This 90's Citroen has a genius quirk and/or feature!

"wbizarre - OEM fetishist" (wbizarre)
02/17/2019 at 12:20 • Filed to: Citroën, quirks and features, Radwood, Bring A Trailer, Doug DeMuro, 80S, 90S

Look, I’m a real blogger! With a clickbaity title and everything! Ok, fine, it’s a door pocket. Now you know.

So, I was clicking through every single listing on Bring-a-Trailer in a trance-like state for hours on end, as you do, and found this !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . At first glance, besides some mildly funky angular styling and asymmetrical badge ( sooo european! ), this Citroen seemed like a perfectly boring ol’ econobox. And yet, in the process of mindlessly scrolling through the photo gallery, I noticed something that would make Doug DeMuro go tight in the shorts. And here is the quirk/feature in question. Can you spot it?

Yes, in addition to the traditional slim lower pocket, the door has a much deeper and taller one! I’ve never seen another door pocket like it. It looks to be the perfect size for a Literacola, or one of those big reusable water bottles everyone carries nowadays. Or a novelty-size burrito. It even has a little retainer clip, so your bottle/burrito doesn’t fall out during cornering!

Interestingly, the only way that pocket can be so deep is if it doesn’t interfere with the window...which it doesn’t. The AX has a strangely large quarter window taking up a third of the length of the door. I wonder what the Citroen team’s decision process was: were they hell-bent on having that deep tall pocket, and made the rollable part of the window smaller to accommodate, or did they end up with a small rollable window for some other reason and said “hey, we might as well cut a deep pocket since we have all this room inside the door”.

I’m a fan of the rest of the interior as well - very 80's, very layered, very practical, with cubbies big and small in every conceivable spot. Also, look how many vents it has! In addition to the “standard” four directional vents in the upper part of the dashboard, there are 3 more directional vents at the bottom! Maybe the designers felt bad about the small roll-down windows: sorry you can’t get as much air through the windows, but here, have all the vents!

Neat.

DISCUSSION (11)

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/17/2019 at 12:30

ah the ax... bout 15 years ago it was a boy racer favourite round here.. cheap bodykits n all (usually in some kind of near neon colour) good times

then they got saxos... and now its all golfs n 3 series bimmers

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/17/2019 at 13:03

I’m thinking the bottom vents might be airconditioning, as not all cars seem to have those vents

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/17/2019 at 13:10

It’s a French car - it’s for a wine bottle

duurtlang > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
02/17/2019 at 14:47

AC in an AX, from the 80s? Must not be a Dutch market import them :)

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > duurtlang
02/17/2019 at 14:50

The way it is mounted as a bit of an afterthought made me think that, maybe a car from southern europe?

Gidges > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/17/2019 at 15:04

What a neat little car! Unfortunately most have disappeared nowadays.

duurtlang > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
02/17/2019 at 15:37

I think you’re right. It has its own controls as well. Looks both aftermarket and specifically designed for the AX. So possibly dealer installed.

wbizarre - OEM fetishist > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
02/17/2019 at 15:43

By God you must be right! It’s a wine pocket!

oldmxer > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/17/2019 at 16:20

with the huge quarter windows the rest is pretty much a parallelogram so the mechanism and the manufacturing and assembly are much cheaper

pip bip - choose Corrour > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/18/2019 at 02:20

GIB!

RT > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/18/2019 at 06:17

One RWD conversion later , the AX becomes a drift car, now there’s a fire extinguisher in the door pocket.