"Businessmen and senior executives have extremely busy schedules. They need to find the same comfort in their cars as they have in their offices. The DS 19 PRESTIGE meets this need. With this car, the man who lives intensely no longer wastes time and is no longer isolated when travelling." Drafted in Paris by Citroën’s External Relations Department and shared in Italy at the Turin Motor Show in October 1962, this press release launched the DS Prestige.
The model was conceived in response to the requests of French customers and prefectures and it introduced a distinctive interior partition. Its long wheelbase (3.12 meters, exceptional for European cars of the time) offered remarkably spacious passenger compartment, making it possible to elegantly integrate a dividing window between the driver and the rear-seat occupants. To enhance the sense of comfort in this true lounge on wheels, the driver’s seat was provided with a small, non-adjustable front bench. Incorporated into the backrest was a discreet manual mechanism enabling the glass partition to retract, ensuring privacy for passengers. Communication was also effortless, thanks to an intercom system. The DS Prestige offered an on-board telephone, a dedicated compartment for cigars or champagne complete with two crystal flutes, and elegant pull-out tables.
The DS Prestige played its part in the famous French presidential motorcades appearing alongside the black DS car models “Préfecture” and the majestic “Présidentielle”. The latter being a specially armoured DS, was equipped with an internal partition that General de Gaulle approved, reportedly “because it measured a few centimetres longer than American President Lyndon Johnson’s Lincoln”. Yet, de Gaulle used the car only once, before returning, almost irritated by such ostentation, to his customary, unarmoured DS models.
