Citroen CX Prestige Turbo 2 | Spotted

Old, fast and French is always cool - see the ultimate CX for proof

By Matt Bird / Tuesday, 20 October 2026 / Loading comments

What a nice surprise it was to see Citroen resurrect the 2 CV at the Paris show. With a promise to make something very similar for the showroom, rather than just create a show buzz. If the price and range compromise can be agreeably struck, then Citroen surely has a winner on its hands. Who wouldn’t want to pop to the shops for eggs (with their own dedicated door storage) in a new electric 2 CV?

With that, plus the E-Space from Renault and T16 from Peugeot, it’s been virtually impossible to avoid looking at old French gems in the classifieds. There actually is a 2 CV, for those that fancy, but there’s also this: a CX25 Prestige Turbo 2. A deux cheveaux is cool, but it ain’t no CX.

Probably you’re familiar with the CX, given it was made for 16 years and more than a million were sold. It was glorious, idiosyncratic Citroen of the era taken into the luxury space, large and well-equipped while still being just the right amount of weird. Hydropneumatic suspension? Check. Single-spoke steering wheel? Check. No stalks? And so on.

That you knew. What you might not have known about is this particular car, one of just five right-hand-drive Prestige Turbo 2s. For Citroen aficionados, this is the most special of special ones. Forget BX 4TC, Traction Avant or, er, unmodified Saxo VTS - this is it. Well, we think it is. By combining long-wheelbase Prestige spec - rear legroom is genuinely palatial - with the turbocharged GTI engine, Citroen created the kind of cult classic only it could.

Originally the long-wheelbase car was built for chauffeur companies who wanted more space; probably the rest of the four-cylinder range would have sufficed for gentle ambling around on the famously cushy ride. But someone decided the 170hp 2.5-litre turbo engine should go in the front (alongside the spare wheel), for the ultimate autoroute express. In the late '80s, a Prestige Turbo 2 cost more than a 7 Series BMW…

This 1987 CX still looks like the perfect thing for a vast motorway journey, long and low and still with a silhouette like nothing else. Even by the standards of very rare cars, you’re going to get gawped at. It’s hard to know whether it’ll be more enjoyable to sit up front and drive a turbo manual Citroen or lounge in the rear quarters. That feels like the appropriate terminology for such a space.

Given the complexity of the CX, money has to be spent to keep them fighting fit. This one had a new clutch and a suspension refresh last year, which is encouraging, plus there’s been a fair bit of work to get through the most recent MOT. At 40 years old next year, by the current legislation it won’t need another MOT, but keeping a CX in good order has surely always been a labour of love. Still, nobody is going to buy any kind of old Citroen, surely, without being fully invested (in every sense of the word).

On that subject, the asking price is £17,995. Given these hardly ever come up for sale, it’s hard to know exactly what their value is. Certainly it wouldn’t be a surprise if interest increased should more retro Citroens appear on the horizon. But that’s not what buying a CX Turbo Prestige should be about; it should be about maximum waft and maximum quirky French cool on every journey. Travelling as a four will never be quite such an event as in a CX. You’ll struggle to get anyone out of those rear seats…

SPECIFICATION | CITROEN CX GTI TURBO 2 PRESTIGE

Engine: 2,500cc, four-cyl turbo
Transmission: 5-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Power (hp): 169@5,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 216@3,250rpm
MPG: N/A
CO2: N/A
First registered: 1987
Recorded mileage: 122,500
Price new: £19,800
Yours for: £17,995