This is the first in a series (I hope!) of reviews of cars that I've been the primary driver/owner of, or have driven extensively enough to comment on. That latter one puts the number up higher than I feel like counting, but don't worry, I won't forget any cars. :)
A 1985 Peugeot 505 S wagon was the first car I drove - not counting a family friends LeCar I got to drive (well, steer at least) at age 5. The Peugeot was, I believe, the second foreign car my dad purchased. This replaced a 1980 (?) Chevy Malibu wagon.
This was a pretty fantastic car. The front seats are still the most comfortable that I can remember, and these were manual 4-way adjusters, not like some of the fancy-dancy seats I have now. And a lovely, dark blue velour material, that I have never seen equaled, and I much preferred to any leather. I would love to have a set of these today. And the ride. I've come to find through car magazines and shows, that the French make cars the ride beautifully. This Peugeot was no exception. The memory of the ride is not marked quite as indelibly on my mind as the seats, but this car was quite the cruiser, and was comfortable on all surfaces. I can't recall complaining about the roads.
Along the same lines, French cars' handling are apparently not all that great. Makes sense, a comfortable ride is usually the enemy of a sporty handler. This is not a memory I have of the Peugeot. It had some body roll and mild understeer. It was rear wheel drive, which meant no torque steer to ruin its beautiful steering feel. Overall, the handling was a pleasure. In fact, this car can be summed up by doing well at several contradictory things: Great ride, and handles well. Huge car, but drove compact.
And when I say huge, it was. The interior was definitely bigger than the full-size American wagons you could buy at the time - think square Caprice. Headroom was amazing; the brochure referred to a "vaulted ceiling," and as cars went this was no lie. The cargo area was quite large, with about 5 metal strakes running longitudinally to help slide heavy objects to the front, something I don't see any more but was quite nice for getting, say, a heavy cooler backed up against the rear seats. The rear seat folded completely flat. But when up, the rear seats had plenty of room for my nearly 6'2" frame, and in fact the rear seat was much higher than in any car I've been in, and I had excellent thigh support - I could sit with my feet flat on the ground and be quite comfortable, another detail I've not seen even in most SUVs.
You're probably wondering why you never owned a car this great, and why Peugeot stopped selling cars on these shores in the early '90s. This reason I'm going to give probably isn't why, although I'm sure it didn't help. It was S-L-O-W. I mentioned it was big, and although I'm sure it didn't weigh as much as the Caprice wagon, it couldn't have been light. Whatever it was, the 120HP 2.0 liter four was no match for it. And coupled - or perhaps more precisely, saddled - with a 3 speed slush-box, 0-60 was in the neighborhood of 20 seconds. The bad neighborhood. This did not fire up the enthusiasm of a 16 year old gear-head. But this probably made it the ideal car for me, to keep me out of trouble. Alas, I drove it full time for only a few months, then giving way for, well, my next installment of Retro Reviews.
