Citroën pulled out of the North American market in the 1970s, due to US regulations that required headlights maintained a consistent height. Since their suspensions allowed them to raise and lower their height, there was no way they could be compliant without massive changes to their system. Besides, the Citroën network was not big in the US anyway, and since the DS had few facelifst in its 20 years in production, it was falling out of favour with US consumers who didn't want to be seen driving yesteryear's car.

Their build quality is fine, at least contemporarily to the rest of the market; of course today, we would find its steel pitiful. It's not without reason that people who maintain Citroëns of that era tend to replace the panels with fibreglass ones.

Additionally, as Citroën pulled out, so did the maintenance network in North America falter, as the suspension system required significant know-how. There are still a dedicated group of Citroën fans in North America (albeit small), and I met a lot of them when I drove from coast to coast (and back again) back in 2017 in a 1998 Citroën Xantia. A car that may not seem particularly interesting to Europeans (although it was the Activa V6 model), but it was extremely rare in North America.