With the Citroën GS, master designer Robert Opron wrote an exceptionally striking car that, thanks to its design, lasted a very long time. A facelift in the late 1970s kept things fresh enough for a final total lifespan of no less than sixteen years.
With the DS, Citroën had proven itself as a manufacturer that did not hesitate to make a progressive design statement. In that sense, however, the top model was quite lonely in the showroom for a long time, because the Ami and 2CV were, despite their equally striking carriages, of a completely different caliber. By the end of the 1960s, Citroën thought it was high time for more serious cars that seemed to come straight out of a wind tunnel. In 1970, this led to the arrival of two high-profile models, the SM and the GS. Both the work of Opron.
Where the SM was an exclusive sporty coupé, the GS had to fulfill a more conventional role, that of the affordable middle class. However, the word ‘conventional’ is rather misplaced with the GS. Compared to its contemporary competitors, the GS was extremely innovative. In the first place because of its design, but also because of the hydropneumatic suspension system, copied from the DS. This offered the GS a driving comfort that no opponent could match. It was also special that the GS was equipped with boxer engines and eventually even with a Wankel engine, the Birotor, which unfortunately was soon turned down again, partly due to the oil crisis. In fact, Citroën wanted to take the GS Birotor completely out of circulation by buying back and destroying the sold copies, but fortunately a few copies have been rescued from the hands of the wrecker. Although the GS was certainly not without problems in the first years, the innovative total package earned it quite a bit of praise and the GS was named Car of the Year in 1971.
Despite its by no means conventional carriage, the GS had a number of features that eventually began to betray its age. For example, there were the chrome bumpers and the still fairly classic-looking interior. Two things that Citroën took care of during the facelift. The GS continued with fresh courage from 1979 under the name GSA and you don’t have to look twice to distinguish it from the primal GS. The plastic bumper work, new door handles and a new grille, as well as the completely new rear lights without a frame, drew the GS into the 80s. The latter, incidentally, strongly resembled copies that had already made their appearance a few years earlier during a light renewal round. Citroën kept the basic shape of the GS intact, but managed to make it significantly more modern due to these changes.
Anyone who entered the GSA also looked at a completely new dashboard. One that seemed to have been drawn almost exclusively with a ruler, while previously it had a flowing, almost DS-like dashboard. A futuristic-looking set of instruments with a maze of lines and lights was also introduced in the GSA. The ‘roller’ that indicated the speed was kept, but was now joined (as an option) by the same system for the speed. If you didn’t have a tachometer, you got an analog clock instead. As with the CX, which had succeeded the DS four years after the GS (with the necessary external similarities), the GSA received special button clusters for operating things such as the lighting and direction indicators. You did not find conventional ‘stems’ for these matters in the GSA.
One of the biggest changes, however, was of a practical nature. The GS was a fastback as a four-door, with a flap under the rear window. If you opened it, you could immediately load luggage without a loading sill, but the rear window did not come up with it. That changed at the GSA. That became a full-fledged five-door hatchback. A lot more practical and moreover, the retroactive design actually seemed intended for that purpose from the start. There were already prototypes in the development of the GS that had a folding rear window. Whether or not you find the GSA more successful than the original, it turned out to be a good move by Citroën to send the GS into the second round in this way. The GSA lasted until 1986, so you can say that the GS/GSA had a remarkably long life. None of its successors lasted that long and even though the BX was again a very striking appearance, it was not such a statement as the GS.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl