French, lovely car, hydraulic nightmare.
The SM would hold its own in '05 on most checklists which do not beigin with the heading, Most Excessive $$ Can Buy. Neat Maserati engine in the SM coupled with most-advanced chassis concepts of its time (as with the original '56 DS, ID at their introductions. Would trade my Plutocrat in a trice, were it not now suffering from out-of-production overhead, collector$ appeal etc.
SM: YAN pure case of Pearls before Swine IMeptO.
As to hydraulics.. Pshaw! As I've menioned before.. even in the wide-open spaces of USA, say the endless trek all across Texas at-speed? - Citro\ufffdns just kept going, and at shockingly high fuel mileage numbers VS The Dinosaurs. What killed them *here* was the rampant ignorance about so simple a requirement as: Draining the hyd. reservoir and flushing-in new fluid: Once a Year! (or >> some mileage). They. Wouldn't.
So aside from needing a mechanic who understands that 'Clean' is not optional on the few occasions of replacing a hydraulic appendage - only ignorance killed them off in Murica.. (I knew the LA distrib. Chief Troubleshooter - re these conclusions, BTW)
Could it be, then - that the same dumbth-distro as US ?? <<< {shudder} perfuses also our Euro brethren, despite all those centuries-old Institutions with books and stuff?
I never had problems / I also didn't do stupid things to my 4 DSs (+ one DS-Mechanique) including a couple learning-specimens I overhauled; one engine, in 'class': just for the lore / curiosity about "working on them".
