Citroën in the USA

After receipt of the customer's order (which, all importantly featured a guarantee of re-purchase by Citroën), the car, fitted with its famous TT plates (temporary export plates) would be delivered to the customer when he set foot on French soil. The car would be bought back at the end of his stay. The reason for this was that most production had to be for export and there was such a shortage of new cars that secondhand ones changed hands for more than the list price of an unobtainable new one. Such a wonderful paradox must be the dream of every modern motor manufacturer! Shortly before the launch of the DS, in 1955, a brochure, (ref. AC 5133) prominently featuring the Eiffel Tower was launched.

The arrival of Charles Buchet

The Citroën Car Corporation was to be the launchpad for Citroën's operations in the USA. The man given the task was Charles Buchet, who had joined Citroën in 1952 in Commerce but who quickly moved into the Export department. He left for the USA in March 1954.
His first task was to locate the missing Tractions and with the assistance of Armand Garnier, he found each and every one although some were in a piteous state. Some were still under Customs' control, having been abandoned at the port since the cost of storage soon reduced the value of the cars to zero.
Charles Buchet set about reviving the Citroën Car Corporation by making the sale and buy back system better and more attractive. Indeed the financial system he created is that of lease and buy back still practised by the likes of Europcar and Hertz. The monies earned allowed the financing of the infra structure that would become Citroën USA who would import cars into the USA. The DS would be the product.
Charles Buchet set off for New York at the wheel of a 15 Six - one of those reclaimed from the docks. He also performed this drive in a 2 CV which he had had sent over from France and he often swore that he would have had more success with this car than with the DS! His boss suggested that the car's plain grey paint be replaced with something more to American tastes - a shrimp pink! Buchet's compromise was a light green paintwork - a particulalry popular colour amongst Detroit's products that year. This car was used in monochrome pictures in the Company's product brochure "The sensational multi-purpose car"...

Citroën Cars Corporation

Setting up Citroën Cars Corporation in the United States proved to be very difficult as they started with nothing.
However an east coast headquarters was established in New York and then the west coast headquarters in Los Angeles.
The complete infrastructure of these headquarters had to be created, a sales department, a repair and parts department, personnel had to be hired and trained, not on just any car but the DS-19.
There were no repair or parts manuals in the beginning, in any language – never mind English! A dealer network also needed to be created and trained for this vast country.
Buchet started with an office on 5^th Avenue in New York City, this was in the same building where Air France had their offices. Both headquarters had their share of problems but the east coast was at a major disadvantage due to their premises.
Once the DS had officially been announced in Paris it meant that the New York headquarters would have to expand, not only did they need a showroom but a workshop would also be an immediate necessity.
They ended up with a nice showroom at 300 Park Avenue and a totally inadequate workshop located in Long Island. Not only were these repair facilities too small but the parking situation was non existent. The technical man in charge on the east coast was Michel Rappellini who was under the direction of Charles Buchet.
In the west the situation was the opposite, they ended up with a nice premises on Wilshire Boulevard in upscale Beverly Hills in Los Angeles. The offices, showroom, repair and parts facilities were all in one location. The commercial director for the western division was Armand Garnier and the engineer was Claude Braux. Albert Bonfond was hired as service manager in 1956, an ex-patriate Belgian who had owned an independent Citroën repair shop in Brussels prior to emigrating to America. Braux drove the first DS-19, chassis # 129, to arrive in New York. He drove to Chicago in sub zero temperatures in January of 1956 along with Luigi Chinetti the Ferrari importer for the US and three times winner of the 24 heure du Mans. The first DS was to be exhibited at the 48^th Chicago Auto Show.
In the beginning both the east and the western headquarters had issues to deal with, as did the rest of the world where the vehicle was marketed. One needs to remember that this was a brand new vehicle with technical advances well ahead of its time. Of course this would bring plenty of new problems as the DS went through its growing pains. In regards to the North American continent, not only being vast in size but also very different in climate, the eastern portion of the US dealt with severe winter conditions, which affected the D-series vehicles technically and structurally while the west was dealing with dashboards warping in the mid-day sun! Although the east and west had different issues to deal with, the situation was the same, they both still had to create a dealer network and be able to support that network.
There were only a handful of people within the Citroën Cars Corporation network that even had a slight inclination of how this new DS operated. Luckily some assistance was on the way – Paris sent four young gentlemen who had been working with the DS at the Quai de Javel, Paul Baert and Jacques Berteau went to New York and Claude Guyot and Hubert Villedanné went to Los Angeles to spend six months in the US to get things rolling. Once things did get going both headquarters did establish a technical support team to train and assist new dealers. To get new dealers was always a challenge, you had those who signed up for a year or two then dropped Citroën for a more lucrative and less challenging make and those who stayed on till the bitter end.
Citroën Cars Corporation’s attempt at securing a portion of the US market was not without pain, but through the years they did manage to secure a loyal clientele and had one of the better reputations for after sales and service and handling of warranty problems amongst French products sold in the US. Unfortunately this was not enough to stop the demise of the make on the North American continent.
Besides the DS and the ID, Citroën also introduced the 2CV, the AMI-6, and handled the Panhard. In the late sixties they introduced the Mehari, all with limited success. It wasn’t until the SM was introduced that Citroën was really noticed. Although just over 2000 units were sold in its short lived US presence, this vehicle also brought its share of problems; not only technical but there was also an ill feeling amongst the dealerships as not all were chosen to sell the SM. This included some of the old dealers that had stuck it out through thick and thin over those high profile dealers with fancy premises that took on the Citroën SM but dropped them just as fast!
Unfortunately the beginning of the end was already around the corner, a combination of the oil crisis and Citroën’s own financial problems led to the demise of the SM and by 1973 there were no new D-models for sale. The staff of Citroën Cars Corporation persevered at trying to get the new CX into the US market, and there was some hope but this hope soon faded in late October of 1977 when René France, President of Citroën Cars Corporation, was summoned to Paris and told to close all North American operations.
A number of businesses - Trend, CINA and CXA continued to sell Citroëns in the USA after Citroën closed down its operations.
Over the last thirty years, there have been consistent rumours about a return but nothing has come of it.