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 Here's CXA car # 91, which is a Citroen CX 25GTi, Neptune Grey, VIP Interior. The VIP cars were reserved by Citroen for higher level state functionaries, and Citroen Executives, and Neptune Grey was a color only available on VIP cars. However, apparently you could also get a Fiat Panda in the same color. Go figure.
Despite the expectations of many, the car has been very reliable. The motors are reputed to run 200,000 miles before needing a rebuild, and the hydraulics have almost 50 years of debugging incorporated into their design. I agree with the assertion that the CX is the last Citroen strictu sensu. The car was designed in the early seventies at the tail end des trentes glorieuses, a 30-year period of growth and prosperity in France. The CX was released to the market in 1974, to substantial acclaim. The CX incorporated Citroen's 20 years of experience in hydraulics, and capitalized on the innovations of the SM, considered by many to be the culmination of Citroen engineering. As a result of the energy crisis of the early seventies, Citroen was absorbed into Peugeot, starting a gradual decline in the innovative engineering that so distinguished the car. The CX's replacement, the XM, is not much more than a Peugeot 605 with hydraulics. They even used MacPherson struts on the front suspension, a step 20 years into the past.
Here's the CX2200 Pallas I picked up whilst in Australia:
These photos were taken at port Sydney, before I shipped the car. I
wanted to have documentation of the car's condition before shipping.
I shipped the car with
But why Citroen? Primarily for the brilliant engineering, which manifests itself in a car that drives like no other in the world. Passenger comfort was the ultimate goal of the car's design. After all, there's a reason why Rolls Royce used Citroen suspensions on license for so many years. Derivations of Citroen engineering are evident in luxury car offerings from many makers. The recurrent theme is that the ideal automobile ride cannot be had with steel springs. Lexus offers an Air Suspension as an option on its top-line LS sedan. Mercedes used hydraulic suspensions on its 600 limousines and 6.9 sedans in the seventies. Perhaps they still do. I don't know or care. Rover offers an air suspension on its Range Rovers. Soon after Citroen launched fully-hydraulic cars in 1956, Cadillac tried air suspensions on its Eldorado ($25,000 in 1959 dollars!) and met with dismal failure. Lincoln tried to use air as a suspending medium in the eighties and nineties, again without much success, from a warranty-payments standpoint..
Technical Pages
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