CX in North America
The CX was never sold in North American markets by PSA Peugeot Citroën, but Americans were still able to obtain the car by other means.
In 1974, the final nail in the coffin of Citroën selling autos in North America was delivered—the decision by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to prohibit passenger vehicles with height-adjustable suspension. Citroën actually built 1974-model-year cars for the U.S., but was barred from selling them. For many years, Citroën had been running into issues where U.S. design legislation fixed older technologies in place, and prohibited certain engineering innovations "not invented here", including items in many automobile designs today, like mineral oil brake fluid, aerodynamic headlights, and directional headlights. The wisdom of these regulations has since been reconsidered and most have been repealed in the light of developing technology.
Since the height-adjustable suspension was an integral feature of the CX design, there was no way to engineer around it. Even financially powerful Mercedes-Benz had to remove the height adjustment switch from its flagship 6.9 while retaining the hydropneumatic suspension in the U.S.
A few CXs came to North America under unclear circumstances (some related to diplomatic immunity) during the 1970s, but the situation was eased when U.S. Government repealed the ban on height-adjustable suspension in 1981. As with any other grey market car, the CX could be imported and brought into compliance with the unique design regulations applied by the U.S.
In addition to personal imports, several companies began converting and selling CXs to Americans. These were not "grey market" cars, but officially imported vehicles remanufactured and type approved for the U.S. The importing companies suffered legal harassment from PSA Peugeot Citroën, but despite this, and with no advertising and only a minimal service network, the powerful cult brand of Citroën still managed to sell about 1,000 cars at approximately double the price of the same vehicle imported conventionally.
Today the U.S. Government exempts cars older than 25 years from all design legislation, so most CXs can be freely imported. The Canadian government applies a similar rule after 15 years.
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