The seller of this rare 1985 Peugeot 505 Turbo sedan uses a rather dramatic backdrop to get his point across – the soon-to-be-carcasses of piles of junk vehicles that tower over this French sport saloon. But not to worry, as the seller mentions specifically in the listing he’s not junking it; yet you can’t help but wonder if the inferred doom surrounding this car might motivate someone to bid.
I can’t say I blame them if it does. This is likely the most desirable spec of this 3-Series and E-Class fighter from France, with the turbocharged engine and a manual transmission. It also appears to be highly original, with trim pieces like the shift knob and original steering wheel still attached. However, it has some significant mechanical woes that likely led to it being dropped off with the local scrapper.
Unfortunately, the most sporting of Peugeot’s US lineup needs a clutch and has a bad headgasket. The car smokes on startup and there’s coolant mixing with the oil. It’s a shame, because you can tell by its overall condition that it was once loved. One of my favorite details is the subtle trunk spoiler that almost blends in to the car’s decklid. I suspect that rear tail light got clipped once this 505 entered the yard.
Here’s more evidence of enthusiast ownership: those are the upgraded European-spec H1 headlights, an enhancement only a Peugeot enthusiast would know to make. The OEM (and very period correct) Bosch Pilot fog lights with their original covers have also survived unscathed, which is nothing short of amazing. I do hope the seller keeps his word and doesn’t junk this 505 Turbo here on eBay, as there’s a strong following for these cars and it could definitely help another one live on if the next owner doesn’t decide to restore this sad junkyard dog first.
This 505 Turbo injection used to be my ride. Great car, lots of fun and then the gasket blew. On closer inspection it seems the rust had got the better of it. Turned into a parts car with another enthousiast.
Btw, great website with nice finds. A pleasure to look at America’s finest and read the colourful comments. Rgrds from NL
For 200 scoots, you can hardly go wrong! The repairs, as described, are fairly simple, even if tracking down parts might be a headache. Once, completed, this would be a fine cruising car. As long as you can find parts….
I harp on the “parts” issue because in my past life I owned Renaults and a Citroen and, while I loved them, each once caused major disruptions to my life when it was necessary to change out failed pieces. I became intimately acquainted with every pick-your-part yard in the San Fernando Valley, which helped but hardly got me past times when I was waiting for gasket sets, bearing, and other bits.
It was easier to track down pieces for my ’53 Kaiser!
Look for online parts in Argentina. They were very common there.
In High School my friends family owned one of these, and the interior parts were always coming loose, headliner detached, switches, glove box latch, etc. etc. They were fairly tight in the handling department, and would give my highly modified ’77 VW scirocco a worthy run. Lots of niggling things to deal with, but as a certified quirkophile, I like it.
Well why should he junk it? A 505 Turbo is not seen on ever street. Someone will save it. I always liked the big 604 Turbo Diesel sedans. Those you never see, even when they were new.
Well, as I’ve found in many years of visiting salvage yards….most yard owners fail to see the potential of making a few extra $$ since many of them never realize that there’s a market of enthusiasts that would gladly pick this up.
As you can see in the pile behind it, most of the late-model domestics they receive are immediately scrap-worthy, so it’s rare when they hold onto an oddball like this one.
Oh this has LeMons written all over it. Under 500 bucks, and it’s French. There is no way they would give you penalty laps and you would be a shoe in for the index of effluency.
The Euro headlights alone are worth more than what he is asking. Too bad this car is in NJ.
I want the fog lights, personally. They would look killer on my E21 project. Can never find them with the covers intact.
There’s a reason it’s at the scrap yard. High miles, head gasket blown for who knows how many miles, bad clutch (and you hope the tranny is ok), and rust in the quarters and maybe elsewhere. I’m all for saving it and getting it back on the road, but given the costs, color me pessimistic. We’ll see how high it goes. He won’t likely crush it but may end up parting it himself.
I spoke to the seller yesterday and his initial reserve is $1500. He figured it was worth something, but didn’t know how much. I told him that price was more than a bit optimistic. The car has been sitting since 2008 and likely needs more than it would be worth to restore.
The N9T turbo engines are notorious for cracking the head between the exhaust valve and coolant passages at the #3 and #4 cylinders. The head gaskets are easy to obtain, but every other gasket is as close to unobtanium as you can get. The water pump is rebuildable – for a price – but so rare that I shipped one back to France when I parted out an ’86 turbo. You can’t even find them at the source.
I hate to say it, but this is probably best as a parts car.
My father was born in France before WW 2 and came to Canada in 1949 @ 18 years old. He loved cars and owned many French cars, mostly Renaults. His dream car was the Citroen DS something he never realized. My brother and I still have his 1978 504 sedan and 1986 505 STI. The 504 is a strange car however rides and drives beautifully. The 505 is a very nice much more modern car. Ours is the non-turbo with 5 speed. Both cars were bought new when the dealers stopped selling and he got great deals on both.
Arguably the most comfortable seats ever to grace an automobile in the history of the world. Well, maybe that’s a bit strong, but they’re comfortable seats!
Agreed! The 505 has the most comfortable seats I have ever encountered.
Agreed completely, Scotty! Put 87k miles on a 505 wagon and I absolutely LOVED the seats!
This will probably seem like a dumb question, but what’s the point of covers on fog lights? I’ve seen them a number of times on BF cars. Last thing I want to do on a foggy night, is get out by the side of the road and take my fog light covers off. I want to just hit the switch and have them come on. Just seem pointless to me. (All show and no go.)
The idea is that the covers protect the lenses from rock chips when you’re not using them.
I can help but think if “Whats in my Garage” or, “What is in my pile”, of cars. Any guess on the crushed ones?
A friend of my mom bought one of these new and drove it for a number of years. Probably one of the few Peugeot’s to run around Florence, SC.
As for the fog lights, I put a pair of those on my ’83 Mercury Lynx. I had the same lights come standard on my ’87 Nissan Maxima SE. Nissan sold grills for them so you didn’t have to run the Bosch covers.
One upon a time, in the 1960s and 1970s I was the oddball in the neighborhood who swore by — and eventually at — Peugeots. Parts non-availability was the cause of death of two of them. My first was a ’59 403 that I bought in ’65 and enjoyed the hell out of until a carburetor proved to be both unrebuildable and irreplaceable. Unable to learn my lesson, I bought a brand new 304 two-seat convertible in 1969. You could not get them in the U.S. so I imported one from a dealer in Windsor, Ontario. Was I asking for eventual parts problems or what? Perhaps fortunately, I never found out. The car was literally run over by something much larger one night when it was parked on the street. Yes, I found large tire tread marks across the top of the trunk. Remaining faithful to the brand, I bought a used ’68 404, which I also loved. Eventually, it also suffered death by carburetor. I guess I finally smartened up, because I never bought another one.
I had a 1985 505 GR (Luxury model with XN1 95 hp engine) between 1989 and 2004. Very comfortable car that met it´s end when a City Bus hit me from behind, the Peugeot was still driveable, but the bus had to be towed from the scene (my trailer hook had punched the radiator). Since the C-Pillars were bent the Bus Operator´s Insurance Company paid up in full (after some grunting, since I threatened to take it further). The bus driver had violated a whole bunch of traffic rules and had brought his passengers to risk (one of them had not had time to sit down after the bus had left the bus stop and was slightly injured). I was quite satisfied whith that solution since the rear axles trailing arms had begun to show som serious corrosion. It´s not uncommon that the rear springs come out of rusty spring seats on these…..