Of Citroens and Michelin.
My oldest brother recently passed away at 82. It was a big surprise. He taught me wrenching and all sorts of ‘can-do’ attitude. I have been gathering up memories to share with my other 3 brothers and family and I recalled some that I thought might interest the GRM crowd.
In 1966 Chuck bought a 2CV from a new Citroen dealership in south, south Texas. I think it was $1600 or so. Many years later I got it from him. He became enamored of the brand and got an ID19 as well. This is the iconic (well, aren’t all Citroens iconic?) model with all hydraulic suspension and looks like a cockroach… Anyway both these French imports had Michelin steel belted radials – unheard of in the Lower Rio Grande Valley at the time. He spoke so highly of them that he convinced my father (water district manager) to buy them for his trucks. In this area, the water from the Rio Grande (which was used for irrigation as well as city water) was routed through many different Resacas or canals. Sort of an Anglicization of rio seca (dry riverbed). Anyway these canals were all over and his workers needed to patrol them daily. With the tires they had then they were experiencing a flat per day. When they moved to the more expensive Michelins, that dropped to 1 per month. Plus they could be retreaded – what a deal!
Sometime about then Michelin issued a recall of the tires on his ID19 and since almost all Michelins there were from the Citroens, they knew who owned them. Michelin sent out reps with tires to replace them. One day a man arrived at Chuck’s house in a taxi. He had 4 new tires with him and he proceeded to replace the tires with nothing but hand tools, aired them up then left. How is that for customer service?
My father spoke of the 63/64 Chevy pickups he bought for his crew as “loaded” – meaning they had all the options – like turn signals and a heater! Only his crew chiefs had A/C though.
That Citroen ID had a wet sleeve engine and I recall my brother ‘rebuilding’ it in his driveway with a set of JC Whitney cylinder and pistons. Seems like that cost about $100.
