Notice: this put up issues USA-market automobiles Peugeot made in 1991 and earlier, earlier than they pulled out of the market, and doesn’t replicate on Peugeots made after this date.
In America, you will not discover French vehicles on the market. France is the eleventh largest producer of vehicles, which is sort of a excessive place for a nation which fully eschews the American market. They’re led by the French “Large Three” – Peugeot, Renault, and Citroen. All three of those corporations as soon as bought vehicles in America, however they’ve all lengthy since slinked away from the market.
Citroen was the primary to go in 1974, when its trademark height-adjustable suspension failed new bumper top laws. Renault went away in 1987 amid the collapse of its American companion AMC. Peugeot was the final to go, remaining on sale till 1991.
Many have pinned Peugeot’s departure on their vehicles being “too quirky” for the American market, and whereas that could be true, they’d been in a position to survive within the states since 1958. Peugeot gross sales peaked within the USA in 1984, with 20,007 vehicles bought that yr.
A bunch referred to as Motor Voters launched a boycott of Peugeot on August 22, 1988, citing the corporate’s “appallingly poor” security file and lack of plans to introduce airbags. With gross sales already sagging – simply 9,422 Peugeots had been bought in 1987 – this gave the impression to be the ultimate nail within the coffin, with solely 4,261 bought in 1990, their final full yr earlier than asserting their closure.
Peugeot appeared to dodge a public relations bullet in 1980 when outcomes for his or her 504 sedan got here out; whereas its efficiency was by far the worst of any car examined, the outcomes weren’t almost as broadly coated in up to date information sources because the outcomes on different automobiles, maybe due to Peugeot’s low gross sales quantity.
However within the late Eighties, many extra eyes had been on Peugeot as its 505 mannequin flunked three NHTSA crash assessments in a row in every year from 1987-1989. Whereas the 505’s efficiency was not as unhealthy because the 504’s – which might be nearly actually deadly for even the strongest driver – automobile security normally was held to a a lot larger precedence among the many basic public by the late Eighties than it had been a decade earlier. At a time when the common threat of extreme damage to occupants was 35% for drivers and 25% for entrance passengers within the NHTSA 35-mph entrance take a look at, averaged collectively, the 505 averaged 85% for its driver and 78% for its passenger.
That is far worse than even the common 1979 car, which had a threat of round 45% for each occupants.
It wasn’t simply the 504 and 505 that had been unsafe, both. Peugeot’s 405 mannequin – launched as a 1988 mannequin, and examined as an ’89 – flunked a rear affect crash take a look at at simply 30 mph, with 62 ounces of gasoline leaking – far exceeding the 5-ounce most, and many to start out a fireplace. Take into account that the overwhelming majority of automobiles examined even in 1979 did much better than this Peugeot, except small hatchbacks with no rear crumple zone. Whereas the 405 was by no means examined for frontal affect security by NHTSA, it is doubtless that it might have additionally completed poorly.
