Bleu Fromage: 1978 Peugeot 504
If you’ve ever wished your mid-century French sedan looked like it was designed by Yves Klein after a long espresso bender, meet this next feature. This Gallic masterpiece garage ornament is drenched in blue; the paint, interior, dash, belts, and probably even the driver’s soul. Built under license in Spain back when Peugeot thought “comfort” meant couch-like seats and suspension that floats like crème fraîche, the 504 remains one of the smoothest ways to travel at exactly 43 mph while contemplating existentialism. Tres magnifique!! Find this 1978 Peugeot 504 offered for $18,000 in Kent, CT via craigslist.
From the seller:
1978 Peugeot 504
condition: excellent
cylinders: 4 cylinders
drive: fwd
fuel: gas
odometer: 80,000
paint color: blue
title status: clean
transmission: manual
type: sedan
For a 50-year-old car built by a French company specifically for the Spanish market, this one is surprisingly comfortable and blue. No really… It’s completely blue.
From the paint to the interior, the dash, and even the seatbelts, this 1978 Peugeot 504 is a monochrome dream with serious vintage swagger. It’s the kind of car that turns heads in a funky, admirable way. Understated, elegant, and unmistakably European.
Originally built for the Spanish market under the official Peugeot license, this one carries a bit of cross-cultural history in its bones. Powered by a sturdy 4-cylinder petrol engine paired with a smooth shifting 4-speed manual, it drives with the kind of balance and grace that made the 504 a favorite across continents.
Ride comfort? It’s like sitting on a marshmallow. It starts right up and cruises nimbly across any set of roads. With around 129,000 kilometers, or 80,000 miles, this 504 still has plenty of road left to travel.
We’re not pretending it’s perfect. It’s a real classic with signs of wear to the radio knobs and stick shift. It’s been lived in and driven for its intended purpose: fun and style.
If you’re ready to grab attention from enthusiasts or blue fanatics, this is the ride for you.
See a better way to drive a GL? tips@dailyturismo.com
growing up-elementary school years, my close next door neighbors- shared driveway close- had 504s. for years i thought the name was pronounced:
Peg-ot.
not having a french immersion program in 2nd grade, that first syllable U likely flummoxed my young brain, so i must have just ignored it. theirs were never all blue. recall them having various silver ones. this one looks pretty well tended for a half century of occasional use.
I tended to say “Pidge-it” (like pigeon, but with an “it” in place of the “on”) in my callow youth. 😅
This “foreword” was beautiful, DT! Thank you!
That droopy rear end with the abrupt break downward in the middle was a happy (?) accident, when Peugeot execs were about to review competing clay model proposals prepared by their in-house studio and Pininfarina:
“On the day of the decision, Pininfarina’s Aldo Brovarone, who would go on to design the entirety of the Coupe version, 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.”
This is also apparently the very first appearance of what would become a signature Peugeot styling cue for decades to come, those headlights with “arched eyebrows”, courtesy of Peugeot’s own stylists. As Brovarone remarked when their proposal was unveiled:
“Do not even take the cover from my car… That is the perfect front end for the Peugeot 504, and I will tell you why – it has the eyes of Sophia Loren.”
Ultimately, the final 504 sedan design wound up combining the front end from Peugeot’s stylists and the serendipitous rear end from Pininfarina.
Source:
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/motors/driving-the-peugeot-504-a-perfect-car-for-troubled-times-1.4016191