The prototype Floride was introduced at the Paris Automobile Show in 1958 and production started in May 1959.

The Floride has a tuned version of the Dauphine 845cc engine and adopts the same layout with a 3 speed manual gearbox as standard and a 4 speed as an optional extra. The Floride shared the Dauphines drum brakes, mechanicals, steering and suspension.

The Floride was available in three versions: Coupe, Cabriolet and Cabriolet Convertible. The Coupe has a permenant roof, the Cabriolet only has a soft top which can be raised or lowered and the Cabriolet Convertible has both a removable hard top and a softop, this is lowered to fix the hard top.

In 1962 the Floride S (special) appeared (bottom right). It shared the early Eights' 956cc engine and was fitted with disc brakes all round - a departure from drums. The most obvious body difference was that the side air intake grilles disappeared and a grille on the bonnet appeared.

To complicate matters, the Floride was sold in America as the Caravelle as were the later 8 based (1108cc) Caravelles.