Front-wheel drive
The Traction Avant was a late entrant into the growing front-wheel drive market in Europe, competing with the well established DKW and Adler models and joining other entrants at around the same time such as the BSA Scout. Front-wheel drive had appeared in the previous decade through luxury vehicle manufacturers Alvis, which built the 1928 Racing FWD in the UK, and Cord, which produced the L29 from 1929 to 1932 in the United States. Ultimately, the inline engine front wheel drive layout of cars like the Citroën Avant was to be a dead end and virtually all modern mass-produced front wheel drive cars use the transverse engine layout, as pioneered by DKW from 1931.