Citroën 2CV

jack: 25th Feb 2008 - 20:46 GMT

little frenchie, i saw this car around europe quite a bit, one night i ran out of gas and stopped in a church graveyard and i syphered some gas out of the tank of that car, is that a crime? actually it's only a crime in another country if it's against the law, see seinfeld show number 267.

Hobson: 30th Mar 2008 - 15:43 GMT

I lived in Israel for 4 years in the early 70's. I bought one of these from a medical student who was leaving the country. It was 11 years old. I paid $125.00 for it. I ended up having to put another $125.00 into the engine and body. What a fantastic piece of junk.

Every trip to the garage was an adventure, especially in technical language. It took quite a time come to understand that the Hebrew for battery was batteria when that was an issue. Then filling the tires with air became an exercise in figuring out what libs were. That was the term I learned at one filling station. I finally realized that they were lbs or pounds per sq inch.

It had a dipstick instead of a gas gauge. I had to fill it up two or maybe three times a month. It took me everywhere, even from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. There is quite a hill to climb to get to Jerusalem but it made it every time without overheating which a lot of newer, better cars did.

Israelis used to laugh their heads off because my license showed that I bought it tax free. They would shout at me from their cars about what an idiot I was. The tax on cars then was something like 100% or 200%. They couldn't understand wasting my tax exemption on a piece of junk like that.

I tried to donate it to the government when I left because I knew no one would buy it from me. But they wanted me to pay around $1000.00 in taxes for the privilege. So I found a kibbutz that would give it a home for nothing. You don't forget a car like that.