jjeff said:
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:lol: funny skit, never seen that but I never really watched MP although my brother has probably seen every one multiple times
I can do most of them in my sleep but it's best not to get me started, or you'll be sitting through The Cheese Shop (probably my personal favorite), The Argument Clinic, The Dead Parrot, The Undertaker and The Spanish Inquisition, just for starters
jjeff said:
Yes but the Metro weighed in at less than 1800lbs so it really wasn't too bad, that and it was a stick, automatics were always a dog, I can only imagine how the rentals with an auto and A/C loaded with 4 people and luggage would get onto the freeway :shock:
The 504D had a 4 speed as well, as my dad wouldn't have it any other way: "The day I can't shift for myself is the day I give up driving". And he did so, right up until age 88 when they pulled his license owing to the onset of mild dementia. I don't remember if they even offered the '76 504D with an automatic, but I don't know if they could have. It was the only car I've ever driven that could be out-accelerated from a stop sign or signal by a loaded semi (I'm not kidding; it happened to me several times), and freeway merges into congested but fast-moving traffic had to be very carefully planned and executed, and once you committed, backing off the throttle wasn't an option; it could be a white knuckle affair if your timing was slightly off.
After dealing with that, merging in every other car I've ever driven was a piece of cake - my '88 Subaru had a 0-60 time in the mid-13 second range, and it was never the slightest problem. For the '77 or maybe it was '78 model year Peugeot upgraded the 504D's engine from a 2.1 to a 2.3L diesel, boosting the HP to 71 IIRR (don't know the torque). I never drove that version of the 504D, but when Peugeot introduced the slightly bigger and heavier 505D a year or so after that with the same engine and a 5-speed, the difference in performance belied the fact that it was only an extra 6 HP. My dad decided to test drive one and we both got some time behind the wheel. We took it up a hill that his 504D struggled to maintain 50 on in 3rd (it couldn't maintain speed on it in 4th), and the brand-new, unbroken in 505D sailed up it at 60 or more in its overdrive 5th like it was cruising on flat ground.
jjeff said:
I miss Peugeots, they made some nice cars, my mother had a beautiful 505 STI that was about the most comfortable car I ever sat in. She got it after a bad car accident which made sitting in any car painful, not to mention bumps. We went to an early 80s car show and she sat in almost every car they had and when she got in the Peugeot she felt in heaven, we test-drove one and she was sold, it even had heated seats, something that was pretty rare back then.. Unfortunately Peugeot pulled out of the US market not long after and that was her last Peugeot. A few years later I actually found a wrecked similar car in a junkyard and bought both front bucket seats off it, can't remember but I'm guessing for <$100 each and installed them in my at the time '65 Dodge Dodge Dart. I loved those seats and sat in them for many years until I finally had to junk the car due to the frame(actually uni-body) rusting through. I'm sure it was the only Dart with heated leather seats, for sure one with Peugeot seats
It wasn't just the seats (my dad preferred and had cloth, and they were great too), those cars had the best ride of any car I've ever been in. Like many French cars, even the bottom of the market Renault 5 aka 'Le Car', the shocks (or was it struts? Forget now) had a very soft compression stroke but a firm rebound, and they soaked up bumps and truck heaves like nothing else I've ever been in. To get to my dad's place there was a single set of railroad tracks you drove over a couple of blocks away. There were a fair number of Caddies in the neighborhood, mostly Coupe deVilles, and with their very soft suspensions in both compression and rebound they used to creep across those tracks at 3-5 miles an hour, with the car pitching up and down at each end like a small boat in a short sea. It was wide enough to pass them, and I used to cruise by at 25-30 mph, with the only notice that I was passing over tracks being more heard than felt, and low key at that - (quietly) C'est le bump . encore . encore . encore une fois . Finis. :lol:
The downside of that is those cars all lacked anti-roll bars, so the soft compression stroke meant that, in the expression commonly used in the car mags I used to read, they "cornered on their door handles".