MEET THE OWNER – MATTHEW CURTIS AND HIS CITROEN CX 2000 CONFORT

Sometimes, a classified advertisement for a classic car acts as a siren, tempting you to throw caution (and overdraft) to the winds. Such a vehicle is the 1975-model Citroën CX 2000 Confort owned by Matthew Curtis, and when gazing at its lines, a certain Motor report comes to mind – “Surely one of the world’s most beautiful production cars of all time.”

Citroën launched the heir to the DS in 1974, and Autocar mused:

“The bold decision to use a transverse engine installation in a car this size has paid off well in terms of safety and use of space, and the CX must surely succeed in winning the favour of a large part of the European middle-class market.”

RHD production was scheduled for late spring 1975, and the same title appeared slightly wary:

The Citroën CX 2000 may possibly have been chosen as the “Car of the Year” more because of its novelty than for its virtues. There is no doubt that it would be a much more likeable car with lighter steering, and in fact, this is to be an optional extra later this year.

However, the test concluded, “Its existing virtues, which include the amount of space and the degree of comfort offered, more than justify the price which is in any case competitive with its European mainland rivals.”

Motor Sport compared the CX 2000 with the Wolseley ‘Wedge’, its nearest British competitor, which was slightly cheaper than the Citroën - £2,999 as opposed to £3,446. They preferred the British Leyland offering - surely a classic car magazine test comparing the two must be in the offing.

Car also evaluated the Wolseley and the Citroën alongside a BMW 518. All were desirable vehicles, but the review concluded the CX was “one of the few cars that belongs to the future as it does to 1975”. An affluent motorist might have looked at the Ford Granada Mk. I, a Rover 2200SC or a Triumph 2500S – fine motorcars but seeming to date from another epoch compared with the Citroën. The instrument binnacle continues to amaze many drivers. The brochure claimed it was “newly planned for safe driving in modern traffic”, and the overall effect was akin to a Tom Baker-era Doctor Who spacecraft.

The 2000 Confort was the entry-level version of a range including the 2200 Super, the 2200 Pallas and the Safari. JWO 272 N is a rare example of the CX ‘Au Naturelle’, with electric front windows and a radio as extras: Matthew points out “the rev counter was also an optional extra in mine”. The transmission is a four-speed manual, while Citroën designed the CX to use a rotary engine. However, due to the 1973 Fuel Crisis, they abandoned this idea and adapted the DS plant to fit transversely.

Matthew’s CX left the Aulany-Sois-Bois factory in December 1974 and registered on 18th January 1975 by a dealer in Saint-Affrique in the South of France. Six years later, it was stored in a garage, where it remained until a new owner took the Citroën to the UK in 2015. And it is still almost unbelievable that those famous lines are nearly 50 years old. To think the CX debuted when the Bedford HA Van was still in production and Britons regarded colour television as a suspicious new invention…

With Thanks To: Matthew Curtis of https://www.rustrepublic.co.uk/