My mom had a '75 Peugeot 504 wagon much like that. Very tough, huge capacity, very slow, but not as slow as the 78 504 diesel she replaced it with. Redefining slowness, with a clock the same size as the speedometer, because you needed to know how late you were going to be getting anywhere. Like most Peugeots, slow on the highway, but ridiculously fast on back roads.
My very first car was a '60 Peugeot 403 wagon (my family was for a while really into Peugeots, and this was my first of three). Called by my friends "the hearse," because not only was it big square and black, but had a side-opening tailgate door. Like most Peugeots it was dead slow, rusted like a tin can in the ocean, and handled like a sports car. And like all Peugeot wagons, its capacity for both size and weight of cargo was enormous.
One night some college friends and I took it to New Haven CT to see a play. Coming home at night on one of the long main streets through the sizeable New Haven ghetto, a big old Cadillac full of local fellows pulled up, and we started revving our engines at the stop light. Off we went, prissy whitey Peugeot's stump-pulling low gears getting us off the mark first, sagging to nothing in third, the Caddy's slushbox V8 pulling ahead just in time to beat us to the next light. We proceeded for about a dozen intersections that way, laughing all the way. In the so often bleak history of things, a little ray of good clean fun back in the long ago 60's.
My mom had a '75 Peugeot 504 wagon much like that. Very tough, huge capacity, very slow, but not as slow as the 78 504 diesel she replaced it with. Redefining slowness, with a clock the same size as the speedometer, because you needed to know how late you were going to be getting anywhere. Like most Peugeots, slow on the highway, but ridiculously fast on back roads.
ReplyDeleteMy very first car was a '60 Peugeot 403 wagon (my family was for a while really into Peugeots, and this was my first of three). Called by my friends "the hearse," because not only was it big square and black, but had a side-opening tailgate door. Like most Peugeots it was dead slow, rusted like a tin can in the ocean, and handled like a sports car. And like all Peugeot wagons, its capacity for both size and weight of cargo was enormous.
One night some college friends and I took it to New Haven CT to see a play. Coming home at night on one of the long main streets through the sizeable New Haven ghetto, a big old Cadillac full of local fellows pulled up, and we started revving our engines at the stop light. Off we went, prissy whitey Peugeot's stump-pulling low gears getting us off the mark first, sagging to nothing in third, the Caddy's slushbox V8 pulling ahead just in time to beat us to the next light. We proceeded for about a dozen intersections that way, laughing all the way. In the so often bleak history of things, a little ray of good clean fun back in the long ago 60's.
Wow! I've never heard so much about the Peugeots! Thank you! Great joke about the large clock! HA!
DeleteDo like the D-Day stripes on the 504!
ReplyDelete