Huge losses at Citroën were caused by the failure of the Comotor rotary engine venture added to the strategic management error of going the 15 years from 1955 to 1970 without a model in the profitable middle range of the European market, plus the massive development costs a string of new models: the GS, GS Birotor, CX, SM, Maserati Bora, Maserati Merak, Maserati Quattroporte II, and Maserati Khamsin. Each of these models is a technological marvel in its own right. Thus, forty years after the bankruptcy related to the Traction Avant, Citroën went bankrupt again, losing its existence as an independent entity; selling Berliet and Maserati and closing Comotor.[28]
..........
The SM's system of six replaceable-bulb composite halogen headlamps with swivelling high beams was illegal in the U.S., where regulations at the time required all vehicles to have two or four round sealed-beam headlamps on fixed mounts and with no lens or other covering in front of them.[41] So, SMs for the U.S. market were fitted with four exposed round non-swivelling sealed beams.[37]

Despite initial success, U.S. sales ceased suddenly when Citroën did not receive an expected exemption for the 1974 model year 5 mph (8.0 km/h) bumper regulation imposed by the NHTSA.[37] The integral variable height suspension of the SM made compliance impossible.[37][42] The 1974 SMs built for the U.S. market (134 cars), could not be supplied to Americans due to the effective date of the bumper regulation, so were sold in Japan instead.[43]