Peugeot 204 Down On The Saint-Brieuc Street

This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Let's make this a DOTS-O-Rama Sunday with a nicely preserved Peugeot in its homeland.

Unfortunately, I can't find the name of the reader who sent in these photos, but we can enjoy our unintentionally anonymous photographer's description:

I just came across this beautifully conserved Peugeot 204 in Saint-Brieuc, France. It was parked on the same street as the Commerce chamber I was heading to for a press conference on the Global financial crisis.

I can't really tell, which year it is from seeing it, all I know is that the car was actually sold between 1965 and 1976. It also was the best seller in France for three consecutive years (1969; 1970 and 1971). There were 5 versions: 4-door sedan (like that one), 2-door coupe, convertible, station wagon and delivery van. That one seems in very good condition, but the little sunroof protection (can't remember its name) was probably recovered from a blue one.

Please take note of "oh so vintage" details like the yellow headlights and the black/aluminum license plates. The latter mean give us two options: The owner has had it since at least 1993 (that year, they changed plates to white/black letters in the front, yellow/black letter in the back), or it has been in the same "département" since at least 1993. The change in the law stated that if the registration changed that the owner would need new plates, he would have to adopt the new color scheme.
Also, did you know that the yellow headlights have a cool historical story? I learned that recently as a matter of fact. It goes back to Wolrd War II. When the Germans invaded, their vehicles had white headlights. To distinguish the ennemies, the French autorithies decided to make yellow headlights mandatory. It's only in 1993 (again?) that we came back to white headlights.

Send an email to Murilee Martin, the author of this post, at murilee@jalopnik.com.

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