[5] In combination with Citroën's proven front-wheel drive, the DS was used competitively in rally racing during almost its entire 20‑year production run, and achieved multiple major victories, as early as 1959, and as late as 1974.

[19][20] The car used double wishbone suspension with L-shaped arms at the front and trailing-arms at the rear, with totally novel hydropneumatic spring and damper units.

The car's advanced hydraulics included automatic self-levelling and driver adjustable ride-height,[21] developed in-house by Paul Magès.

Different front and rear track widths reduced the unequal tyre loading, which is well known to promote understeer, typical of front-engined and front-wheel drive cars.

In 1966, the DS won the Monte Carlo Rally again, with some controversy as the competitive BMC Mini-Cooper team was disqualified due to rule infractions.

This suspension allowed the car to achieve sharp handling combined with very high ride quality, frequently compared to a "magic carpet".

The 1955 DS cemented the Citroën brand name as an automotive innovator, building on the success of the Traction Avant, which had been the world's first mass-produced unitary body front-wheel-drive car in 1934.

Citroën invested enormous resources to design and launch an entirely new vehicle in 1970, the SM, which was in effect a thoroughly modernized DS, with similar length, but greater width.

[41] The SM had a different purpose than replacing the 15-year-old DS design, however – it was meant to launch Citroën into a completely new luxury grand touring market segment.

The SM was not designed to be a practical 4-door saloon suitable as a large family car, the key market for vehicles of this type in Europe.

Typically, manufacturers would introduce low-volume coupés based on parts shared with an existing saloon, not as unique models, a contemporary example being the Mercedes-Benz SLC (C107).

[43] This affected potential sales in a country still recovering economically from World War II, so a cheaper submodel, the Citroën ID, was introduced in 1957.

Initially, the basic ID19 was sold on the French market with a price saving of more than 25% against the DS, although the differential was reduced at the end of 1961 when the manufacturer withdrew the entry-level ID19 "Normale".

[47] Because this feature was not allowed in the US (see World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations), a version with four exposed headlights that did not swivel was manufactured for the US market.

"[56] Australian market cars were fitted with options as standard equipment such as the "DSpecial DeLuxe" that were not available on domestic European models.

Until 1965 UK cars were assembled at the manufacturer's Slough premises, to the west of London, using a combination of French-made knock down kits and locally sourced components, some of them machined on site.

[57] A French electrical system superseded the British one on the Slough cars in 1962, giving rise to a switch to "continental style" negative earthing.

The Slough factory closed on 18 February 1966 and thereafter cars for the British market were imported fully assembled from the company's French plant.

Jay Leno described the sporadic supply of spare parts as a problem for 1970s era customers, based on his early experiences working at a Citroën dealer in Boston.

[66] The Electra was available with an automatic transmission, power windows, and came with a much larger engine (a 7,040 cc V8), and it was hardly the only competitor to the DS to have these features as options or as standard.

Based on legislation that dated from 1940, all automobiles sold in the U.S. were required to have round, sealed-beam headlamps that produced 75,000 candlepower or (73575 candela) maximum.

Brake fluid (as well as LHV and LHS) is hygroscopic and miscible, readily absorbing and mixing with moisture, the idea being that within a closed hydraulic circuit these properties will ensure pockets of non-soluble water will not form and cause corrosion of the system from within.

Chapron persevered with his own custom versions alongside the works cars, for those who wanted something particular or to allow conversion of an existing sedan.

In addition, Chapron also produced a few coupés, non-works convertibles and special sedans (including the "Prestige",[75] same wheelbase but with a central divider, and the "Lorraine" notchback).

[76] Ordered directly by President Charles de Gaulle, he did not like the car due to its divider and continued to mainly use either DS landaulets or the two earlier special-bodied Citroën 15/6 H built by Franay and Chapron.

[78] In 1965, American auto customizer Gene Winfield created The Reactor, a Citroën DS chassis, with a turbocharged 180 hp (130 kW) flat-six engine from the Corvair driving the front wheels.

[84] This system, used on the SM also, was superseded on the CX by a screw jack that, after the suspension was raised to the high position, lifted the tyre clear of the ground.

President Charles de Gaulle survived an assassination attempt at Le Petit-Clamart near Paris on 22 August 1962, planned by Algerian War veteran Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry.

De Gaulle praised the unusual abilities of his unarmoured Citroën DS with saving his life – the car, riddled with bullets and with two tyres punctured, was still able to escape at full speed.

[97] Citroën was the featured exhibit at the Mullin Automotive Museum for the year 2017/8, and the DS made its first appearance on the lawn at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 2018.