Photo from the CC Cohort by Benoit.
Related CC reading:
Le Curbside Classic: Citroën H Van – The French Tin Goose
Curbside Classic: 1974 Citroën HY Van – Corrugated Irony
Food Truck Classic: Citroën H-Van – A Long Way From Chartres
Wordless Find: A Pair Of Citroën H-Vans In Primary Colors
– Posted on June 8, 2026
Push me pull you. Which one was getting towed?
One of my favorite vehicle designs – using the trailing arm rear suspension to achieve a loading height about 6″ from the roadway and the corrugations to save weight was genius.
I have heard that these are unfortunately not really all that nice to drive compared to a VW T1, though I’d still love a go. The load area, however, is huge and much more usable and accessible.
Both of these are the later version, but what a great find!
That rabbits nest of wires, cables and chain between the rear bumpers portends a mighty tug of war in their future. Now which bumper will remain attached?
These were built from 1947-1982 and until the mid 80s you saw them everywhere. Because the HYwas very easy to customize, they saw use as delivery van, mobile retail truck, RV, mobile catering truck and also many of them were used by the police and the fire brigade. Unfortunately, they were extremely rust-prone in our climate, so not too many survived. When you see one today, it’s mostly a nicely restored example serving as food truck.
Nice to see survivors .
A buddy of mine had a movie vehicle rental fleet and had one of these in decent shape apart from no engine / transmission, he offered it to me cheaply but what to do with it ? .
I hope it didn’t get burned or blown up in some action rag .
-Nate