1968 Citroën Ami 6 Estate – Auction Car of the Week

Some cars are revered for their outright performance or technical innovations, others for their sheer beauty and eye-catching aesthetics. There are certain models venerated due to their iconic status, earned over decades of popularity, or perhaps because of certain associations with a movement or particular moment in time. Then there’s the Citroën Ami, with a face some would contend only a mother could love, despite being designed by Flaminio Bertoni – the same man who gave us the Traction Avant and the stunningly handsome DS. But conversely, it’s arguably the car’s ugly duckling eccentricity that makes the Ami so whimsically endearing.

Reading back over those characteristics we just listed, without being mean, we think it’s fair to say that the Ami is in possession of precisely none of them (unless you count the innovative rectangular headlights, with the Ami being the first production car to feature them), but that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad car. Built on the proven chassis and mechanicals of the legendary 2CV, the Ami was Citroën’s answer to a perceived need for a larger and somewhat less rustic version of its multi-million selling Deux Chevaux. Retaining the 2CV’s chassis, as well as its buttery soft interconnected suspension system, the Ami was built as a four-door, front-wheel drive family car that was very much aimed at the budget motorist while still being more upmarket than its predecessor.

Launched in 1961 the Ami 6, as it was known, was available as either a saloon or estate and came equipped with an an air-cooled, 602cc two-cylinder engine that produced a brobdingnagian 24bhp. Hardly performance spec but it was more powerful than the 2CV, which was always the goal, and despite its rather esoteric looks the Ami 6 sold more than a million units in its native France over an eight year production run before making way for the Ami 8 in ’69.

With numerous styling tweaks by Robert Opron, including a face-lifted front end, as well as a hike in power to 32bhp (which jumped again to 35bhp in ’73), the Ami 8 was a continuation on a theme. That same year, in ’73, Citroën dropped its new four-cylinder 1015cc boxer engine from the GS into the Ami Super, bestowing the car with 61bhp and almost hot-hatch levels of performance. With a claimed top speed of 85mph, a handful of brave pills were required for anyone fearless enough to take it on and yes, we will be covering it in a future article.

In both the Ami 6 and 8, the estate variant outsold the saloon, perhaps due to the larger car’s toned down styling compared to the reverse rake rear window setup of the saloon, and as such there are a few more stretched Amis floating about. But that’s not to say they’re exactly ten a penny nowadays and this 1968 model we have available via our auctions platform is one of just two known UK right-hand drive examples.

Treated to not one, but two restorations during its lifetime – the first in the UK in the late ’70s/early ’80s and then again more recently in Finland, this is a genuine UK, right-hand drive example that was exported to Scandinavia in the ’90s and then repatriated by the current owner in 2023, who re-registered the car with its original UK registration number.

Finished to a superlative standard the car has also been treated to a full cavity underseal and complete engine overhaul by esteemed Citroën specialists Sparrow Automotive, including a cam re-profile and lightened flywheel, with the vendor telling us: “the car now accelerates better than ever and can maintain a 70mph cruising speed on the motorway without issue”, and the fact that the car made it back to the UK from Helsinki in Finland via the Baltic States, Poland, Germany, and Holland in just four days without incident speaks volumes. The only reason for sale is that the vendor has recently found an even rarer saloon version and so is giving someone else the opportunity to fall in love with this estate, just as they did.

The Citroën Ami may have a face for radio and a voice for print but there’s just something about this particular example that’s utterly charming, and compared to the porta-potty on wheels that is the new battery-electric Ami, it’s practically a beauty queen. So, if you’re after a wonderfully exclusive French fancy in unrivalled condition that’s both comfortable and practical, all the while being wholly individual, then call off the search my friend because this is it. But don’t let the car’s rarity put you off. Because of those simple and robust 2CV underpinnings it’s an absolute doddle to work on and parts are readily available, so head on over to the listing for over 160 photos and a walkaround video before chucking in your bid. Bonne chance mon Ami!