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If simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication, the Mercedes-Benz S-class is rather grotesque. Some manufacturers leverage technological prowess as a selling point, while others have gone to significant lengths to prove that less is more. Keeping a car simple is often a way to make it affordable to the widest audience possible. In the decades following World War 2, especially in the 21st century, simplicity has often been celebrated as an enthusiast car’s best quality.
From the cheap to the exciting, join us for a look at some of the simplest cars ever created:
Citroën 2CV (1948)
Citroën devoted a considerable amount of energy to make the 2CV as cheap and basic as possible. Pierre-Jules Boulanger (1885-1950), a Michelin executive who became the carmaker’s president in 1938, told engineers the car needed to be a bicycle with four seats. “It replaces the bicycle, the motorcycle and the horse-drawn carriage,” he wrote. These guidelines shaped the TPV, which was cancelled shortly before its launch due to World War 2, but they permeated the regular-production 2CV.