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By admin, September 3, 2010 5:36 am

The Peugeot 404 was a D-segment (large family car classification) produced between nineteen sixty and nineteen seventy five. Manufactured by the French based car makers Peugeot, the 404 was designed by the Italian automobile designers Pininfarina. The car was produced in Europe until nineteen seventy eight, with the 404 still produced in Kaduna (Nigeria) until nineteen eighty nine under license. One point eight million 404s were produced in France, whilst a further two point eight cars were manufactured under license for the developing markets where the car proved very successful.

The initial 404 line up included the five door estate, four door sedan and two door pickup body styles, with two door convertible and coupe variations added to the line up within two years of production. Available with both petrol and diesel engines, the petrol engine had a capacity of one point six litre, and the diesel one point nine. Fitted with a four speed manual transmission, the 404 also offered a three speed automatic transmission as an additional option. The car proved very popular as taxis due to its value, reliability and looks.

The extremely popular car magazine “Autocar” ran road tests for the Diesel Peugeot 404 in nineteen sixty five. The parameters measured included top speed, acceleration and fuel consumption. The diesel car reached eighty one miles per hour, and could accelerate to sixty miles per hour in twenty five seconds. It could travel just over thirty two miles per gallon of fuel. The petrol fuelled car was also tested, and was notably faster than the diesel, and shared the same fuel consumption.

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By admin, August 20, 2010 5:36 am

The French automobile producer Peugeot manufactured the 205 for fourteen years, between nineteen eighty three and nineteen ninety seven. The production of the car in the UK ceased a year earlier, in nineteen ninety six. The higher performing GTI hatchback was equipped with either one point six or one point nine litre engines, producing over one hundred and five break horse power for the smaller of the two engines. The 205 was awarded the “Car of the Decade” in CAR magazine in the nineties, and the 205 GTI is often cited as the hottest of the “hot hatches”.

For the inexperienced driver the 205 GTI will likely be more difficult to drive than its modern day counterparts, with the lack of electronic driving aids and the oversteer experienced when cornering hard. The initial one point six litre engine produced just over one hundred and five break horse power, but the power was increased by around ten break horse power when the new XU5JA engine was fitted which had larger valves shared with the one point nine engine. The one point nine litre engine produced one hundred and twenty six break horse power, yet the power was decreased in the late models, down to one hundred and twenty. The decreased power was seen as an answer to the increased insurance premiums for the car which was badly affecting sales.

There were subtle differences between the one point six and one point nine litre models. The one point six model had clothed seats, smaller alloys, and disc / drum brakes. The larger engine variation had half leather seats, fifteen inch alloys, and all round disk brakes.