While we have covered the SM’s attributes and complexity in dozens of articles in Citroënvie, recently three media pieces were published attempting to offer fresh insight as to how the SM is perceived in 2024 in light of what is offered in the market these days:
1) In September Autoweek.com published an article titled “The Car Of The Future—That Never Was”. It begins with this tease line:
“For most, the Citroën SM was always too strange, too complicated. But it was designed to be, and was, extraordinary.”
The article gives a good overview of the era in which the SM was created and focuses on it’s design. The only very odd thing is the picture that they chose to show the SM’s interior. It is green pretty much everywhere! And as you can see by the lighting it is of a SM Mylord (convertible). They sourced the pic from gettyimages.co.uk.
It is not just bad hue colour correction of a photograph. It appears to be a real car. There are bits (dashboard panel and dials, gearshift knob, climate control panel, pleads and footrest that are the proper colour. But the rest – horrendous, including the green carpet!
2) Hagerty in August 2024, classified the SM as 1 of “5 Project Cars Reserved for the Brave” in an article by Kyle Smith. (His other four being; Aston Martin Lagonda, Maserati BiTurbo, Audi Allroad and Fisker Karma.). Showing Jay Leno demonstrating the suspension in his SM as the title photo, Kyle stated;
It takes a car so intriguing as the SM for anyone to tolerate a suspension that required coining new terms just to produce it. The hydropneumatic suspension that makes the ride quality unlike anything else requires “suspension spheres,” which function similar to an accumulator and a spring combined. It’s luxury, it’s French, it’s complicated. It’s a perfect storm, and some people just love to chase tornados. Kudos if you are one of them.
Which spawned an appropriate rebuttal from Ed Kubeczek:
Well here we go again. Unscrupulous garages are charging big money for a simple job. Those green spheres are very fundamentally simple. Bot in how the work and replacement which to those in the know is extremely simple economical from a labour perspective. When I lived in Montreal there were and still are several in pendant shops specializing in theses cars and other European makes. My Dentist friend owned an SM. He left on holidays often and I drove and maintained the car. There are numerous sources for the spheres many reputable most surprisingly inexpensive. Rebuilt units are also on the market. Replacing them is less expensive than shocks on a domestic car. I know I did them and learned how to actually do it myself in a pinch. A little more in depth research could have dispelled this misinformation.
3) The Man Cave Channel scoured YouTube to lift scenes from various videos (including one by Driving.ca showing Citroënvie editor George Dyke behind the wheel of a gold coloured 1973 SM he once owned), to create a 10 minute synopsis titled “This Old Weird French Car Is Cooler Than Today’s Supercars”. To their credit, they do cover the many unique features that make the SM an extraordinary experience.
The the beginning they mention the SM that was used in the movie The Longest Yard starring Burt Reynolds. At least 2 SMs were used in filming the chase sequence in film as was explained in this article in Citroenvie: https://citroenvie.com/the-longest-yard-sm-outcome/
All 3 pieces show a fascination about the SM and a reverence for what is still an outstanding automotive achievement even in light of current exotic and luxury offerings.