina… Sadly by the time I’d got close enough to snag it for the cohort the little old man (in a pork pie hat! no word of a lie) at the wheel (or more accurately peering over it) had screeched off into traffic… OK, more “puttered” than “screeched”, and “traffic” in Fontenay is something of a relative term… anyway I missed snapping it, which really bugged me as it would have been a cracking Curbside Cohort find.
I wonder if le vieil Monsieur knew just how hip he was being?
I’ll get it next time.
Those were really awful… I remember old ones coming on vacations to Spain with the former French headlights. Ages since I’ve seen one of these
The Break version aka Station Wagon Estate, was far much better looking:
I prefer RELIABLE cars!
Where’s the ‘adventure’ in a reliable car? eh?
Actually, they were pretty reliable. Awkward, slow, rust-prone, funny-handling but reliable. Little 2-cilinder boxer was tough as nails, and it didn’t have a distributor, just one pair of contacts and one coil, connected to one spark plug at each end. And if battery was dead, there was a crank lever readily available. But it wasn’t really needed, it would start right away, even if sitting under snow cover for a month or so.
I run a Citroen Ami 6 as a daily driver here in the UK and have done for 3 years. Not had a single problem yet. I’ve got a better record of car problems and getting to work (100%) than my boss and his Golf!
This just have to be the most awkward styled car ever made. Therefore ripe for hipsterification. I always wondered if the design team deliberately made it so esthetically challenged, and if so, why? Was the Citroen design team the first hipster crowd? Deliberately making an ironic post modernist comment on design? They can’t have been oblivous to the overall awkwardness of that car. Yet, it isn’t a mistake, it isn’t a product of laissez-faire mentality, they didn’t just smack it all together and said; that’ll do. They deliberately designed the entire body in that awkward way.
Too much absinthe?
Coming on the heels of the DS, it was quite a shocker when it appeared.
Simple. The designers must be blind, or at least nearly so!
I’ve always thought this was the ugliest car ever made.
The raison-d’être for the Ami 6 was the Renault 4’s appearance in 1961.
The Renault 4 was a 2CV copy by Renault but Renault’ taken their time to investigate the weak points of the 2CV like the air cooled flat twin engine and made a more user friendly car with the Renault 4, which was notably the first mass produced hatch-back (everybody forgets this)
On the French countryside where the 2Cv had been a big hit, but people were moving to the Renault 4 and the AMI 6 was Citroën’s answer.
In Break (estate) version the AMI 6 really gave the Renault 4 a run for its money.
The reason I love these simple French cars is the fact that the French knew how to achieve a great comfortable ride, good economics and great real great handling on a small car.
While BMC climbed the small car mountain from the otherside with their immortal MIni (sporty, low ground clearance and bumpy but rather rather fast)
the French went on producing cars softly dancing over the Route Nationales and Departementales.
The beauty of cars like these is that they bear an unmistakeble national identity, it was a time the home market was important and nobody even thought about trying to make an imitation of a Mercedes or a BMW, like every car manufacturar is trying today.
The AMI6 was the first production car (or one of the first) to receive rectangualar headlights that were even used by Maserati on their 5000 GT.
super cool for sure. I spent many hours riding around in Falcons in the midwest in the mid 70s, back when a Falcon was all a teenager could afford (that or a Maverick) and I do see the connection between the Falcon (esp the pre-’64) and the Ami 6. Have never seen an Ami 6, however, even after 15 years in the Bay Area. Does the Ami 6 lean through turns like the 2CV? That would have been great fun with a car full of beered-up teenagers.
Lean? Even in a slight cross-wind, it leans. I just added a picture of that, since you reminded me.
Funny thing is that same company produced also Xantia activa, which was the fastest car on the moose test ever, faster than Ferraris, Porches, Corvetes and the like.
You can check pretty heated discussion about it here:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=901130
Wind on lots of lock in my Xsara at 60 mph it just turns no muss no fuss, and in the racing world where corner speed is everything rallying, the Xsara became the winningest competitor in WRC sending Subaru and Mitsubishi home to sulk and withdraw.
These guys know how to do suspension that works.
Mr. Niedermeyer, you are quite the salesman – I almost want one of these now. Of course, my midwestern conservatism would prevent me from making a go of any rare, exotic French car that would probably require a special order tire gauge. Still, I find these highly intriguing.
Besides, as a mid-westerner, you know all about them Frenchies, right? That’s why you get Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast!
Thanks Paul, you made my day! I travelled thousands of kms in these when I was a kid. My uncle had an early dark grey sedan and my parents a late “Club” wagon, which had better seats and chrome here and there but wasn’t nearly as dependable as basic earlier models, for some weird reason.
Still, that was the family car (beside our old 2CV). Heck, we even trailed our caravan with it every summer!
At first the Ami 6 looked like a true oddball even by Citroen’s notoriously flexible aesthetic standards, but people quickly got used to it and began to like it, especially the wagon. If I’m not mistaken, the wagon sold even better than the sedan, as opposed to the usual pattern. After a while, Ami 6s were pretty much everywhere in France and nobody paid attention to them.
Today people are discovering its hipness potential. Of course you need a serious sense of self-irony to drive around in one of these, but you’re sure to bring a smile on many faces – except possibly the face of the upwardly mobile guy in an Audi SUV right behind you. I totally agree with you that an early, basic model is the one to go for. Can’t be beat!
I have no idea how many of these can be in America. And I’m hard put to find a US car to compare it with, in terms of combined weirdness, commercial success at home and hipness today. You be the judge. Falcon, as said?
Actually, the Falcon wasn’t at all weird, but it’s just readily available now. A somewhat better analogy would be the 1960-1962 Valiant, which would score a bit higher here on the hipster factor too.
Yes, the wagons were more common; I shot an Ami8 Break in Paris last time there.
Nice find! By the looks of it (neither pristine nor half-wreck) it must one of the very few Amis still used as normal transportation.
I’d love a Ami! I hope that doesn’t make me a hispter. They do turn up for sale once and a while but they seem to come in two condition types; perfect or basket case. Neither appeals to me.
So get a perfect one…it’d become a basket case before you knew it….
Where else can you avail yourself of notoriously flexible aesthetic standards like that??! And that’s not even considering the notoriously flexible standards of reliability!
I’ll just watch, thanks.
Back when Detroit was importing “compact” cars for their mid-range brands, Mercury should have brought in the Ami. Perfect match for the Monterey Breezeway. (CC here)
PS: Are those Venetian blinds in the last photo?
Actually, they would have brought over Ford Anglias, but I’m taking this topic in a reverse direction.
They did Lawrence shot one. You guys need to visit the cohort.
Speaking of that Breezeway, it’s actually for sale for $4,000. And tempting me for the pending holiday season.
It’s not all that many years since I passed up one just like that at $700.
Holy mackerel, what a car!
Sliding glass? It DOES get hot over there, so I suppose they suffered a bit more than we did in the age before A/C.
I’d love to see one of these up close and personal, especially to actually drive one – in a safe area, of course, as I’m so used to power-everything, like when I drove my buddy’s 1961 Volvo PV544 a few years ago. I’m glad it was in an empty part of town – traffic-wise, as I had to re-program my reaction time, stop distance and so forth…
Kinda sad about Citroen – those two chevrons…forever a corporal…
“A dash of French wierdness,” as I once read in an automotive review of some Citroen model.
Funny about Falcons becoming the hipster car. One of the hip younger employees at our local Trader Joe’s drives a bright red stripper ’65 Falcon, pretty down-at-the-heels, you can’t miss it in the parking lot. I still shudder at the time when my father almost forced a new ’65 Falcon two-door sedan on me for my first car when I turned 18. Not a cool car then.
In France the nickname for these cars was the “3CV”, and for awhile they were the best selling cars in France. I have always been amazed at just how bizzarely ugly the front ends were on these things. I don’t think that Citroen used modeling clay to sculpt the hood, but rather a large sheet of dough that was draped over the modeling buck and just left to assume whatever form it chose. I own one of these things and it’s in perfect shape. It’s in 1/43rd scale which is just the size I like. It’s very reliable.
Nice Kevin. Is that a Dinky or a Solido? Or something else?
Sadly, I don’t have a Corgi Citroen DS in my collection, but I do have a couple of the ID Safari wagons with the cool folding rear seat, plus lime gold and pink Citroen SMs.
This one was Dad’s. I restored it for him about ten years ago.
I think it’s a Norev (I had one too! Where did it go…?). This ID wagon looks great!
Olivier is correct, it’s made by Norev. It’s injection molded plastic.
My favorite Ami is Ami M35 prototype car.
Now THAT may be the fairy godmother of all Citroën oddballs. Only 267 made from 1969 to 1971. I’ve only ever seen one, outside a Citroën dealership, in seventysomething. Kind of a Holy Grail now, really.
Now that’s an interesting design.
It reminds me of the GM EV1 electric car from the 90s.
Wasn’t the Ami M35 also like the EV1 (and Chrysler Turbine Car) in that after they were leased for a few years, Citroen took them all back and destroyed them? I was under the impression that there are but a handful left in the world, much like the rotary GS that it was the blueprint for.
Citroën was there when NSU launched their Wankel Spider back in the early sixties and saw the potential of the Wankel engine (small, light, few moving parts and high-revving)
Actually Citroën’s answer for the 1964 launched Renault 16 was the GS.
And the GS was destined to be fitted with a wankel engine.
The M35 was a live test project to get familliar with Wankel engines.
There has been a GS Bi-rotor with a Wankel engine that can be identified by a different colour palet and slightly modified frontwings.
The Bi-rotor also head Cibie ‘kangourou’ headlights, a headlight incorporating two reflectors, the smaller one being for the high-beam.
These GS Bi-rotor’s ran like a bat out of hell so to speak but were not scucessfull, NOT because of reliability issues, no they were unsuccessfull because they were too expensive and the first oil-crisis arrived on our door step.
And they were real gas-guzzlers.
http://www.citroenet.org.uk/passenger-cars/michelin/birotor/birotor1.html
The Ami M35 was able to combine sleek fastback styling, a spectacular hydro-pneumatic suspension, with a fuel-inefficient Wankel engine! If a hipster REALLY wants to step up their game, they have to get one of these elusive oddballs!
Just a bloated, weird 2 CV. Absinthe as a reason for such a design is grossly overrated. That’s what grandma used as a placebo to get high. They must have been on stronger stuff.
I’m really hoping that this is the start of Citroën Week, and my tryptophan stupor tomorrow is interrupted by a piece on an SM you found in Eugene.
I wish…one of these days/months/years.
I saw one putting around Toronto back in the late ’90’s. I’d never seen one before and I haven’t seen one since. I have come across a few well preserved 2CV’s, an SM, and a DS-19 in my travels around town, though. I’ll have to keep my camera handy.
Is this rebody plastic? Or resin, like the Trabant?
Did someone leave the prototype out in the sun, and then when it did what cheap plastic does…look at it, think of Salvador Dali’s clocks, and say KEWEL!!?
If it is in a Tintin book then it gets a double stamp of hipster approval.
+1 Capock Hatpin. 😉
I don’t think I ever encountered one of these in the wild in my NJ boyhood, but I recall seeing pics in a magazine or book and saying, “Wow! That’s one weird looking car!”
Is this a modern version of the Ami 6 ?
I took the photos about 2 months ago, but I do not remember the brand of the car.
another photo
another view
That’s a Toyota, can’t remember the model but quite a few ex-JDM import examples here in NZ. Always distinctive! Many have yellowish tinted glass too, which adds to the other-world looks.
Righty, it’s a Toyota WiLL Vi (no, really), based on the Vitz/Echo/Yaris, and made from 2000-2001. Here’s one for sale here on trademe if you want to see some more pics: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/toyota/will/auction-532099758.htm The only other WiLLs made are the VS (looks like Darth Vader’s helmet on wheels, awesome!) and the Cypha (shudder!). Wikipedia has info.
I must admit I don’t find the Ami ugly at all. To me it’s interesting and endearing. I luuurve the blue one James May drove on a Top Gear road trip – very pretty baby-blue colour, with fantastic-looking yellow headlights:
Egads!!
The Ami was styled by Flaminio Bertoni, the same guy behind the 2cv and the DS…what truly leaves me speechless it’s the front end, it looks like a melted ’50s american car! Absurd car, a proper hipster-mobile anyway 😀 !
“notoriously flexible aesthetic standards” – I must remember that.
The first paragraph ended “…Now the trick is to find one…” How many other readers mentally ended the sentence “…that will move itself.”
Did these have the crazy see-thru fibreglass roof that DSs had? Despite being such an ugly bug I really like the Ami though I don’t think I’ve the stomach to actually own one.
The Ami Super had the larger GS engine and could top 90…I believe early Maserati Quatroportes used Ami headlamp bezels!
You’re going to drive the hipsters crazy. There are only a handful of driveable Ami 6s in the US.
Back in the late seventies dad brought mum a metallic blue Ami Super ,yes the one with the GS 1100 engine, just o few were imported into the UK, with a makeshift dash for the RHD.Crap compared to the proper LHD one. Will Never forget the look on a MG MIdgets
driver face when we burned him of at the lights. He thought it was the 602cc twin pot 2CV
Ami 6!.
Took it dpwn to the South of France. God those soft seats compressed down to the springs after a few hundred miles.Painful!
Dad passed it on to an uncle One night local yobs rocked it onto its roof out side his house!.
MH.
Since i find impossible to find any AMI6, i will stick to my hipster mobile mexican made Renault 5… Same elastic suspension, weird styling ( if not genious), hit or miss reliability ( will always take me home), fuel economy, conversation maker, and simply, owning a french car, just awesome…
Ugliness it,s all in the eye of the beholder ;o)
Honestly, I’d be more than happy with a bog-standard 2CV. It is a car I’ve been fascinated with since childhood. They’re awfully, awfully thin on the ground here in the USA, though!
Here are he documents showing the USA spec Ami 6 !
The back
And this is mine ! It’s a 1963, white with a cool patina. Runs like a dream ! I just had to change the break after being stored for 25 years… I drive daily a Ami 8 Service from 1973. It does 20 to 30 000 km a year and it is very reliable. Funny how some of you think these cars aren’t reliable. Citroën produced these flat twin engined cars for more than 40 years. There is a reason why…
People love urban legends.
And stuff that says Made in Germany
Moi, I swim against the stream
And did 250000 K with a Xantia Break 1.8 petrol
Gave it to my -beautiful- sister in law.
Who drove it for the next 13!!! years.
Sans problemes.
Love your AMI !
I have to admit I like it in a sort of Nash Metropolitan way…
“This just have to be the most awkward styled car ever made.” – spoken like a person who has never seen a 1976 Matador. I’d love to own an Ami someday but then again, I owned and loved a 1956 Nash Statesman Super too…
Ami 6 and Ami 8 wagon, among the top 10 most beautiful designs in the Auto history
penned by Bertone, built by Citroen . It is 100% art and function altogether