Pugs have a less than stellar rep in the US, but here in SoCal I still see many 25 year old 505s with massive mileages happily trundling around in stylish Gallic indifference, and if you go to anywhere in Africa and many third world countries, you see not only tons of 505s but 504s as well. What gives? How come so many euro cars are seemingly hopelessly unreliable in the US but they do just fine elsewhere?
@superveloce: Either they're not able to deal with cold or wet climates, or it's an issue of death by a thousands cuts, where in a third world setting, all that's really needed is the engine cranking. Or, they've just got more awesome taste in cars than we do.
BTW that car is actually a turbo despite the ad being for the V6 model. Peugeot later sold that very car to Victor Van Tress who won the 1987 and 1988 SCCA SSB class national championships with it (he still owns the car too).
A whole bunch of Peugeot videos can be found here:
I have yet to figure how the suby tractor trailer wheels ending up on a french sedan form the same era, same reare bolt pattern, WAY beyond bad coincidence...The peugeot looked nice with the cassic feminist wheels, for those that caught onto my very opinion. It made the mismatches all the more WRONG...and then they pretended it was a rally car. Go french go! Way to go france..look at what they did with a boxer engine. Hilarious. Almost as "reverse your thinking" as a honda! Gimme those 505 wheels dammit!
@Rican5.0: Wow, a French surrender joke? That's almost as funny a those posts about China in which people replace all the l's in their comments with r's...
There's a lovely 505 Turbo parked just up on Magazine, near the pizza shop at which my friend used to work. Made for some great low-key nights--have DB slip me a free pizza, watch the traffic go by, admire the lone silver Pug... what a life!
My dad taught me to drive stick in a 1985 Pug turbodiesel. I'm eternally grateful for his patience with me as he'd get me to practice panic stops in an empty A&P parking lot. That Peugeot was a great car, when it was running. Dad ended up trading it for a FWD Sedan de Ville when the repairs became too frequent/costly.
I've mentioned my Peugeot fixation before. Actually, I mentioned it yesterday for the QOTD. But Murilee has thrown down the gauntlet, so I'll repeat it: When I was born, my mother had a '71 504 and my dad had an '83 505. The 505, if you ask pretty much any member of my Peugeot-addicted extended family, was the point when Peugeot quality started going downhill. Dad's first Pug, a '63 404, lasted for 350,000 miles before he traded it in for the '83 505; Mom's 504 got sold when the odometer rolled over 250,000. The 505 lasted for around 20,000 miles before the engine failed so spectacularly that Peugeot offered to replace the car at a steep discount rather than repairing it under warranty. At this point, Dad decided it would be a good idea to upgrade to a 505 Turbo.
The turbo was a fast, competent car. Faster than Dad's friend's BMW 635, or his co-worker's Maserati Biturbo, or my grandfather's Audi 5000 turbo Quattro. But it spent all its time in the goddamn shop, and unlike the earlier Peugeots it couldn't be held together with baling wire and happy thoughts. Once the turbocharger failed. When I say "failed," I don't mean the oil lines broke and the compressor seized or the housing developed a leak. When I say "failed," I mean "exploded, sending shards of turbocharger all around the engine compartment."
Even if Peugeot had stayed in the American market, I'm pretty sure the 505 Turbo would have been our last French car.
Yeah a Cinc-cent-cinq! As much as I love this car as a Sedan, I still think the station wagon variant is better , and of course Dangel got their hands on that one too!
@franzouse: Station wagon 504s and 505s were awesome, but they had live rear axles instead of the trailing-arm IRS in the sedans. Not that that slowed any Dangel 505 wagons down in the Paris-Dakar Rally...
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What, exactly, btw, does FAP stand for? I don't really want to know how the French engineers feel about their creation, if it is what I think it is.
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[www.505turbo.com]
BTW that car is actually a turbo despite the ad being for the V6 model. Peugeot later sold that very car to Victor Van Tress who won the 1987 and 1988 SCCA SSB class national championships with it (he still owns the car too).
A whole bunch of Peugeot videos can be found here:
[www.505turbo.com]
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Also, the navigator of the 1975 East African Safari-winning 504 Coupe is Jean Todt, former head of Ferrari.
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And seeing that family sedan creel around the corners, why hell yes! Sign me up! French racing!
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Rut, ren again, Ri'm a racist, ro my rote dosen't rount.
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The turbo was a fast, competent car. Faster than Dad's friend's BMW 635, or his co-worker's Maserati Biturbo, or my grandfather's Audi 5000 turbo Quattro. But it spent all its time in the goddamn shop, and unlike the earlier Peugeots it couldn't be held together with baling wire and happy thoughts. Once the turbocharger failed. When I say "failed," I don't mean the oil lines broke and the compressor seized or the housing developed a leak. When I say "failed," I mean "exploded, sending shards of turbocharger all around the engine compartment."
Even if Peugeot had stayed in the American market, I'm pretty sure the 505 Turbo would have been our last French car.
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