Presented on 29 June 1959, as successor to the Panhard Dyna Z, the PL 17 was essentially a facelifted version of its predecessor.

The initial four-door saloon (and pickup and van) was joined by the Cabriolet in 1961,[2] and by the Break,[2] a five-door estate version, in April 1963.

The Break, developed by Italian company Pan Auto, sat on a longer wheelbase but was of the same overall length.

From the 1964 model year, the letters PL were dropped; this approximately coincided with the completed takeover the company by Citroën.

[citation needed] Other names were lightly changed as well, with the addition of a "B" (for Berline) and "BT" for the Tigre model.

The engines are twin-cylinder air-cooled "boxer" types, mounted with the gearbox at the rear and the two exhausts at the front.

The front wheels are driven through a four-speed gearbox with column shift, with synchromesh on the upper three gears.

Suspension at the front is provided by two transverse leaf springs, and at the back by three torsion bars each side.

It is possible to remove the back bench to enlarge the already considerable luggage space to 527 litres (18.6 cu ft).

[8] Less pleasing were the awkward gear box, still without synchromesh on the bottom ratio, and the steering which was heavy at low speeds.

[8] Performance, especially for the top of the range 50 hp (37 kW) "PL 17 Tigre" was helped by the Panhard's lighter body, although the extent of Panhard's weight advantage had been reduced over the previous decade as aluminium had become more expensive and light metal panels had been substituted for some of the steel ones.

Pricing issues may explain why PL 17 sales levels were too low to enable the model to reach the volumes of the Aronde.

[3] The original prototype received different front treatment of a more conventional design, with two large headlamps flanking a planar grille with horizontal ribbons.