It was powered by a front-mounted air-cooled two-cylinder boxer motor: the basic design of this unconventional engine dated back to the 1940s.

Plans for a four-door version which might have enabled the car more effectively to replace the commercially successful Panhard PL 17 saloon were never implemented, however.

In 1955, Citroën had taken a 25 percent holding in Panhard's automobile business and from this time onwards the two brands were increasingly managed as a single range.

[2] This appears to be the reason why the firm's roomy four-door sedan found itself replaced by a coupé design, in the form of the Panhard 24.

The car featured a low modern body line with a prominent waist level groove reminiscent of the then fashionable Chevrolet Corvair.

At a time when monocoque construction was becoming mainstream, the 24 sat on a separate and very strong tubular steel chassis: it was therefore possible, even using the economically available materials of the time, to keep the window pillars relatively thin which gave the car an airy cabin and outstanding all-round visibility, while class leading structural rigidity for the body could nonetheless be claimed, thanks to the pleating and reinforcement of the roof panel.

The stainless steel front bumpers / fenders, each in three sections to facilitate replacement, were integrated into the body line in a way that reduced drag and foreshadowed the future design of the Citroën XM.

It has also been suggested that engine reliability suffered because many of the younger generation of car mechanics were not fully familiar with all the eccentricities of the Panhard power plants.

Also familiar from a succession of post-war Panhard saloons was the four-speed all-synchromesh gear box and the front-wheel-drive configuration.

Journalists were shown the car in a large garden near Montlhéry, with a backdrop of antique statues and rose bushes, complemented by imaginative lighting effects.

It seems that overall sales volumes were from the start lower than Panhard had anticipated for the car, which may have contributed to arguments against progressing development of the four-door version that had been envisaged.

In 1966, possibly in a belated bid for the mass market, a stripped down basic version, the Panhard 24 BA was offered.

Citroën, having been an influential shareholder with a 25% holding since 1955, assumed full control of Panhard's automotive business in April 1965.

It is hard to establish how far plans for a four-door Panhard 24, for an estate version and for a cabriolet were permitted to progress, as these range extending variants never saw the light of day.

The GS was an exceptionally aerodynamic, modern and spacious medium-sized sedan with a compact air-cooled four-cylinder boxer motor driving the front wheels.