In the late 1960s, a couple of Frenchmen living in the Ivory Coast took the robust mechanicals of Citroën?s long-running 2CV and built a utility body to fit. The result, the Baby-Brousse, spawned a legion of imitators, notable among them Greece?s NAMCO Pony and the Chilean Yagán. Not content to let the aftermarket have all the fun, Citroën developed a program that would allow for decentralized production of a simple sheetmetal body, while the French automaker would supply the underpinnings and powertrain. The people of villages in the developing world, with minimal investment, could start their own automobile factories! Based on the design brief?easy to build, easy to finance, or ?Facile à Fabriquer and Facile à Financer? en français?the vehicle became known as the FAF. It made its debut in 1973. (Two short years later, Van Doorne?s Automobielfabriek, the Dutch concern responsible for the CVT-pioneering DAF automobiles, quickly sold its carmaking interests to Volvo and turned its full attention to trucks. Coincidence" We think not.) Thoroughly aware of FAF?s supremacy in the realm of economical vehicles which end in capital A, capital F, we just about blew a gasket when we stumbled across this FAF A 4×4 for sale in France.

Citroën once built an utterly bizarre twin-engined, four-wheel-drive 2CV. This, however, was not based on that car, known as the Sahara. Instead, the FAF A 4×4 draws its guts from the more conventional Mehari 4×4 and utilize...