Citroen Type A Price Guide

The Citroën Type A of 1919 was the first Citroën, the car that launched André Citroën’s automotive empire and established the company’s reputation for making motoring accessible to ordinary people. Launched just months after the end of the First World War, it was the first European car to be produced using American mass-production methods, and the first in Europe to be sold at a fixed, publicly advertised price.

The Car

Designed with assistance from Edouard Michelin and using techniques André Citroën had observed at the Ford plant in Detroit, the Type A used a 1,327cc four-cylinder producing 18bhp in a simple two-seat torpedo body. The car was launched in June 1919 and by the end of the year 2,500 had been produced. The ‘A’ in the name was purely sequential; it was simply the first. The 856 factory workers produced 100 cars per day at peak. Sold at 7,950 francs, it was the most affordable automobile in France.

Buying

Any surviving Type A is a museum piece of considerable historical significance. French specialist clubs and the Citroën Conservatoire in Aulnay are the authentication resources. The Citroën Type A established the template for European affordable motoring that André Citroën would refine for the next sixteen years.