Those of you who know me, likely know one crucial thing about me: I like my French station wagons like I like my romantic partners: filthy, covered in bird shit, and modified in unexpected and exciting ways. That’s probably why I find myself so taken by this Citroën ID Break for sale in Stockholm. These big Citroën wagons are already absolute automotive masterpieces as they are, but this particular one seems to have been carefully and deliberately modified on its dashboard, and while some purists might balk, I think whoever did this actually managed to improve this ID, and kept it all in the Citroën family, too. Let’s take a look.
If you don’t feel like clicking on a Facebook link because you know that when you do, microscopic Mark Zuckerbergs materialize and lay their eggs in your molars and you don’t want that, I have some safe screenshots here:
I should not that I was tipped off about this wonderful wagon by this tweet from everyone’s car-friend Antii:
For sale in Sweden. Never seen that dash on a DS/ID, but it has the correct silhouette in it! Custom or a rarity? https://t.co/oV5k31y5SM pic.twitter.com/Hmo4Lreosh
— Antti ”Antti Gauchonen” Kautonen (@julkinen) February 24, 2023
Look at that lovely, filthy thing! Look past all the bird turds and there’s a long, majestic hydropneumatically-suspended station wagon under there. Now, what makes this particular ID so interesting can be seen in the interior pics. Look:
See what I’m excited about? Maybe not, huh. One moment. COMPUTER! Zoom and enhance! NOW!
Okay, that’s a bit better. Look at that instrument cluster! It’s fantastic, right? But here’s the thing – that’s not a normal ID or DS instrument cluster! No, those usually look like this:
It’s cool and all, and pretty quirky with that one-spoke steering wheel, but pretty conventional instrument-wise, with round analog gauges with needles and generally conventional in appearance and operation. Same goes for the car’s various controls, switches, knobs, and so on. But that one in the ad! It’s like a motherflapping spaceship, right?
Well, there’s a reason for that. It’s because that whole instrument cluster is lifted from the very spaceship-like Citroën GSA:
Look what’s going on there! Speedometer and tach are both those amazing little spinning drums under the magnifying lenses, the controls are all on those two little pepper-grinder-shaped side modules, which Citroën called satellites or lunules, and there’s a big screen with all the warning lamps but integrated into a schematic diagram of the car, kind of like those big displays you see on Star Trek spaceships. And that’s the detail that’s really incredible, because whomever did this adaptation – no, upgrade, I’m calling it an upgrade – took the considerable time and effort to make an all-new car side line drawing of the ID Break and integrate it into the instrument cluster!
Holy shit, right? The GSA’s instrument cluster and dash controls feels right at home in the similarly spaceshippic environment of the ID, and seems like the sort of update Citroën might have made to the ID had it not been replaced by other cars. It just works, and I love that someone agreed with this idea so much they went through all this effort to modify this ID accordingly.
I hope some appreciative Swede buys this thing, cleans off all the bird shit, and drives it around with pride, gleefully looking at this incredible dashboard and feeling like they’re the captain of the USS Badass.
Good work, whomever you are.
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His name is Antti, not Antii 😛
I need this dash on my daily driver right now.
==kind of like those big displays you see on Star Trek spaceships. ==
Within the world of Star Trek, that’s called a master systems display: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Master_systems_display
Ian from the Hubnut channel on Youtube has a GSA with that dashboard! He’s got some great videos on it for anybody who wants to know more! 🙂
As a rule : anything quirky and weird in the Automobile Industry has to be something made by Citröen.
The GSA was meant to be a cheap version of the GS, which is why it looks like a GS but is not a GS.
One of the engine that powered the GSA was also found in the Axel ( meant as a cheap version of the Visa ) and was a flat four. ( boxer configuration )
Citroën truly went their own way. The Car Wizard just did a walk-around of the DS19 he bought from Hoovie. Compared to 57 Chevy a DS is a space ship and a CX even more so. I have to admire whoever thought to update an ID19 with a GSA dash. I initially thought it was a Visa dash because that’s the car that introduced the Curta Calculator styled controls
I love how odd and quirky cars used to be. We need more strange in the world. More writing like this specifically, regardless of the topic. Thanks Jason. Oh except one thing: I never in my wildest imagination would have thought of the pure nightmare fuel concept of microscopic Mark Zuckerbergs materializing and laying their eggs in your molars.
Okay, everybody knows that DS is ‘déesse’ (godess) but do you know that ID is ‘idée’ (idea)?
Cool thing about old DSes is all those arrogant buttons without any labels on them so you just have to figure it out, if you”re worthy to drive it. This mod kind of ruined that with the ergonomic GSA pods.
“like I like my romantic partners: filthy, covered in bird shit, and modified in unexpected and exciting ways.”
I realize that this is merely an attempt to distract Southern California from the weather you dragged in with you in your move from the Midwest ( and believe me, when the novelty of blizzards on the Santa Monica freeway aka the 10 wears off you don’t want anyone associating you with tire chain controls on the grapevine) but the filthy, covered in bird shit, and modified in unexpected and exciting ways dating pool is surprisingly large.in soCal, or at least it was when I was there in art school living in a camping trailer.. So anyway, be careful what you wish for.
On the other hand if you are describing your current romantic partner, what a good sport they are,
Check that byline again.
The real question, does Sally know?
I hear Mr. Tracy is looking for a new vehicle… just sayin’
I gotta say, the controls on that car look like a usability nightmare. But, they look so awesome that it would totally be worth the UX pains.
“Looks” being the word here. I own a GSA, i can tell you that i’ve rarely drove something as intuitive and comfortable to use. Everything is under your finger, everything is visible, you don’t need to move your hands anywhere.
Tres Chic!
“Those of you who know me, likely know one crucial thing about me: I like my French station wagons like I like my romantic partners”
Dang your clickbait skills are getting ridic. Also should xpost to /r/brandnewsentence
Large with a huge opening at the rear?
Complicated, supple while in motion but saggy at rest?
And they even went through the trouble of fitting the air vents!
https://waimakclassiccars.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2-2.jpg
Get this as a mutual support vehicle for the Chrysler minivan?
I don’t know how you could make that steering wheel work with an airbag……but that said I liked it on my two different Citroens I owned…..
And I agree, there is nothing interesting or unique about any interior designs these days, especially on electric cars – it’s all about screen size now.
Cobble something together out of an m80 and a trashbag and hot glue it on there.
Asking price only about $6,600 USD!
Can we please all lobby together to bring back to oddity/uniqueness of a single spoke steering wheel?!?
I think they’d be captain of the HSwMS Tuffing
I appreciate the use of HSwMS
Kinda steampunk almost. Man if automotive manufacturers made stuff like this they might actually bring me back into a dealership. Today is bland and all about bring a lame EV so we can destroy the power grid, save nothing, and be inconvenienced to follow the latest groupthink/fad.
Cant wait until its over. This is very much another malaise era starting.
Not entirely sure I’d compare malaise era vehicles with dull styling and the power-to-weight ratio of a lethargic sloth to modern vehicles with often questionable yet hardly boring styling where appliance hatchbacks have acceleration better than malaise supercars.
But guess we’ve all gotta be grumpy about something.
I would love to see a steam punk EV, no screens just levers and switches, analog everything!
Basically all electric cars from 100 years ago – there was a surprising amount of them!
Then they’ve gone extinct. Looks like history is repeating itself as we speak =)
I dunno, The Ioniq 5 is pretty damn retro.
I feel vindicated. I knew the Torch loved him some Citroën DS/ID!
Not a fan of french auto design but I sure like this one. But Torch how could you fail to translate the current bid of 69,000 Kroners, or Kronuts or whatever they use for Swedening the pot?
69,000 Kroner = 6,624 US Dollars.
Not a bad price.
Yes you could buy a lot of kronuts with that
Many years ago, when constantly traveling the world, I started referring to all foreign currencies as “Pongoes” – it actually worked pretty well…
So this the touch screen before the touch screen.
Was there some sort of class before you could take it off the lot?
They’re pretty easy to handle. My gramps had a GSA (this post sent me back in time in a totally unexpected way) and he managed just fine. That said, he was a Citroen guy the same way some Americans are Ford or GM people. That’s all he drove, and he loved the brand’s innovations, from the suspension to the pedals to the controls.
That’s what made the DS/ID design so great. It works in any century and still looks current, and also a bit like the title submarine in “Stingray.”