1987 Citroen CX Pallas extended wheelbase 4 door sedan CXA

Up for sale is my 1987 Citroen CXA - A short cliff noted history of the CXA. In the late 70’s Citroen pulled out of the US market, their claim was that the government regulations were too difficult to comply with and it was not cost effective for the volumes that sold in the US. As far as anyone knew, that was the end of Citroen in the US.

Not so... There was a company in the US that decided Citroen was incorrect about this, and the president loved the new CX models. They decided that “reasonably easily” the new CX could be sold in the US totally legally, and federalized as a US model car. More details on that coming.

Many importers during this same period imported quasi legal grey market cars originally manufactured for sale in Europe, rather than truly legal cars. You would and still fairly often do see big Mercedes models such as the old 1st gen W126 500SE here in the US originally imported as grey market cars by an individual importer. They addresses the emission control systems, headlights, and gauge clusters only, and were illegal in many other ways. By the letter of the law, many of these cars could be, and were confiscated by federal agents.

The company that imported these cars into the US, fully federalized these cars. They crash tested them, modified the structure so they would pass, got them to pass emissions, US bumper standards, etc. Their prototype “remanufactured” car was a fully US certified car, fully legal for sale in the US. They found a company in Belgium willing to undertake the “re manufacture” process and at great expense, they sent each car that was going to be sold in the US as a french production car to their plant in Belgium. There, they re-manufactured each car to US federal specification. They were then basically a special order catalog sale car. They advertised these in motoring magazines at the time. Despite their great expense - these things sold for almost double what a Mercedes S-class sold for at the time, there were a few hundred sold.

This car I know very little about the history of, however it was a car originally from the California. This means the body has very little rust on it. The body is solid, and it’s a nice looking car.

Now, this car itself. I have owned it for 5 years. I have not put a whole lot of miles on it, however those that I have put on it have always been enjoyable.

Body is good. No rust or corrosion, though it does have a few blemishes and cosmetic issues (keep in mind, 32 year old French car) It runs well, the transmission works well but shifts rather firmly. I was told by Dave Burhnam (the US Citroen expert) that this is “just typical” for the CX’s ZF 3 speed automatic. I have driven Saab 9000 automatic cars with this trans, and they do it too- so I would assume that is just how they are. The hydropneumatic suspension works well. You can start it up, it pumps up, and goes. Ride is super smooth. Brakes also work well. You can take it for a test drive.

It is a 30+ year old french car, and It needs some going over mechanically and cosmetically.

The current issues that will need to be addressed before it is taken on a long trip are as follows. The alternator is weak. It barley keeps up with normal electrical draw, it's making just 12V which is not enough to keep the battery charged for extended periods of running. It’s an odd French Dulciere unit, which you can not go down to your auto parts story and buy because they are in no other US model cars. This unit either needs to be fixed, or it needs to be replaced with something else. The electric cooling fan does not work on high speed. It works fine on low, but will never ramp up to high. This could be a BIG problem if you were caught in traffic. The fan is also some obscure Magneti Marelli fan with some bizarre resistor I have never seen used in another US model car before. Again, you may want to just replace this with something else, like a fan you can actually get for $50 rather than something you may have a hard time finding for $500.

Because of these already mentioned issues, the charging system, as well as the cooling system are BOTH questionable for anything but local use until this is rectified. Thus, I would highly recommend this car be trailered unless you only live a few miles from me. I can deliver this car to someone if they wish, I have a good quality truck and flat bed trailer and can deliver it from Reading PA for $2.00 a mile, otherwise you should tow this car, and it must be done on a flat bed due to the hydrapnumatic suspension system. If you are the adventurous type, you could probably fix this at my house before you take it if you insist on driving, however let it be known it is as-is, and you are fixing this yourself - I lack the time to get involved with it, or I would do it myself and just start driving this car around again.