Peugeot huh? Isn’t that now the company known as Stellantis that now builds Hellcat Challengers and Chargers? Hmmm. An old friend used to derisively refer to Peugeots as “Punchknots” and once you get a less-than-stellar idea about a product in your head, it’s hard to chase it out. Well, maybe this 1971 Peugeot 504 cabriolet will be the salve, it’s a great looking car and appears to be in even better shape. Located in Tarzana, California, this drop-top is available, here on eBay for an opening bid of $16,000.
Offered in multiple body styles, Peugeot’s 504 was introduced in ’68 as a ’69 model and continued through 1983 while the Cabriolet spanned the years 1970-1974. The 504 is considered a large car for classification purposes but this example is about 172 inches in length and weighs a bit under 2,700 lbs. so large it’s not.
The seller tells us, “Very rare find…These never come up for sale“. Interestingly, this 504’s speedometer is denoted in kilometers per hour so this car may be a French or European spec vehicle. And while we’re looking around inside, we discover a very clean and orderly environment. The upholstery, for the most part, door cards, and dash pad are fine though the tiger pit rear seat is revealing some seam separation. The instrument panel and center console’s wood trim is a styling highlight and brightens up the dark interior.
Power appears to be a 109 HP, 2.0 liter, in-line, four-cylinder engine which uses a four-speed manual gearbox to drive the rear wheels. The mileage is listed as 86K miles and the seller claims, “runs and drives very strong…reliable“. Nothing obvious under the hood appears to be out of place.
Outside there are no complaints. The body panels are free of corrosion or crash damage and the silver finish gives no indication of fade or oxidization. The folding convertible top looks good too, there’s no evidence of rips and the rear plastic window is surprisingly clear. Going underneath, there’s a bit of scale on the rear floor pan but it doesn’t look like anything serious (though the differential is looking a bit leaky).
Looking at the rear of this Peugeot and its taillights, I’m positive that I’ve never encountered one of these before. Research indicates that Peugeot departed the states in 1991, so even under the best circumstances, they’re probably not many still on the road here. I have to admit that I like this car, the styling flows beautifully, but I wonder about the ability to source parts for it, considering the number of years that it has been out of production and out of the country. So, has anyone owned a Peugeot 504? It would be great to hear about your ownership experience, did you love it, hate it, or something in between?
I bought my wife a 505 diesel back in 1985 and she loved the car. It was a solid feeling car and drove nice. We had no troubles with it for the 3 years she drove it. Styling was an improvement over the 504 model which had a trunk line that looked like someone bumped the draftsman’s elbow.
That trunk line on the 504 sedan was literally an accident!
“On the day of the decision, Pininfarina’s Aldo Brovarone … decided that the rear of his design was not quite right. Assuming he had time to make adjustments to the clay, he began carving away, only be be suddenly ushered out by the unexpectedly early arrival of the Peugeot board of management.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/motors/driving-the-peugeot-504-a-perfect-car-for-troubled-times-1.4016191
Great article!! That guy loves cars and can write.
a little bit of research would tell you that these are a little bit special as Peugeots go. The 504 coupes and cabriolets were bodied by Pininfarina and had fuel injection, as you can clearly see from the picture.
looks like this car is the same one featured (more than once) on BAT ?
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1971-peugeot-504-2/
I recall the 504’s having a great ride. Wonderful comfortable riding suspension.
Viva la France.
I had a 504 that had great looking interior and the exteriors was perfect but under body was like Swiss cheese. The frame rotted completely. Maybe that’s why you don’t see many around
I had a 504 automatic. Great, comfortable car but the tin worm got it eventually while it was still a good runner.
This is without doubt the most beautiful Peugeot ever built. I saw this for the first time on BaT and this is the first one I ever saw. Really surprised that on a premium site that cars sell for an absolute premium it only managed to hammer for under 18K. Seems to me double the price would be fair but the market has spoken.
If you read the comments in the two auctions, it seems this car had a major front end impact that was not repaired very well. I’m sure that held back higher bids.
while he didn’t design it, the guy who did must have been looking over Tom Tjaarda’s shoulder it Pininfarina, it It has a lot of design cues from both the Fiat 124 spider as well as the Corvette Rondine. This is not a bad thing as it looks really good.
I have driven a few 504’s and while they aren’t terribly sporty they are very tough and reliable.
Good points on the styling. I also see Fiat Dino in the design.
Mai oui, je connaisse c’est voiture.
Il sont tre bon e practicable e de très bons véhicules, pas
souvent vus. C’est plutôt comme un SL
Beaucoup moins construites que les Alfa ou les Fiat spider.
Magnifique
Translation:
May yes, I know it’s car.
There are very good e practicable e very good vehicles, not
often seen. It’s more like an SL
Much less built than Alfa or Fiat spider.
Magnificent
What languages were those? Were you translating from Albanian?
Nice car,but I wish that sellers like this would register vehicles
like this in their own state.This is done purely to avoid paying taxes .
To me,it’s totally dishonest.
That appears to be Peugeot’s slant 4 hemi. I had a 64 404 – loved that car.
These are neat looking but I like the 404 convertible better- just more vintage appeal.
The 504 coupé / cabriolet was actually facelifted in 1974, then again in 1980, and discontinued in 1983.
OK, thanks for your input. I was having a problem determining the actual years of production for the cabriolet and the one source that I used stated ’74 – maybe that’s due to the facelift.
JO
I had one of these about 15 years ago….sold it on BaT. Very pretty car and well put together. As final assembly was done in Turin at the pininfarina factory, I considered it to be Italian and took it to Italian car shows!! Not terribly quick, but sure footed and comfortable. I had a very positive experience with it. Like a lot of cars we all have owned: never shoulda sold it!
I don’t believe these cabriolets were ever sod in North America, although it’s possible that the coupe may have been. Regardless, this one appears to be French registered judging by the yellow headlamps that were exclusive to French cars from this period.
Not particularly rare, as there are 57 currently listed in the EU on ‘the Parking’ https://www.theparking.eu/used-cars/peugeot-504-cabriolet.html with prices ranging from high teens to mid thirties in Euros.
The BaT car @ US$18K was probably a fair price given it’s a bit of an orphan there, although I don’t expect that the parts are that difficult Peugeot
built versions of this model over many years –
AFAIK no 504 coupes nor cabriolets were ever officially imported to North America; we only got the 504 sedan and wagon here.
Correct, the 504 Coupe’ and Convertible were never imported/sold in North America. Shame as the 504 Coupe’ has lines that give it an Alfa GTV feel. Beautiful cars, a Coupe’ in on my must have list when I stop racing.
I agree that this car was never marketed in the USA by Peugeot. Usually when you do see them here it is with the PVR six; the four is probably a much better option.
The car bodies were built in Turin, Italy by Pininfarina and then shipped by rail to France for final assembly. Kind of the long assembly line model used by Cadillac for the Allanté .
This is a large car. To compare:
The 304 is a small car. The 304 was built as 2 door convertible,
as 2 door rear hatch coupe, as 4 door sedan and as 4 door
caravan. The big american barges from this time dont fit into
French roads.
Love to see these cruising the streets of the Basque country with a beautiful lady behind the wheel.Lovely cars that, to me, have more than a hint of Fiat Dino about them.
This car sold for $17,750 in July on BAT and now has zero bids on Ebay with 2 days left!
This flipper might have done better buying that 76 Bronco.
I’ll join the chorus. I owned a 505 (mechanically very similar) for five years and loved it. It had the best ride and seats of any car I’ve owned, yet still handled very well. I’ve seen quite a few of these 504 cabs and coupes, but I’m cheating – I lived those five years on the Cote d’Azur (French Riviera) where you might expect to see them. It also has fantastic driving roads, so I had plenty of opportunity to check out the handling of the 505. The only downside was the engine, the carbureted version of this one. It got kind of rough and unpleasant at higher speeds, which limited our vacation travel to 150kph.
Unrelated – @alphasud. I come here a lot and know that you are a very knowledgeable European and especially Italian car nut. Who else would even make the reference to the Napolitano branch of the family? So – why did you choose “alphasud” instead of Alfasud?
The context of the time is that Peugot was a relatively small, very long-established and family-owned company based in Alsace, on the border with Germany. By clever management, the company grew over the years to be the core of the Stellantis group (which may challenge those management skills!).
Peugot was always conservative in design, but high in quality and comfort, selling middle class cars to a loyal customer base. Part of the company´s tradition was to offer station wagon, coupé and convertibles and from the mid 50s 403 onwards, styling was outsourced to Pininfarina. There was always a stripped down pick up version too.
I think no-one has mentioned that there was a V6 version of the 504 coupé & convertible, which command much higher prices than the 4 cylinder but are still no ball of fire. But the cars were strong and did well in Africa, gaining publicity from successes in African rallies.
I´ve never had a Peugot and just can´t see that changing in the future….
Had a 1973 504 new and it was a reliable fun car. Wish I still had it. Had a big metal sunroof which was a fun option. Body panels were a bit thin on them though.
The 504 pick-ups lasted right through to 1988!
Love Peugeots. I have a ‘38,’54, ‘80 and ‘84. Peugeot was like the rather dull but dependable and financially responsible uncle, while the flashy and interesting, but undependable and financially bankrupt uncle was Citroen. We all have those in our family.
So the speedo is in kilometers and the odometer is in miles?
with Kevin -124 Fiat spyder notes (but not sure if it predates as ’66 is its date)
Boss hada 504 wagon (in the early ’80s, as a multi billionaire ( assume it was current yr). Lill bigger than that yr (’85?) Aerodeck.
Wow! I guess we need more very comfortable seats, interesting styling
cars on this site.
You go Peu…geot
Peugeots were the Volvos of France……
Peugeot even sold a 504 ute (pick-up) in Australia back then. Now a very collectable car. Peugeot’s are still sold in Australia and have quite a strong following.
1 day 10 hrs left as of 9:35 CT December 6. No bids. That is a crying shame, someone might get a sweet deal. The PRV V6 only came with an automatic transmission in the 504 cab/coupe/sedan/wagon. I have seen photos of a couple 504 cab and coupe with 5 speed conversions using the later 5 speed from the 505 with a V6, also a rare combo.
For cruising the V6 auto is nice, for some back road driving the manual is the way to go.
Now if I didn’t have too many race cars at home….but in truth I really want/desire a 504 Coupe.
I actually worked for Peugeot Motors of America back in the ’80’s, and these guys are correct; only the 504 sedans and wagons were “officially” imported to the US. The 4-cylinders were wet-liner engines that in the later years had issues with the seals on the bottoms of the cylinders. Peugeot changed to stainless aluminum liner seals which fixed the problem. The Bosch K-Jetronic pressure fuel injection had its quirks and drivability issues as well; the carbureted cars were easier to keep running properly. The turbo-diesels were nearly indestructible.
I grew up in the back of Peugeot 504 wagons. They had the best bad-road ride of any car in the world and some of the most comfortable seats ever. One was dead-nuts reliable; the other was plagued with electrical gremlins. Both rusted terribly, but then darn near everything in the 60s and 70s and 80s rusted terribly in New England.
I’m in a part of California where rust isn’t so much sleeping as it is comatose, and electrical work no longer terrifies me. If I weren’t halfway through a kitchen remodel I’d buy this in a heartbeat.