I grew up in Europe in the '60's and a good buddy of mine was a Peugeot freak, starting with 403's, then 404's, and on to 504's. My experience was they were a very rugged machine, wrapped in a flimsy array of knobs, levers, and so on for operating the various "features" like windows, doors, blinkers and the gears. They had a really wierd shift pattern on the 4 speed column shifter, but a pretty rugged transmission as it was pretty routine for me and other Peugeot neophytes to grab first when we were hunting for third.

In general they quickly seemed to deteriorate to a fixed level stuff not working, and then stayed there without getting worse for a long time. If you could live with quirky window winders and blinker stalks, really bizzare windshield wipers and few other things, the engines and transmissions ran for a long time.

The cooling systems were a little weak, so my buddy took a Buick radiator from a GI's junked car and put it in his Peugeot 404 wagon. The hood wouldn't close over the radiator cap so he cut a hole in the hood for it. The car never overheated and the cap sticking out of the hood gave it a unique look. When coming home from a skiing trip he lost control coming down a hill in Austria near St. Anton and ran head on into a VW K-70 sedan (remember those?). No one was hurt and there was really little damage but the Buick radiator had a big hole in it about 2/3 of the way up. We pinched off the water passages running to it as best we could with needle nosed pliers and filled it up with water. We made it back to Munich without any trouble or sign of overheating, but it took about a gallon of water so I figure our sealing method was a little faulty. I think he left it that way for several years.

Anyway, if you can get used to the blinker being on the wrong side, and needing an occasional coaxing to work, the deficient wipers that never seem to remember the switch to turn them on is connected to the wiper motor, as well as the many other "extras" that just break off and never work again, a Peugeot is very reliable machine for making wheels roll. That wagon was the same vehicle I had my encounter with a felled pine tree on an old road to some ruins one night that I wrote up.

Good luck, Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)