“Getting Passed on the Right” is an old saw here at CC, that started with a memorable right lane pass by a speeding bathtub Nash. It works best when the right lane passer is a bit improbable, like this Peugeot 505 wagon. Now if it had been the rare US market-only Turbo version, the probability factor would have been considerably higher. But it’s not, yet here it comes, getting ready to pass CC reader keranhwang, on US-24 near Clarkston, Michigan.
In addition to the rather rare Turbo (gas) wagon, these came in basic gas and turbo-diesel versions. Prior to 1987, the venerable 1970 cc OHV gas four was used, which dates back to the 404, and was rated at 97 hp. Beginning in 1987, Peugeot switched to the “Douvrin” four, a joint venture engine with Renault, which displaced 2165 cc and upped power to (badly needed) 120 hp. Oddly enough, the N9T Turbo gas engine, which displaced 2155 cc was a totally different engine again, which came from the Simca/Chrysler 180 cars. Three totally different gas engines available in the same car. How exotic.
But I’m betting on this wagon having the 2498cc XD3T turbo-diesel, as the owners of these diesels tend to be a bit fanatic about them. And who but a Peugeot fanatic would be driving a 505 wagon in Clarkston, Michigan?
The turbo-diesel packed 95 hp, and was a lot less sluggish than the non-turbo-diesel four that was used so extensively in the 504 wagon, and made its sluggishness rather legendary. And here’s the proof: it’s leaving our poor shooter’s car in its (diesel) dust.
Related reading:
CC Peugeot 505 Wagon – The Last of the World’s Greatest Wagons
The World’s Greatest Wagons: Peugeot 203, 403, 404, 504, 505
Was this from Clarkson, Michigan, or Clarkson, Missouri? I live 15-20 minutes from Clarkson, Michigan, and will try to keep this on my lookout if it is from Michigan.
EDIT: It is a Michigan car. It has a MI license plate. That makes this the second “getting passed on the right” to come from Mi, as I shot the first one here in MI, 20-30 minutes from Chelsea, MI, home of Jiffy mixes. Back to the subject, I REALLY need to look out for this car, for “tagging” it (becoming a future CC article).
My fault, it’s in Michigan indeed, I just realized it should be Clarkston. I took the photos on Friday, I was just shocked. Usually some odd cars pops up in Clarkston occasionally though, more frequently than other parts ( Troy, Royal Oak, Madison Heights ) But seeing the whole rocker panel shot, I don’t expect the car to hang around too long. ( But who knows? I guess the rear door was replaced for rusting out long ago )
He was driving slowly, though, despite my LeSabre didn’t move fast neither, I sent the photos in reverse order and forgot to mention that :O
I fixed it now. I misinterpreted the abbreviation.
Aw, come on; you know he passed you on the right 🙂
He at least got a turbo! My LeSabre just cruising at a lazy pace…
I always liked the old French car ride. Soft long travel suspension with even softer seats. To me, that’s as good as it gets. Too bad the modern Frenchy cars are more like German ones, hard and harder.
Wondering if 505’s chassis can handle a modern turbo diesel? Something like Mercedes-Benz OM651 engine with 290lb/ft -190Hp or so. To me something like that would be ideal as a long distance tourer. Enough power for the car to feel ‘light’ but not sports car fast and reasonable mpg
Can 505’s torque tube, rear end, brake and suspension handle the extra power?
It would handle a low powered Mercedes engine but likely not a modern Peugeot diesel engine after all Jaguar supercharged their gas V8 so it had more power than the Peugeot diesel also installed in the same cars.
Of course it is passing on the right. It takes a lot of practice to do it correctly.
A lot of practice and a car that goes as fast in R as in D.
What I like about the 505 is the station wagon and in some limited cases the 3rd row seats in the trunk…ran by tourist agencies in the past.
Amazing survivor for Michigan, even with the indestructible diesel. My, ahem, first Father-in-Law had a 1978 504 Wagon that, when I first knew him in 1990, had already largely disintegrated from the salt of 13 eastern Ontario winters. But the engine and interior were like new, which made the rust all the more tragic (he traded it in on a new Subaru a year later, alas, as the Pug was getting structurally suspect).
I never see them here in North Texas, even though this has always been a hot diesel market – given the mileages many put on their cars – and you see lots of VW and Benz diesels, including lots of similar-vintage 123-body Benz diesels. Hmmm…..thinking about it, a 1985 Benz 300TD wagon would just about be perfect; still respected by the restaurant valets (who knows – you might be old, secure money!)….
The engine family switch could have been because Peugeot went FWD with the 405 in the late 80s and used the XUD engines in its diesel cars meaning it no longer had to manufacture the obsolete engines as well.
I can’t see this car without thinking of the one Glen Close drove in Jagged Edge.
If you’re ever going to see a French car in Michigan, US24 is gonna be the road. All the lefty, commie, pinko types are out there; from Ann Arbor and then the western sluburbs.
They still don’t know to pronounce Peugeot, tho…..
Poo-jzho:
US-24 (aka Telegraph Road/Dixie Highway) goes nowhere near Ann Arbor. Perhaps you’re thinking of US-23, a freeway that passes between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti on its way from Toledo to Flint.
You’re right, it is 23 I was thinking about; only been 39 years since I lived there. But the foreign car buffs are waaay on the west side, as my late mother told it. Nobody ever used the numerals, it was always Telegraph, Southfield, Woodward. Even the freeways the first preference was the name; Ford not I-94. Not like that out west, they like the numbers…
Telegraph Rd, Dixie Hwy, Southfield Fwy, Fisher, Woodward, Grand River….
I still prefer using the names though.
There was a time when seeing a Peugeot 505 was a common occurrence for me, even into the early ’00s. At their height of popularity they were nearly as common as 5-series BMWs, and there were still a couple of dealerships servicing them in New Jersey up until recently. But now they’re finally going extinct 🙁
I’ve always thought that in many ways, the 505 was the perfect New York City car – it’s the right size, it gobbles up potholes with it’s smooth ride, it can carve corners on the parkways, it’s at least semi-luxurious, and it’s got the right “attitude” being French and non-conformist. It’s the extremely rare type of car that appealed to both weirdos AND yuppies.
Now I usually go several months between Pug sightings, except for a 405Mi16 that parks near my office regularly. This is the last 505 I was able to get a picture of, all the way back in 2013 – a 505S (gas 4-cyl/5-speed) in the same color as this wagon and also covered with snow. I’m not sure what year it was, but it had the early-style interior:
It’s unfortunate that French cars like Peugeot couldn’t make a go of it in the US. I understand Renault not making it, but Peugeot’s vehicles didn’t seem all that bad, and they seemed to have enough redeeming qualities to remain popular with at least a solid niche market. With Fiat making a US comeback, maybe there’s still hope that Peugeot will return someday, too.
I mean, c’mon, Columbo drove an old one.
This is the current largest Peugeot wagon, the 508 SW. It’s just a few inches shorter than the CC-505 wagon. The 508 is also available as a sedan.
And that’s also the only Peugeot sedan right now. For the rest smaller hatchbacks, some CUV models,
a minivan and a very nice coupe.
The 508 looks to be a move in the right direction for Peugeot, but I would still rather have a 505. The forward-facing third row is one of the best wagon setups ever.
I really like Peugeot’s current lineup, especially the 308 hatchback and the 508 sedan.
They still have a sevenseater, this 5008. Tall Peugeot models got a double zero.
Replace the Lion badge with the circle-and-slash, and that could be a Volvo wagon.
Hmmm….new Volvos have that sagging, droopy front. This Peugeot looks what the Volvo should have looked like.
Culture-wise, a Peugeot is kind of half German-half French. Some degree of frivolity is allowed, but not too much ! And a perfect comfort~handling~performance mixture.
The only sedan! Right, you don’t get these…
Correct. A-, B- and C-segment cars are natural born hatchbacks in Europe. D-segment and up are sedans or wagons. With a few exceptions of course, like a Citroën DS5.
Modern small sedans often look horrible, completely out of proportion. You know the Ford Fiesta sedan for example ? Tex Avery would have drawn a car that looks better.
Agreed on the Fiesta sedan–one of the most misbegotten designs on the road. It’s clear that the car was meant to be a hatch and they clumsily grafted a trunk on.
Really, though, the manufacturers in the USA are playing an odd game. Almost invariably, if a car is available as a sedan *and* a hatchback (Fiesta/Focus, Mazda 3, Kia Forte, Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio, Nissan Versa) the lowest-price trim is only available as a sedan. The Rio is the only one of the listed vehicles that offers both 4-door and 5-door models at the same base price–for all the others, the hatchback is more expensive. Some look natural as sedans, others are clumsy “tack on a trunk” additions, but across the board, the hatch is pricier. It’s almost as if they’re trying to make the hatchback appear to be a premium style, when in most of the rest of the world, it’s the bread and butter model. Not sure what the deal is, exactly, with that. But it’s strange, to me at least.
Reminds me of my first stint on the Autobahn. Just leaving Cologne, and still getting used to the speed, I settled my Opel Astra rental at a steady 140 km/h, at about 5000 rpm in 5th. Until a old, clapped out Mercedes diesel estate passed me. Quickly.
Clearly, I had some stuff to learn.
There you go, a 0-60 (mph) time is completely irrelevant in the long run.
Ask any taxi driver-owner in North Africa ’bout ” Pigot “
All 505s are certainly becoming rare on the roads even in Northern California/Bay Area which was a hotbed for these when new. There are always a few for sale however on Craigslist, generally needing some sort of repair. So I guess most 505s must be sitting in someone’s back yard.
I REALLY want a 505 GTI saloon/sedan, but I’ve more chance of getting hold of rocking horse droppings here in the UK. A perfect blend of ride comfort and handling. Well built as well, unlike Pugs from the 1990’s/2000’s.
Last 505 I saw on the road was about 5 years ago in North Carolina. The only one I can think of since then was on the premises of a foreign car repair shop, and I’ve no clue whether or not it was capable of moving under its own power.
For a car that wasn’t uncommon once upon a time, they do all seem to have gone away, on the east coast at least. I imagine finding parts probably became quite difficult well before the internet made it easier again!
A test drive of a late-model 505 Turbo Wagon that I took back in 2000 was one
of those drives that I’ll never forget. More woosh and pick-up than I’d ever experienced before and a thrill of a drive that I’ve rarely had since. A bit of rust and a fear of finding someone closer to me who could work on the maintaining the car kept me from completing the purchase.
Oddly, it was the personal car of old-man Knauz, of founder of Knauz Mercedes-Benz, north of Chicago. Hmm, another reason I didn’t buy… I remember now that he wanted a Mercedes-Benz price for the car, too.
Fun fact — Knauz was the first Mercedes-only dealer in Chicago. He got the contract because he used to attend the monthly meetings of the German-American club. One day, the Mercedes reps showed up at a dinner, they had just bought the North American dealership rights back from Studebaker and were looking for a ‘reliable’ man…
Peugeot has slowly learned how to deal with the heavy road salt in North America – too bad they pulled out in 1992. My 1970 404 wagon rusted ahead of its time – although so did many other imports. My 1974 504 wagon was much better and by the time I have moved to 505s, with more galvanized metal and inner fender liners up front, the problem was largely licked. I am still driving 28 year old 505 wagons in the winter, (sedans in summer) both turbo gas and normally aspirated. Both start well in the cold, without any assistance, to minus 21 Celsius. Synthetic oil makes a big difference. Excellent traction on snow and ice, especially with good snow tires, like Hakks or Michelin X-Ice. The 505 was – and still is – a formidable vehicle and one of the reasons I am still driving it is that I can’t find a replacement that can do all the things that it can do. Top of the list is superb ergonomics, but the engineering and styling – thanks for Pininfarina – are also first rate.