The motor show is back, baby…
This week, the Paris motor show proved there’s still life in trudging around mile upon mile of boxy, overheated exhibition hall in order to briefly poke around shiny new cars. Paris 2026 wasn’t just the good ol’ motor show fighting back, though, but the European car industry as a whole. As Chinese firms invade their turf and nick their sales, the ‘heritage brands’ have leant into precisely that, crafting a bunch of retro-futuristic concepts that all stand a good chance of actually making production. Have that, Jaecoo.
The big headlines went to this bright little Citroen, a rebirth of the iconic 2CV that will genuinely go on sale in 2028 for somewhere around £12,000. Which is about what you’ll now pay for a neat example of the classic Deux Chevaux like this one.
Will Alpine have the gumption to put this striking sports car concept into production? Renaut’s more athletic arm is no stranger to retrofuturism, having spent the last decade selling the A110 – a fresh and modern car with subtle inspiration (and a badge nicked wholesale) from the past. Therefore the chance of it doing the same with the wedgier A310 seems pretty strong.
The original battled in vain against its contemporary rivals from Lotus and Porsche, and values of classic, V6-powered examples like this one are still startlingly low. A smidge over £30k for a car this bold – look at the interior! – feels like a good bet if A310 values are to swell rapidly with the badge’s rebirth.
Fiat showed off two classic Multipla inspired concepts at Pari. First, the teeny Multiplina, a production-ready extension of the even teenier Topolino urban box, one able to go faster and carry more people. Beside it, the bolder Fiat Multiplay seemed to riff off both the modern Multipla and its Citroen C3 Pluriel contemporary, paying tribute to two thoroughly underappreciated early Noughties cars in one hit with its voluptuous mix of MPV, SUV and pick-up truck bodies. Brave.
You can have the more modern Multipla for as little as a grand now, but we’d much rather bumble around in the Multiplina’s inspiration – the original 600 Multipla. £30k seems rather a lot, though…
The T16 knows ‘rather a lot’ very well, whether it’s the 800-odd horsepower and 186mph potential of the fresh, E-T16 concept or the €500,000 being commanded by this matching grey original 205 T16 for sale in Italy. The short ‘n’ sweet advert simply tells us that it’s covered 28,200km and is in concours condition, but who are we to turn down a trip to Turin to go and uncover its full story?
Mighty cool things, these, even if their on-road performance was never quite a match for their scintillating antics on the Group B rally stages. Price far too steep? 205 GTis start at about £10k…
A production version of the E-T16 would go windmilling into battle with the incredible Renault 5 Turbo 3E, a 540bhp, 167mph remix of the latest R5 and another retro callback to the old 5 Turbo and Turbo 2 of the early Eighties. Renault is making 1,980 examples of the new car, priced around £130k and up.
Funnily enough, that’s the exact ballpark its mid-engined inspiration occupies, this fresh (and French) example with exceedingly low miles asking €179,000, or around £150k. Gorgeous, huh? And a fraction of the cost of its old foe above…
Who’d had bets on Peugeot reinvigorating the RCZ coupe? Its 2010s TT rival was always a pleasantly striking thing to look at – double bubble roof an’ all – and in RCZ R form, with 266bhp and a gnarly diff, it was pretty terrific to drive. Those come in at about £10k and feel like a lot of whole underrated FWD performance for the money.
Mind, you can spend significantly less on an example of the next RCZ down, this 1.6-litre turbo GT still looking fab and asking just £2,895.
Yep, Citroen is pretty serious about this new 2CV thing. As well as a five-door hatch, it unveiled a box van with nigh on the same silhouette as its Fourgonnette namesake from over 50 years ago (!). “The 2CV Fourgonnette was more than just a workhorse. It was part of everyday life. Simple, ingenious and accessible, it above all possessed something few commercial vehicles have: a soul,” said Citroen CEO Xavier Chardon at the show.
Yet the fate of the new-age Fourgonnette hangs in the balance, however many examples Xavier’s team could blatantly peddle to vendors of oat flat whites everywhere. While we await his rubber-stamping of a production remake, though, you can spend a mere £8,250 on this tidy looking example of the original. It even has fab period black plates…
The unofficial Stellantis Paris show takeover was completed by the jaw-dropping Alfa Romeo Cuorerosso (Red Heart, to you and I), a preview of a hybridised V6 sports saloon that could eventually replace the geriatric Giulia Quadrifoglio. Flipping heck, is it a gorgeous concept car, though how much of it is realistic for production we don’t yet know.
Better sate our desires in the meantime. Tidy versions of the most recent Giulia in stock, four-cylinder form still haven’t dropped much below £10,000, proving their enduring appeal. Or you could go all out on an original Giulia, this 1972 Giulia Super advertised with a host of Alfaholics upgrades (a very good thing) for a stocky £65,000. It justifies every penny with its stance alone, right?
Another unexpected reboot? There’s no stopping Renault right now; its reborn R5 is a smash hit and its R4 and Twingo rebirths have proved every bit as charming. Does the buying public possess the same, undying deference for other classic Renaults, though? The original Espace people carrier, in particular?
The concept looks fabulous and nerdy enthusiasts like us are all rooting for it. The fact no examples of its inspiration dwell for sale (bar a couple of very rusty shells) suggests no one has clung carefully onto the OG people carrier, though, so instead let us point you at £1,500 of Espace IV – aka the fourth gen – with a big, torque-rich diesel engine, space-age central dash readout and Noughties-tastic roof rails.
“Nice cheap family car, or you can remove all the seats individually to use as a van or put a mattress in for camping,” claims the ad. Which suggests that yes, the vendor has slept in it. Might want to check it’s had a good dustbuster when you view it…
Does this count as a retro revival? The second coming of the Audi A2 borrows both a classic name and a familiar silhouette, and it’s charmed us nearly as much as Ingolstadt’s tragically underappreciated original, too.
Dig beneath its bold styling flourishes and you’ll find the bones of a VW ID.3 or Cupra Born, yet the slippery new A2 e-tron is somehow transcendent in its desirability beside them and with up to 322bhp available, it will feel a lot perkier than its fab but frugal forebear.
Of which we’ve found a tidy, 1.4-litre TDI example for sale at a tenner under five grand. For those feeling extra brave, though, used A2s start at a piffling £500. Whether its values begin to climb with the advent of a new A2, we don’t yet know. Perfect excuse to take a punt on one, though…