The Goddess

France changes Cabinets, constitutions and women's fashions faster than any major country in the world. But one French institution has remained almost as steadfast as the Eiffel Tower: the nation's favorite automobile. For 21 years, the Citroen has been the same familiar model, a low design well ahead of its time, with independent wheel suspension and front-wheel drive. Until 1951 it came in only one color--black; then it reluctantly added grey, grey-black and blue-black. Nevertheless, since 1934 Frenchmen have bought more than 1,000,000 Citroens.

Last week, as Citroen displayed a radically new model in its showrooms, it made France's biggest auto news in years. Nicknamed the "Goddess," it has a long, duckbilled front reminiscent of the 1953 Studebaker, a plastic roof and half a dozen mechanical improvements, e.g., hydropneumatic suspension to keep the car on a constant level. The four-cylinder, 75-h.p. engine does 25 miles to the gallon and can get the Goddess up to 87 m.p.h.

Measuring 15 ft. 9 in. bumper to bumper, the Goddess is the longest, roomiest (six passengers) mass-production model in France and, at 930,000 francs ($2,657), the costliest. But by week's end thousands of Frenchmen had plunked down cash deposits of $215 apiece, virtually bought out production for the next 27 months".

Citroen was still not satisfied; it plans to invade the U.S. by opening showrooms in Los Angeles and Manhattan.

The Playboy. Citroen was founded by puckish, pudgy Andre Citroen, playboy son of an immigrant Amsterdam jeweler, who turned out his first car in 1919. A big-scale munitionsmaker in World War 1, he converted from shells to cars, soon became the No. 2 automaker (after Renault) in the world's No. 2 automaking nation.

Citroen threw money around on lavish living, promoted his cars in a manner unheard of in France. He organized a Citroen expedition to Central Asia, another across the Sahara Desert, and put his name in lights on the Eiffel Tower--280,000 bulbs winking in letters 100 ft. high.

When creditors came calling on Citroen to protest these extravagances, he plied them with wine, cigars and promises of better times. By 1934, better times seemed on their way, as he tooled up for the famous front-wheel-drive Citroen. But it was too late: Citroen owed too much. One day in 1934, a creditor came calling who could not be turned away with fine language and fine wines. Pierre Michelin, tycoon of Michelin Tire Co., France's largest tiremakers, who had bought up an estimated 63% of Citroen's stock, told Andre Citroen: "Monsieur, you have nothing more to do here." Citroen lost the company, the Eiffel Tower lights winked out, and six months later Citroen died.

The Conservatives. The new owners cut down on debts, advertising (Citroen does not advertise in France to this day) and car colors, but with Michelin's ultra-conservative management and Citroen's soundly conceived car, the firm prospered. By World War II, it was selling 60,000 autos a year. Nazi bombings, followed by Nazi expropriations of machine tools, stopped production, but with war's end' Citroen came back, turned out 9,324 cars' in chaotic 1945. Last week, with a comfortable billion francs in cash reserves, Citroen was riding supersmoothly.

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