In 1973, prior to Peugeot taking over Citroën in 1974, the SM was withdrawn from sale because it did not meet the bumper safety standards and the remainder of the US-export model cars were not allowed to be imported.  The SM had been widely seen by Citroën Cars Corporation as the saviour of the marque in Canada and the USA since it would take them up-market into the lucrative performance/luxury arena.  Since 1972 when imports of the D Series ended and with the GS being banned from North America, the company was left with one model to sell - the Mehari... Citroën Cars Corporation hoped that the replacement for the D Series, the CX, would be federalised and sold in North America.

In 1975, Citroën had a number of diesel CXs in the USA where the company was working with the Federal authorities to ensure that the cars would meet US emissions, lighting and safety standards.  These cars were kept in Arizona and Colorado; away from prying eyes in New Jersey and California.  Confident that the 'US Approved' CX would shortly go on sale, René France, Head of Citroën Cars Corporation was shocked when he was summoned to Paris and told that the company would cease its North American operations on 5th December.  It is believed that the reason for this decision was that Peugeot believed their 604 to be better suited to take on the likes of Volvo, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz and Saab.

Immediately following Citroën's retreat from North America, a number of entrepreneurs decided to import the CX.

Al Mardikian’s Trend Imports of Hermosa Beach California, (a service dealer for Citroën before they left North America)  was the first to import some CX 2500 Diesels.

Since the 'US Approved' modifications had never gone into production, Trend were obliged to modify the cars in order to meet the slow speed DOT front and rear impact standards.  Trend added heavy angle iron behind the bumpers to ensure the cars were able to pass the tests and this resulted in them standing proud of the bodywork. They also made some changes to the lighting.

However,it didn’t take the authorities very long to figure out that Trend Imports were basically importing run of the mill French cars with minimal changes.

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