French cars rarely get any love here or really on any car site this side of, well, France. This 1978 Citroen GS Pallas is one unusual-looking ride and it can be found on Craigslist, or here on the CL archive in.. I’m not really sure, either California or Washington. They say “clear Washington title” and it has Washington plates but the phone number is from California. It’s somewhere on the Pacific coast, let’s stick with that. The seller is asking $8,900 for this GS.
The seller mentions that there is some rust on the bottom of the passenger side door but this is the only photo showing that side and there are no detail photos. I just made one out of the photo above – hopefully the rust can be fixed, the car sure looks good otherwise. The floors are solid, though, according to the seller. This sure is a cool, unusual car. I can’t imagine driving this car to the store among the hoards of giant silver SUVs and silver melted-bar-of-soap cars. It sure would stand out, in a good way. Especially if you took one of the rear wheels off as shown in this YouTube video.
It’s hard to mistake this car for anything but a Citroen with that odd stance and rear end. I’m a huge fan of the Citroen Ami and the GS was in the mix along with the endearing and enduring 2CV and the magic carpet DS sedans. I don’t believe that the GS was ever officially imported to the United States.
The interior looks good but the loose seat covers are a bit of a bummer. Or can that be the actual seat fabric? No, it can’t be. The rear seats have them, too. The interesting trunk/boot is different than I thought it would be. With this shape I always assumed that these were hatchbacks. The gauges are a year or two after the classic rotating drum speedometer that Citroens were known for. The headliner even looks great. I’d want to see what’s under those seat covers but otherwise there isn’t much to complain about inside that I can see.
This should be Citroen’s 1.2L or 1,222cc boxer-four which is air-cooled. I know, crazy stuff. Not to mention having the spare tire in the engine compartment like some older Subarus did. With around 60 hp there isn’t a lot of power on tap here but this car only weighs a ton. This car has almost new tires, new spheres, belts, and cooling fan. “Everything works” according to the seller. Are there any Citroen GS fans out there? Have any of you folks in the U.S. seen one before?
Revvy little engines though, so they’re a hoot to drive. The changing-the-wheel show is always good.
I like Citroens.
I like Citoen’s to look at but not to own.
The guy that started Citroen was a Dutch guy that moved to French, the funny thing is that Citroen in Dutch means lemon.
..it’s my understanding that Andres father sold lemons round Amsterdam hence the adopted name
That is one wild design for a steering wheel. Not a bad looking little buggy.
A single-spoke steering wheel had been a Citroen signature since the 2CV.
How have I never heard of this model? I love the gauges…they look like 70’s era watches. And the rear bumper is part of the trunk lid?
I can’t look away…I like it!
Had some 5 or 6 GS cars, some running on propane . with the earlier CYCLOPS eye speedo an the newer standard type gauges. Some lower price models and also the upper line Pallas. The one I love best was a Pallas with C-Matic transmission. Just look it up, it’s a manual shift semi-automatic. These cars were flying through high snow where all other traffic had to creep, thanks to thin tires and hydraulic suspension. Just choose a higher setting and off you blow over the snow. 25 miles to work and 25 back to warm comfy home in a warm comfy car. Cheers to you all.
The seat fabrics in these are prone to stretching lose (yes, that’s the seat itself, not a cover).
The good news is that there’s good aftermarket seat fabric replacements available.
Look at the size of that parking brake handle to the right of the steering wheel! LOL
Thanks. I wondered what the heck that was for. I was thinking Inspector Clouseau’s ejection seat.
Looks like fun. Does it have yellow French headlights? A wagon version would turn alot of heads at the local Home Depot.
Probably doesn’t have French-spec bulbs in the lights. No need to change the whole assembly; just the bulbs.
I remember seeing several GS Cits in SoCal back in the 1980s. My wife wouldn’t let me buy one (even though both of us owned Renaults!), which I suppose was just as well. Neat little cars.
Isn’t that still from a Season 1 episode of “CHiPs”?
the yellow bulbs can be obtained
for almost nothing in europe
I have a couple of cars with the yellow bulbs here in the US. The yellow bulbs are so that you can be seen, not so that you can see. The French have a thing about bright headlights.
What a fabulous little car. Owned many Citroen’s in my 30 years in the used car business in the UK. These are great cars, as has been already said they are a hoot to drive and like most Citroen’s light years ahead of the competition when it comes to styling and engineering.
There quirky and I love it.
I love the 1972 CITROEN in the 1974 movie ” the Longest Yard”. Sad that it had to take a bath at the end. Still love when his girlfriend Melissa yells at him NOT to take her Maserati .
In South Africa they were known as the 1220 CLUB. Lovely, reliable little cars but they rusted just going through the car wash!
Washington title in California typically means it can’t be smogged
My thoughts exactly. Late Papa-in-law in Pasadena CA had a CX he’d bought in France during the fleeting “Grey Market” era and paid some jackleg outfit I think $2500 to Federalize it. The very crookedly hand-punched VIN was indicative of the overall quality of work, and the area Federal referee denied the certificate. Further efforts went nowhere, and after his son inherited the car and brought it back to running condition, after consulting with me and some well-known Citroenistes found a buyer in … Washington, of course.
It’s not that it can’t be made to pass the emissions test, since a really good shop and a sufficiently wealthy client might be able to do that. It’s the task of making the whole car capable of meeting 1978 safety specs, and then selling our DMV on certifying it. I would dearly love to have this, or any GS – easily my favorite modern Citroen – but I’d also want a second home in a car-friendlier part of the world.
If memory serves a few of these were sold on the US. When Citroen pulled the plug on sales here they tried to buy them all back to avoid having to supply parts and service. However some buyers refused to sell them back. Probably why this one isn’t Eurospec.
Ralph,
Looks pretty much Eurospec to me. Not noticed the French number plate on the boot lid?
Nope, That was the one with the WANKEL = rotor engine. Wish I had one of these. Citroen GS BiRotor
The Birotor looked very similar but the wider track meant flared guards. Also, oddly it went to a transverse engine layout, so many of the internal structural panels were different to fit this in and the water cooling. The early joint venture with NSU produced engines that were less than perfectly reliable. Citroen bought many of the cars back and crushed them, making them even rarer now.
They were working on selling them in the USA. A replacement for the big headlights was designed, seen here on an Indonesian Break version. The quad lights were popular in places with rough roads like Africa, easier to repair if broken by stones.
Some of the reason why they were hard to federalise was the air cooling of the flat four. It’s hard to get carburetted air cooled engines to run lean enough to pass emissions controls, and still be driveable.
These Citroens are from an earlier time and bear absolutely no resemblance to the tragic cheap cars pedalled by PSA today.
Lovely looking car. For some reason, you don’t see that many Citroens in the USA. I don’t know if the cars worth the $8900 asking price, but I imagine it’s damn close. I’d pay $5000, that way I have enough money to pay for maintenance and restoration. :)
I had a yellow one like this, which must have been about 5 years old then.
I remember 2 storeys, unique to my car.
I was involved with ice skating and on the way home from the rink, there would be like 3 couples in the car. They would all be asleep when we reached our neigbourhood – because the drive was so cushioned. Everytime.
The second was when one morning I found that a rear wheel had a puncture. I ran back in the house to get the bike keys and shouted out that I had a puncture. My sister said again? That is the 2nd one this week surely? It turned out that the tyre had been deflated a week, yet I was using the car daily.
That car has a unique suspension!
The Citroen GS was produced from 1971 to 1978 in sedan and break (wagon) form, replaced by the facelifted GSA in 1979, which was built as a 5-door hatch or break. Having air-cooled boxer fours they were never intended to meet U.S. EPA standards and were never sold here. A few have trickled in over the years, some privately imported directly from Europe or via Canada. Being 25 years old now, you can bring one in rather easily, assuming you can find one that isn’t rusted out or worn out to the point that it isn’t worth the shipping cost – which is nearly impossible now, from what I understand. So, cherish the few that are already here. They are technically interesting, comfortable cars, that are a hoot to drive. How do I know? I actually own one that I bought from a Citroen enthusiast in Toronto a few years ago. Incidentally, he fixed the seats by replacing the foam seat squabs, which are prone to deteriorating and causing the fabric to become baggy. The blue tweed seats in my gray 78 GS Pallas look brand new.
All said, owning a Citroen is not for the faint of heart. Qualified service is spread thin across the U.S. and, for other than 2CV, DS and SM models (which all were imported officially at one time or other prior to Citroen leaving the market in 1974), you had better be adept at ordering parts from Europe.
This model was sold in decent numbers in New Zealand, and there are still quite a few around. Pricing is pretty reasonable, too.
A friend of mine picked up a later model, some years back, and it was quite comfortable to ride in, especially as it had A/C, which was pretty rare for cars sold here in the 1970s-80s.
A GS with A/C would be rare, and if it still worked rarer still. The Indonesian versions had it. It’s not even that common on the GS/GSA replacement the BX, except on JDM models like my BX19. The GSA is worth going for for the slightly larger engine and the hatchback.
Always wanted one of these, parts be damned. If I had a place for this car along with the Mustangs and the Beetles, they will have a home.
Mi dad had one in Spain. He bought one of the latest GS Pallas in 1979. I learned how to drive in it. It was very smooth, but very under powered. The big problem we had is that it was very unreliable. It leaked oil almost all its life. Some gauges stopped working almost immediately. Mechanics in the dealership were not able to fix the several problems it had.. Oddly enough the suspension worked flawlessly for the 14 years we owned it. It was a beautiful car, but my dad was very happy the day it went to the scrapyard and he bought a Ford Orion. He discovered then that some cars could be reliable.