Sunday, June 20, 2010

Peugeot 504 - yet another successful long runner

Here's another one of my leaflets from my collection - the Peugeot 504. You can see from the picture that it's probably a 70ies picture with the Volkswagen Beetle on the right side. Interestingly the star of the leaflet is out of focus. But as a car the Peugeot 504 was a huge success. More than 3 million cars were built in Europe alone between 1968 and 1973 and production continued outside of Europe in various forms until 2002. The 504 was a typical family sedan following traditional engineering routes used for French cars. It was famous for its reliability and durability and many of these cars probably drove through a desert at least once in their life. There as an break/estate version (station car), a pickup and of course the gorgeous coupé and convertible versions. From begin on the car had independent suspensions and disc brakes for all wheels. Designed by Maestro Pininfarina it looked good and survived the long period of production very well. Most people probably have been driving one or being driven in one. Compared to a Citroen DS or an Alfa-Romeo Alfetta this probably was an unexciting drive, but that was good enough for most people. The French police used these cars for many years and in movies you can often see both the villains as well as the good guys chasing each other in a Peugeot 504.

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