In my relatively short life I have owned three different 2CVs.
Misfortune has forced me each time to give them up: the first time the engine broke down in a foreign land, too foreign to bring it back. The second time the car was crashed down by a motorhome and reduced to a thin plate. The third time a kamikaze Bmw dived into my side, cutting the car in two.

Driving in my 2CV used to give me a sense of carelessness, freedom, joy of living and of being around that few other things or humans have given me.
She was like a good, silent but caring and understanding friend, the perfect companion for all my traveling, which was quite adventurous, by the way.
Perhaps you won't believe it, but machines have a heart beating, if you can listen deep enough.

The most beautiful sensation I remember was the unerring certainty that every, EVERY single child that would spot my car ducking along, would suddenly change his expression first into astonishment, then into an open smile, and finally into a frenzied jumping and yelling and pointing his finger at us, and pulling his mother's jacket to see what was coming....
If they were inside a car that was overtaking us, they would smash their nose to the glass, just to watch us better. As they would get farther, then, they jumped for joy waving their hand.
So funny!

The 2CV was produced with 2 standard choices, the 2-cylinder 400cc engine and the 2-cylinder 602cc engine: powerful, isnt'it?
During the 80's the choice was reduced to the 602cc engine configuration only. With such a jewel one can actually speed the car up to 75mph, in the best weather and road conditions: that is to say, with a strong wind on the back and a steep downhill road ahead.
Pushing the car at that limit, however, has often meant killing the engine itself, to their users' astonishment. In fact, not many do know that in order to keep a 2CV engine in perfect conditions the speed should never exceed 55mph. That's mainly because we are dealing with a very old concept motor, an almost unchanghed 50 years old one, which has some obvious mechanical limits.
Hitting as little as 60mph and keeping that speed for, let's say, even an hour, would cause the overheating of the pistons, which will over time consume. The internal adherence to the cylinders will lessen, causing the pistons to "rinse" inside.
The first clear signal of this decay is when the oil starts splitting from the air inlet hose, which is positioned on top of the engine: in fact, the oil fills the spaces created in the cylinders and afterwards the pressure pushes it up to the hose. Eventually the air filter will jump away from its position, signaling you of the problem.
The second clear signal of the decay, now irreparable, is the chirping sound coming from the motor, in place of its usual constant low buzzing sound. That's definitely the sound of the pistons ticking against the cylinders' walls.
The only thing you can do at that point is to bring in the engine for a serious trimming, or your car will progressively leak and split oil all over until her death.

The car, first conceived in 1939 to carry potatoes from the countryside, was designed by French architect Le Corbusier: what a reference! Hey what was Frank Lloyd Wright doing at that time, wasting his talent behind bricks? :)
Actually, the lines of the car are clearly inspired to the epoque of the project, but they possess such an intrinsic harmony that they have resisted practically forever, since the car has become a - still living - legend. Sitting at the steering wheel you will notice how smoothly all the metal surround you with no sharp edges. All is curved and convergent, you feel like you're running under a bell. The front seater beside you usually gets scared, at the begininng, because he or she doesn't have the control of the wheel and the optical illusion is to be inside an egg, rather than a car. From that eye, for instance, you don't see the coffer!

The tachimeter adopted on this car is one of the finest ever: we are talking about Jaeger, ladies and gentleman! I can assure you that I haven't seen anything so precise on any other car (but I never drove a Ferrari yet). On the tachimeter you could also spot 3 red marks in proximity of the 3 most economical speeds: about 25mph, 40mph and 55mph. Driving on the highway at 55mph, keeping the speed on the red mark, has thus allowed me to cover an average 12-13miles per liter.

And what about the windows? the windows of the 2CV are really cleaver. they are cut in two and you can only open the bottom part, revolving it upwards 180° to its blocking point. In this way, the air flows in without harassing your hair cut! besides, find me an electric window that opens up this fast! You must be careful, however, in blocking the window, because the mechanism is somehow delicate to manage.

2CV's roadholding is legendary. The car is really tall, about 1.60m, but practically impossible to capsize. The reason is hidden in the shape of the car itself: it is larger at the bottom, narrower at the top, and equipped with generous, very flexible shock absorbers and unusual 15 inches wheelrims, so the tires are really tall.
At Citroen, in the old times, they would give you a brand new model if you could capsize one 2CV: that's not quite for the same reason that Mercedes replaced all its A-Class models! In fact, nobody ever capsized a 2CV!

I might talk for hours about the many beautiful features of my beloved 2CV. For this reason, telling you about some little flaws will take me just a short, but sadly and honestly necessary, time.
Well, first of all, the car is slow on the highway and will force trucks to overtake often.
In some respect the car front seats might be considered uncomfortable, mainly because they are not reclining and don't have headrests. You can however install your own seats on the car, that's a very easy thing to do.
The windshield is quite small, compared to today's standards. Besides, the bumpers are invisible to the driver, so that you need some practice before you can safely park your car without scratching them.
Afterwards, you'll drive "blindly".
Bumpers also seem to be the favourite targets of sunday drivers, as you will easily find them bumped upon picking your car from the parking lot.
The brakes are old generation brakes: use them with caution. ABS is unthinkable on this car. You won't need airbags, though, and that's a great advantage to my opinion (I am scared of those 300km/h balloons exploding in my face).
One may say that since you can't really speed up with that car you can't really hurt yourself. I think that's true: nobody was ever heard to be killed on a 2CV.
The chassis is an old concept one, a whole long metal plate from back to front. If you crash, it will probably bent, forcing you to a costly restoration. The problem is that the insurance companies won't pay you too much money, being the cost of restoration often close to the value of the car itself.
If you crashed with a Golf 5 - year 2001, you should probably throw the whole car but at least you will get most of your money back from the insurance company.