Peugeot pays tribute to the 205, its sacred number


A 1991 Peugeot 205 GTI is on display at the Retromobile show on March 16, 2022 in Paris (AFP/Archives/Eric PIERMONT)

She is 40 years old. For the occasion, Peugeot is paying tribute to its 205, a “sacred number” which gave the manufacturer a facelift and saved it from a disastrous fate, before becoming a collector’s item for millennials.

On February 24, 1983, the first models of the small car snapped up like hotcakes in dealerships, a commercial success largely due to the resolutely modern line of the latest Peugeot… and an intense advertising campaign.

Forty years later, the manufacturer with the lion organizes until September 3 an exhibition on the 205 at “L’Aventure Peugeot”, the museum installed in its historic cradle of Sochaux (Doubs). One can read there in big characters the premonitory sentence of Armand Peugeot in 1892: “The automobile locomotion is called to take an enormous development”.

The President of the Republic François Mitterrand is installed at the wheel of the 500,000th 205 in the Peugeot factories in Mulhouse, under the amused gaze of the Minister of the Interior Pierre Joxe, during an official trip to Alsace, November 22, 1984

The President of the Republic François Mitterrand is installed at the wheel of the 500,000th “205” in the Peugeot factories in Mulhouse, under the amused gaze of the Minister of the Interior Pierre Joxe, during an official trip to Alsace on November 22 1984 (AFP/Archives/MARCEL MOCHET)

To admire, alongside the first gleaming models from the end of the 19th century: around fifteen 205s, including the Turbo 16 model with which the Finn Ari Vatanen won the Paris-Dakar rally in 1987. Well restored, this lioness of the desert seems to barely left the factory.

The manufacturer owes a proud candle to this small car, released when the very young PSA group (which has since become Stellantis) had just absorbed its competitors Citroën and Chrysler Europe and was crumbling in debt.

The group, which did not see the drop in demand coming in the wake of the oil shocks, must meet the challenges of its main competitors: Renault’s R5 and Volkswagen’s Golf.

– Secret but ugly –

“In the greatest secrecy”, Peugeot undertook in July 1978 to work on a new project, with demanding specifications: a small high-performance model at a tight price that appealed to the greatest number, which rejuvenated the brand’s image and can be produced on an existing platform, recalls Hervé Charpentier, the museum’s curator.

Finnish Ari Vatanen drives a Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 during the Monte-Carlo Rally, January 28, 1985 in Burzet, Ardèche

Finnish Ari Vatanen drives a Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 during the Monte-Carlo Rally on January 28, 1985 in Burzet, Ardèche (AFP/Archives/Luc NOVOVITCH)

This is where the shoe pinches. With the platform of the previous small model, the 104, the manufacturer is unable to produce a vehicle with modern lines.

The designer Gérard Welter (who died in 2018 at the age of 75) will prove it “by the absurd” by releasing a prototype with old-fashioned lines, a sort of 104 bigger and uglier. This deliberately failed test is exhibited in Sochaux next to a real 205 released on the historic date of February 24, 1983.

“It was proof that it was necessary to change style. For the first time, style was going to impose itself on technique”, says Mr. Charpentier.

The group’s leaders were persuaded to invest 625 million francs in a new production line. The group’s new boss, Jacques Calvet (died in 2020 at the age of 88), who had just arrived from BNP in 1982, persuaded his bankers to finance the launch.

The first copies will be produced in Mulhouse. Given the success of the small model, others will come out of the chains in Sochaux, Poissy and Villaverde (Spain).

– Immediate triumph –

Because the triumph is immediate: from the first day, customers rush into the concessions. Anticipating demand, Peugeot had delivered tens of thousands of units to them since production began in November 1982.

Spanish driver Carlos Sainz drives an old Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 on March 26, 2014 in Paris, on the occasion of the manufacturer's announcement of his return to the Dakar Rally

Spanish driver Carlos Sainz is driving an old Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 on March 26, 2014 in Paris, on the occasion of the manufacturer’s announcement of his return to the Dakar Rally (AFP/Archives/FRANCK FIFE)

The day before, Peugeot had launched its T16 rally model, which will collect victories. “Everything that happens in competition gives an aura to the touring car”, recalls Mr. Charpentier.

Production will ultimately beat the manufacturer’s records, with 5.278 million units sold between 1983 and the cessation of production at the end of 1998. Peugeot will do better then with the 206, the first heir to the 205.

Something to dream of many millennials who grew up in their parents’ 205. Today, some do not hesitate to pay several tens of thousands of euros for a collector’s item.

The 205 was also the best-selling old car (over 30 years old) last year in France, with more than 8,000 transactions, ahead of the 2CV, according to figures from the firm NGC-Data published at the end of January by L’Argus.

The wife of Head of State Bernadette Chirac drives her car, a Peugeot 205, on March 8, 2004 in Sarran, as part of her campaign for the cantonal elections, for which she is a candidate for her own succession to the post of councilor general in the canton of Corrèze.

The wife of Head of State Bernadette Chirac drives her car, a Peugeot 205, on March 8, 2004 in Sarran, as part of her campaign for the cantonal elections, for which she is a candidate for her own succession to the post of councilor general in the canton of Corrèze. (AFP/Archives/PATRICK KOVARIK)

Others have their family model repaired at a high price in the workshop opened by Peugeot right next to the museum. This is the case of a “Griffe” version, a limited series produced in 1,400 copies, which the workshop is renovating in order to be able to exhibit it at the museum: “it represents 2,000 hours of work. At least 90% of the pieces are origin”, explains the boss of the workshop Eric Barthelat.

However, there is no question of resurrecting the 205, as other brands such as Fiat and VW have been able to do with their legendary models. “The 205 belongs to its time,” says Mr. Charpentier.

© 2023 AFP

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