At 02:52 PM 4/30/97 +0000, you wrote:
>What kind of 505 does your wife have...a station wagon? I think that's all
>that slipped in.
Yes- a SW8, although I believe there were a few '92 405s too.
>One reason for the drop in sales is Peugeot was only
>exporting to us the 405, cut back the 505 except for some wagons. If you have
>a sedan, consider it rare indeed.
I agree that the late 505 sedans are very rare- I have only seen a few with
the aero fairings (ugly, in my opinion) and horizontal tail lights. I
believe they only existed in '89 and maybe '90, then only wagons came over.
>Last ones were all made in '91 (that means the 92 models, too.) I don't
>recall the month.
My wife's car was made in late '91
>First several months of '91 with only about 2000 units
>sold, Peugeot threw up their arms and gave up on the US. They expected good
>sales from the 405, particularly the "S" (80% of all 405 sales they
>estimated), but sales took a nosedive instead. Sales were so bad for the 89
>Mi 16 they didn't even export any in '90, in order to sell off inventory.
I still feel that they could have sold many 505 wagons even after '91. And
we will never know what could have happened if they had fitted the wagon
with the V6. I owned an '88 STX, and I can attest to what a smooth and
powerful engine that was. The biggest problem with the wagon is that it
runs with an unrefined, buzzy, and underpowered 4 cyl engine, which is
completely non competitive with American, Swedish, and Japanese 6 cyl
offerings in the 20-25K (1991-1992) price range. The irony is that the rest
of the car is far superior to anything at that price. What a travesty the
whole sad story is.
Jay Kenty