Over this past week, there have been, as I see it, two significant concept car reveals that seem to have captured the attention of the public even beyond the usual gearhead communities: the new electric Citroën 2CV and Tesla’s cold-gas thruster-equipped Roadster (that’s not actually a roadster). Both of these novel machines have garnered a lot of media and social media coverage, and seem to have captured the imaginations of many people, for some dramatically different reasons, which makes sense, as they represent the two polar opposite extremes of the concept car spectrum.
What’s puzzling and disheartening is a strange trend that our co-founder David noticed, where there seem to be an unusual number of people posting comparisons between the Tesla Roadster and the Citroën 2CV, where they maintain that the Roadster is somehow this incredible thing that makes the 2CV look like some embarrassing toy, and from there they extrapolate that into some sort of America vs. Europe or Capitalism vs. Socialism or some other charged and ultimately deeply inane comparison.
There does seem to be an agenda to these comparisons, and people can believe whatever kind of political sense or nonsense they want, but one thing I will not stand for is drooling simpletons who don’t know Jacqueline Feces about cars maligning a small, affordable, fun-seeming car with a genuinely engaging and iconic historic pedigree in order to aggrandize some stunt car that will only be available for extremely rich and possibly deeply insecure people to buy.
Here, take a look at some of these to see what I mean:
Meanwhile in Europe… At what point did Europeans turn into complete idiots? pic.twitter.com/8E5Nd0EJZE
— Roberto Von Klathstone (@RKlathstone) October 16, 2026
How does this car make Europeans look like idiots? An appealing and non-boring EV that is targeted to sell for €15,000 ($16,500 or so) is anything but idiotic. One might even argue that “complete idiots” is a term that could be better applied to people who have dropped $50,000 deposits for a car that was announced almost a decade ago and is now best known for being able to do barrel rolls and flips in ways that are about as likely to be approved for use on public roads as would be a car that sprays Salmonella mist at passing pedestrians.
I mean, think about it: you plunk down $50 grand back in 2017 thinking you’re going to be getting a fun, quick, EV sports car, and then the thing you’re shown is a sports car that does things that you’ll never need or even really want to do, at least not more than once. It’s like commissioning an artist to do a family portrait, and when you check in with them years later, they show you a kinetic sculpture that whizzes around like a banshee on a leash and shoots sparks. Cool, sure, but absolutely not what you asked for, nor something you can put in your living room.
Here’s another numbnuts who doesn’t know squat about cars:
Capitalism vs. Socialism pic.twitter.com/h67YXai9dI
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) October 16, 2026
How is this capitalism vs. socialism, exactly? Both of these are cars being presented by companies who wish to make money. Does he think that Stellantis is going to be giving these cars away? Hell no. They’re for sale, they fully intend to make a profit, because, yes, capitalism. In fact, if we’re talking capitalism, the 2CV is far more likely to kick some capitalist ass because it will sell in much higher volumes than the Roadster, which, remember, is likely to start at $250,000, and I would suspect the one with the gas thrusters will be a lot more.
How many Roadsters do they think they’re going to sell, should this thing even come to market at all? It’s been nine years since it was announced. It was supposed to go into production six years ago. I suspect it will end up in production, in some form, but there’s no way it can sell in the volumes that the new 2CV can, just based on the price point. One is a toy for rich people, the other a mass-market electric city car for commuters. A big part of capitalism is moving product, and there’s a pretty clear advantage here, and it’s not for the Roadster.
Dr.Chockfull Dampdiapers up there has no idea what he’s talking about.
Pendant que la France applaudit une citadine électrique, Tesla et SpaceX font voler une voiture au-dessus d'un semi-remorque.
0 à 96 km/h en 0,59 s. Des propulseurs à air comprimé. Un salto en direct.
Nous, on va surtout se demander comment l'encadrer.
On ne joue… pic.twitter.com/URyqPqmcVQ
— David Saez (@saezdavid) October 16, 2026
Here’s another one; translating from the French into Freedom-talk, it says:
“While France applauds an electric city car, Tesla and SpaceX make a car fly over a semi-trailer. 0 to 96 km/h in 0.59 s. Compressed air thrusters. A live salto. We, on the other hand, are mainly going to wonder how to regulate it. We’re definitely not playing in the same league anymore.”
What the hell is this guy’s point, really? Comparing these cars like that is idiotic. They’re intended for two entirely different markets: one is a mass-market car for commuters, the other is an extremely expensive technological marvel marketed to people who masturbate furiously to CG women in Cyberpunk 2077 to try and push away the bad memories of how much money they lost on NFTs.
Also, there’s that AI image of Emmanuel Macron, President of France, in front of the 2CV and Elon Musk in front of the hovering Roadster, but you have to look at how Elon is depicted there:
Okay, buddy. You have fun with that.
All of these tweets and posts demonstrate a deep and powerful ignorance when it comes to cars. There’s no comparing these two cars, they’re for entirely different things. So when you see a tweet like this:
Hope you don't mind… pic.twitter.com/QCd3Tzlh2N
— Curtis. ???????? (@Curtisl131) October 16, 2026
…you have to wonder what the actual agenda here is, because this is some deep, rich idiocy. Which way? So, one way is, what, affordable electric cars that many people can buy, and the other is really expensive cars that are only for the 1% and they can blast off 25 feet into the air so they can snag a parking spot from somebody? That’s the choice?
There are so many more of these:
— KOOL (@RennT38) October 16, 2026
Honestly, it takes as much if not more “science and talent” to develop a good, affordable car for the people as it does to develop a car that does cool stunts on a stage.
It’s also worth remembering that the version with the cold-gas thrusters requires a large pressurized tank in the car, which is not exactly small. According to an extremely pro-Tesla account’s own notes, Tesla’s goal for that tank is to be able to be refilled in under half an hour, which will get you all of five seconds of thruster time. So you can do a hop once, then wait a fucking half hour to do it again, which is probably fine, because you may want to use that time to clean up whatever spilled from your cupholder or change your pants if you peed yourself a little bit again.
So, let’s be clear about what kind of a flying car this Roadster is, even if somehow ends up getting made and getting approved for “flying” on public roads. You can fly for five seconds. Have fun getting to Catalina from LA with that.
Also, that huge tank in the car means there’s only room for one seat, which really isn’t a problem, because, including the driver, that leaves plenty of seats open for all the friends someone who buys one of these is likely to have.
Many of these Roadster vs. 2CV posts are likely pushing an anti-Macron agenda, since the French elections are coming up, and many of the accounts posting these seem to have a stake in that contest.
Look, the Tesla demo of this Roadster was definitely fun. It was a fun stunt, it was fun to watch, and I bet it would be pretty fun to have been in that car. That said, all of that stuff is really just good for stunts, and as a car you’d actually want to use, enjoy, and live with, it’s inane. No one was asking for a car that can do one backflip per half hour. Nobody actually wants that. People who say they do want that likely have as much experience driving cars as your average hoagie, except most people would rather spend time with the hoagie.
For what it’s worth, Citroën appears happily unbothered by the whole thing, only responding to the Roadster hype at all with this post involving one of their tiny Ami electric city cars:
View this post on Instagram
Of all the social media posts on this page, this is the only one that doesn’t make the poster seem like an insufferable dipshit that you’d never want to be trapped in any car with, whether it could do backflips or not.
Top graphic images: Tesla; Citroën
Bros(bots) on twitter unintentionally creating the best ads for socialism yet. Sign me up, I want mine in yellow!
All of these tweets and posts demonstrate a deep and powerful ignorance when it comes to cars.
I like “powerful ignorance”. That is one of our biggest problems today, and it’s far from being US-specific. People being proud of their stupidity are busy making our world a far worse place.
Tesla Roadster is capitalism because it is a scam. It asks for a large amount of money for a product that will not fulfil expectations.
Yea man, I prefer the free market 2CV because you are free to buy it or not!
I wish that were less true.
“Capitalism is like a dead herring in the moonlight. It shines, but it stinks!”
– from Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three (1961)
The physics of this stupid “roadster” simply don’t work, the guy is a well established liar and fraud, and he’s trying to sell his AI products, which ties in nicely with this sideshow. Musk fans are like dumb monkeys with less personality flinging shit at the wall in a zoo. Who cares what their jabbering means?
You can dunk on the 2CV while comparing it to another EV, and that EV is the Twingo, not the Tesla whatever.
Stellantis is clearly trying to steal Renault’s playbook, and execution is lacking.
I’m not sure about your conclusion. It’s true that the A110 (R. I. P. – now build the R8), R5, R4 and Twingo are great examples for retro design that actually works, but especially FIAT has shown that they’re capable of using their traditions with the 500e, the Grande Panda and the Topolino. It’s more a case of great minds thinking alike.
Fair enough. As a French, Stellantis means PSA, so I always forget about Fiat and the likes.
The new 2CV may be vaporware, and no it doesn’t fly. The new Roadster isn’t even a real Roadster, and probably vaporware, too, and it will fly as well as auto pilot works. Chances are we’ll see the 2CV make production before Musk’s latest attempt to boost stock. F the haters!!! The 2CV is adorable.
Political non-sequiturs aside, I can see the tables turning in favor of the 2CV before long. There will eventually be a designer version, maybe a Dolce & Gabbana edition with a SMEG croissant warmer in the dash, and then the wealthy will need one and their acolytes will pin pictures of it to their vision boards.
My Privacy Badger settings disable the twitter widgets, so all I see is the sweet sweet Jason rant with none of the fanboy crap.
Life is good
Glad I’m not the only one. Pure Jason gold without the distractions. After reading the second paragraph, my first thought was sh*tposting bots. Even without knowing what the posts are, I still think it’s mostly sh*tposting bots for the clicks.
Wow your badger is way more useful than mine, mine just eats my food and bites me.
It’s ragebait by idiots whose existence is engagement farming, please do not go on Twitter. Oh and bots. So, so many bots.
Ragebait is big at the moment. Easier to get engagement by saying something profoundly stupid than smart.
On threads the algorithm continually feeds me comments by people claiming the smart thing to do is opt out of their company 401K. This is followed by thousands of comments from people telling them they are an idiot. But are they? The goal online is engagement and they got engagement. How many comments do you get from saying “I enrolled in my 401k and make contributions every week”.
Or, as likely,
The year is 2036. The first few Tesla Roadsters with Full Self Gasplumes, Foundation And Empire Edition, have been delivered.
A multi-millionaire sits in the third lane in his Tesla supercoupe, locked in bumper-to-bumper frustration as traffic on the other side of the median blasts by at 70 mph. His patience wears thin — he is important, dammit! — and finally he decides to fly right out this mess. Laws are for peons.
Seat belt – check.
Gas pressure – check. 5 seconds flight time will at least get me over to the right shoulder, then I’m gone.
He cancels FSD, and engages lift. The car raises eight feet off the ground. As he switches on the side thrust control and places his foot on the accelerator, he smiles as he notes an Tesla Semi in the in the opposite direction, and prepares to wave at his blue-collar brother.
A sudden crosswind strikes his right flank…
The resulting video goes viral. The most frequently shared version of it gives a good look of the distinctive dashboard of the car it was filmed from, a 2CV or rather its’ Chrysler Cruiser derivative for the US market, with range extender behind PT Cruiser-like grille, Stellantis’ biggest entry-level hit since the Neon.
I’m sorry, but if you’re on twitter, you’ve already lost.
Sorry you had to find out this way.
Hope it gets better for you.
Thoughts & prayers, etc.
I want to see that Tesla trick with a basket of eggs in the car.
COTD
Are there any good opinions to be found on Twitter in 2026? I assume if you want people enthusiastic for 2CV’s, you’re going to BlueSky (at least until they return to the regularly scheduled programming of preferring you ride a bike to your nearest train). Instagram could go either way. Facebook wants you to know they do not approve Mark Zuckerberg to share their opinion on the matter.
Opinions no but As long as you stay away from politics it’s good for local news and events. Questions like “what was that smoke north of here” or “what is that school district event next week?”
We have Nextdoor for local happenings.
Along with daily complaints that “I have a no soliciting sign on my front porch and someone still knocked on my door and tried to sell me a bug service”…… and “There were kids on e-bikes having fun in the street”.
Nextdoor is too local, which is good or bad depending on the happenings.
Our local paper is barely hanging on and it seems like local news is drying up. At least there are a few locals on Twitter that post. As they say, your mileage may vary.
My version of Nextdoor also has posts linking articles from the local paper or news stations. (Newspaper is a stretch – none are printed)
Do subscribe to that local paper.
Same here, along with “recently divorced” MILF scam posts with what seems to be the same copy every time and idiots somehow wondering why they haven’t seen their outdoor cat for days (lot of coyotes here, which is the other common post: “I saw a coyote on xx street”, but not everyone can add 1+1).
Ah yes, the missing cats and coyotes.
Outdoor cats are coyote food. They also get killed by domestic dogs. An old outdoor cat is a rare thing but people still let their cats outside to roam and then wonder why they don’t come back.
And when anyone offers that possibility or suggests they keep their cats inside, they flip out about people being mean or they insist they can’t keep the cat in because Mittens wants to be outside. (Athena forbid they resist the will of Mittens!) OK, but don’t come back on here to complain when Mittens disappears, which makes me the jerk for saying so. Maybe I am, but at least I’m not the one who fed my cat to a coyote.
So true, so true.
They also get very defensive when others comment that their cat is roaming the world killing birds and other small animals. No, not MY Mittens …..
I brought that one up and you’d think I attacked their kids. Admittedly, I wasn’t too diplomatic, calling them one of the most destructive invasive species. I like cats, they just should be kept inside for everyone’s sake (or walked with a harness—I’ve seen that a couple times, though I don’t know if most cats would go for that).
I haven’t yet deleted my account, but I mostly post on BlueSky (Weird Carbs ftw) and Threads, mostly in Finnish on the latter. My Twitter feed (I still call it that) is just mostly Bringatrailer links and posts from Japanese accounts, nearly everyone else has left.
One is a car, the other is a stock pumping scam.
Let me correct that for you, a sock pumping little man.
Was that Tesla a full size car? It looked like those old toys where the cars could climb walls and shit, in the commercials only of course. So never going to be made
No lie, one of my first thoughts about the Roadster debut was “Oh, Musk is distracting us with… A life-size Hot Wheels car and playset. Now, how about something that’s actually useful?”
(“Actually useful” would, of course, be the new electric 2CV…)
Nobody outside of Tesla knows. All we have seen is a video of people watching a video.
Pretty typically “smartest guy in the room” behavior the smartest guys in the room actually left the building but I’m sure they still think they are. Xpeng has a van with a personal aircraft inside they are actually making. It probably cost less then a car that farts around on compressed air with no one in it. For someone with a lot of money trying to buy time back it can likely serve a purpose too. I don’t see any purpose for the fart car other then look what it can do look what I bought. These are probably the same people running around showing cybercabs receipts that are 75% of the cost of a normal rideshare claiming it’s a “game changer”. They don’t understand party trick vs feature.
I like the Citroën because it’s cute and actually useful. It’s practical. It’s fun. I wish I could buy one, but I’m not located in Europe so I probably can’t. But I like it!
But also, sometimes we should let people be wrong on the internet. They can be wrong and we can have fun without them.
I really hope they bring the 2CV over, even if it needs a rebadge first.
I saw the Roadster do its trick, and it was entertaining. And now I’m done because this has nothing to do with real cars. You can train Rex, The Wonder Horse, to jump off a 20 ft platform into a pool of water. At the end of the day his best work will be on the ground.
I watch a video of people watching a video that claimed a Roadster could do some amazing things.
I doubt the Tesla Toadster (it hops, right?) will ever be a true production vehicle. If Tesla makes any it will be a few dozen or maybe a few hundred boutique models.
There are literally no public roads anywhere that the capabilities of this vehicle will be either safe or practical. Sure, corrupt monarchies like Saudi Arabia and Fascist states like Russia will have a few highways built especially for feckless leaders where only these cars will be allowed. But that’s about it.
Recall, too, that Tesla is the company that produced a truck with features no one asked for and a gag reflex-inspiring price tag which explains why there are thousands of unwanred Cybertrucks weathering away in Texas. It’s so bad, Musk forces his other companies to buy them as company cars. It, too, was a technological tour de force and now, combined with the Toadster (and Robotaxi or whatever it’s called) seems to indicate Tesla is not interested in building serious cars for real people. And that’s OK, just drop the BS.
As to comparing the 2CV EV concept with the Toadster, why would you? No one will ever cross shop these two. One is built for the world we know, the other a megalomaniac’s wet dream of a world. They will never compete for the same dollars.
All that aside, just enjoy both new concepts. If you’ve been pining for a Speed Racer Mach 5 of your own, then Tesla’s got your car. If you want sensible, frugal commuter car l, the little Citroen just might be your bag. There’s room for both visions in the world and nothing black or white.
I’m sure they will make and sell a few of the “performance” models that will sell for ~$300k but highly unlikely they sell more than 1 or two of the $750k+ “Space X” models than can do all the fancy party tricks that you can only do on your private track, or rent a track and post a several million dollar liability bond.
I will go on the record stating that I am vigorously pro-hoagie.
Vote Barth/hoagie 2026!
Did someone say Barth??
https://preview.redd.it/barth-you-cant-do-that-on-television-v0-ncc90y44jz8g1.jpeg?auto=webp&s=488f5f19acf6f2a399a444ab55d8d7e9f1c66b23
But I’m not the Barth. I’m just A. Barth 🙂
Core memory unlocked. Barthy burgers!!
Not me, I eat hoagies for breakfast
Honestly, I’m starting to wish there was an ‘unsubscribe’ button for humanity.
Reminds me of a panel presentation I saw a while ago where an American tech bro was berating a European professor about Europe’s purported lack of innovation, she turned to him and said “I’m not going to be lectured on innovation by a country that can build websites but isn’t capable of building a train line from a downtown to an airport in less than ten years.” He just kept blathering on about crypto……
From Wikipedia…
1863-1869. That’s six years to build a “transcontinental” railroad (strictly speaking, more like half the continent, but it was the undeveloped half). Using 19th-century tools, going over or through mountains, without modern medical care and sanitation so the workers had dysentery.
So yeah. Ten years in the 21st century to go from downtown to an airport really shows how far we’ve come.
Oh, burn!
And you need to comment and promote on this Ai slop why?
Those are obvious trolls. Why would you grace them with an article at all
A good rant can be a beautiful thing. I really didn’t think there were enough numbskulls worldwide, let alone just in the US to support the BS we have.
Yes but even when ranting Torch is just so polite. It’s like if Gomer Pyle was an old school drill instructor.
Can we see some comparisons between the Bugatti Veyron and Chevy Cobalt? Or, was GM not owning the French enough?
and you are posting this on the website that has shirts comparing a 2CV to a Chiron “basically the same” I know this is tongue in cheek.
Ehh, I think the Chiron and Sonic are more comparable or at least the Chiron’s headlights always reminded me of the Sonic’s so much that it made me nostalgic for the days when Euro supercar makers would just use such existing parts from volume models (how many ’60s Ferraris and Etceterini used Fiat 850 taillights? I’m sure our host can answer that…)
Oh yeah, I forgot they made the Sonic here for awhile, crazy that it used to be possible to build affordably priced small cars in the US as recently as 2020
I didn’t realize they actually built them here. I thought they were a captive import. Interesting!