1976 Citroën GS

That fault was the GS’s habit of returning to its constituent mineral elements with only a modest sprinkling of water. The problem was so bad that you used to be able to buy three-year-old GSs that had just failed their first MOT on structural rot for peanuts. 

Consequently, they’re rare. Very rare. Partly because all the sensible people were scared off buying one, and partly because the people that were daft enough to buy one found that the best place to part-exchange their nearly new Citroen was the scrapyard. 

This means the only chance most of us will ever have to buy a decent GS is from a sunny country like the South of France. Or Spain.

Which is where this car comes from. It was built in Spain, sold in Spain, and spent the first forty years of its life in Spain, where it successfully dodged road salt, rust, and British mechanics. As a result it is minty-fresh underneath, with not even the merest hint of a whiff of the welder’s torch. 

That it also comes with a comprehensive and documented provenance and runs like a dream proves that unicorns do exists, and they’re ridden by fairies wearing outfits woven from mermaid hair.

‘Break’ is Citroen-speak for the estate versions of the GS. No, we don’t understand it either, but it’s a lovely looking thing that comes within a hair’s breadth of being as lovely as the saloon.

The bad news is that the paintwork isn’t original. But the good news is that its previous Spanish owner only had it resprayed in the original colour of ‘Ivoire Borely’ because it was a bit faded from all that sun. There was no rust save for a very small repair around the tailgate (picture below). Which rules out just about every concern you would be understandably feeling.

The steel wheels have been refurbished and sport excellent tyres.

The four chrome corner bumpers aren’t as nice as the rest of the car but you don’t need to worry about that either because the current owner will replace them before the auction is finished.

Continental GSs had a much funkier dashboard that the UK cars. Where we enjoyed a series of bland but legible Veglia dials, our European cousins reveled in a dashboard that displayed its information via a series of rotating, multi-coloured instruments, appearing to work in much the same way as a kaleidoscope. What they lost in legibility, they more than made up for in fun, which is something you’ll be able to experience for yourself if you buy it.

It’s also got period brown fabric seats, inset with brown corduroy. They’re very period but utterly authentic. The rear seats have two small tears from some sun damage as shown in the pictures below and therefore has a typical brown over cover fitted to protect them. 

The steering wheel will be replaced, as the original one is starting to show its age.

With such a low mileage, you’d expect the GS to run sweetly and the owner confirms that this is the case; he drove it back from Madrid last year, describing the journey as ‘wonderful’ and ‘fault free’.

The car is offered for sale freshly serviced and with a full MOT. The suspension spheres have been recently changed for recharged units, an easy DIY job that restored the pillow-soft ride and inch-perfect handling at a stroke.

Problems are minor, and comprise the following MOT advisory points: rear exhaust has a minor leak of exhaust gases; n/s outer and o/s inner cv joint gaiters deteriorated; and o/s lower front ball joint dust cover damaged, all of which will be rectified by the owner before the end of the auction. The slight play in the steering that the MOT tester remarked upon is not thought to be an issue.

Oh, and the underbonnet area is as clean as the bodywork. Never thought you’d ever see that on a GS, did you?

The current owner bought this example from the car’s one previous owner, who sadly passed away in Spain last year. The car is now in the United Kingdom, road-registered, MOT’d and wearing an age-related number plate.

The car comes with a full set of Spanish government inspection certificates from 1976 to 2017, along with its Spanish log book.

Your chance to own this example only comes about as the owner needs the money to fund the restoration of his other French cars. All nine of them. (And no, we can’t even think of anything French we’d rather own either.)

One of us used to write about the Citroen GS for the Citroen Car Club in the mid-eighties, and he’s been looking for a mint GS to buy for the past three decades, and has never seen such a wonderful example as this.

Which is reflected in the guide price of £12,500. Yes, that is possibly the most expensive Citroen GS you’ve ever seen advertised, but at a point in history when a photograph of a potato is worth a million Euros, and middling Ford Escorts are reaching £50,000, we think the price is fair. 

You may disagree, in which case we respect your judgement but would ask you to try and find another like this. After which time you will, we hope, come to respect ours.

One thing we can all probably agree on is that a car like this deserves to be used. While it would be very easy to turn this car into a concours trailer queen, she deserves better. Like touring rural France in the summer, with a boot full of cheap wine and smelly local cheeses. Vive la France.