Editing Citroën 2CV (section)

=== Front-wheel drive and gearbox ===

Citroën had developed expertise with [[front-wheel drive]] due to the pioneering [[Citroën Traction Avant|Traction Avant]], which was the first mass-produced steel monocoque front-wheel-drive car in the world. The 2CV was originally equipped with a sliding splined joint, and twin Hookes type universal joints on its driveshafts; later models used constant velocity joints and a sliding splined joint.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

The gearbox was a four-speed manual transmission, an advanced feature on an inexpensive car at the time. The gear stick came horizontally out of the dashboard with the handle curved upwards. It had a strange shift pattern: the first was back on the left, the second and third were inline, and the fourth (or the S) could be engaged only by turning the lever to the right from the third. Reverse was opposite first. The idea was to put the most used gears opposite each other—for parking, first and reverse; for normal driving, second and third. This layout was adopted from the H-van's three-speed gearbox.  Later models had an option for a semi-automatic clutch that allow the user to engage the first gear and wait at the traffic lights with the foot on the brakes only.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}