Family motoring: PUG 504 Bodywork begins

[HMC]

Ive had several friends reflect on having become a new parent by going out, flogging what they drive and replacing it with an MPV, often rather pointlessly as any hatch is more than up to the job really unless you already have several kids.

 

So I found myself reflecting on this new parent malarkey, and like a sheep I'm buying an MPV too. This, as you would expect reading it on autoshite, isnt a new Citroen Picasso on pull your trousers down finance, but it is definitely an MPV in the truest sense.........

 

 

 

In truth, my wifes Ncapped and isofixed modern will do most family duties, and this is only going to be our second car and my daily hack. Its Colc's 504 Family Estate dizzler that obviously resides on Jersey. Hence the collection involves a flight and a ferry ticket, followed by customs. After all that its going to face its first MOT, undoubtedly remedial work (if viable) and DVLA bureaucracy . WCPGW???!!!!

 

Im collecting it later in the month and Ive set myself the deadline of Welsh Shitefest (may) to hopefully have it road legal, though cosmetically it will look no different at least at that stage.

 

So against the tide of exports in recent years, if all goes well I will be increasing the number of road going of 504 estates by one!

[spike60]

 I've used a couple of 504 pick up's in the past and quite liked them. Good luck!

[skattrd]

That sounds gr9, fingers crossed for the MOT etc. I assume the car was never UK registered, as if it was that would likely make things much easier.

 

If you could let us know what's involved with registering a Jersey car in the UK that would be appreciated ... There's a chance I may be getting a car from Jersey myself later this year.

[dollywobbler]

Brilliant. Love that this is staying in-family. Will love it even more if it makes it to Shitefest Cymru!

[hairnet]

beat him over head and steal monza while yer there

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Good work,this is a proper family car. As the proud owner of 4 kids I've had loads of mpvs but the 505 Family and 21 Savanna I had 20 years ago were much less emasculating to trundle around in. I'd have loved a 504 and have fond memories of a Ti engined 5 seat estate that I used to tow a car trailer with when I first passed my test it was a much better tow car than the Range Rover it shared duties with and was rock steady at 80+, although it used more petrol than the Rangie.

Can we use this as an excuse to post pictures of overloaded 504s in Africa?

 

[Spiny Norman]

Love these old buses, back from the days when Peugeots were worth buying.
Pictures please when you get it.

[scruff]

Great stuff, enjoy the trip too, are you shipping back into Weymouth?

[dieselnutjob]

I am wondering if this will need some decent anti theft equipment on it.  They are properly valuable in some parts of the world

[Angrydicky]

Is this the one with the rotten roof?

[garethj]

Top purchasing!  If they had a bit more power I'd love a diesel 504, but this was from a time when diesel engines were mostly in trucks or buses.  Accelerating from 60mph won't be on your list of jobs for the day.

 

But still an excellent vehicle

[HMC]

Great stuff, enjoy the trip too, are you shipping back into Weymouth?

 

Yep, condor ferries St Hellier to Weymouth. And the outward leg Flybe from Exeter. From the seating plan it looks to be a very small aeroplane!

 

Ive never been to Jersey, so with the plane arriving around 9 ish in the morning and the ferry in the evening, Ill have a (fairly brief) explore of the Island.

 

 

Is this the one with the rotten roof?

 

With pop rivited rain gutters to boot, at least in some places! That must earn extra shite points surely!

 

Actually the roof seems OK, its just the gutters. If all goes well, my trusted bodywork guy that worked wonders on some corrosion in some similarly nasty places on my s type can sort.

 

 

That sounds gr9, fingers crossed for the MOT etc. I assume the car was never UK registered, as if it was that would likely make things much easier.

 

If you could let us know what's involved with registering a Jersey car in the UK that would be appreciated ... There's a chance I may be getting a car from Jersey myself later this year.

 

Will Do! Ive ordered an 'import pack' from the DVLA which just takes a few mouse clicks. Has all the forms you might need basically. I rang HMRC to clarify which forms i should be ready to submit to them ( they changed some of the paperwork aspects earlier this year) and what I'd be liable for ( No duty to pay but VAT on the purchase price).  Theres a thing about type approval and a certificate of conformity for the DVLA but anything over 10 years old appears to be exempt from this.

 

 

Anything to declare???!!

um......

 

Top purchasing!  If they had a bit more power I'd love a diesel 504, but this was from a time when diesel engines were mostly in trucks or buses.  Accelerating from 60mph won't be on your list of jobs for the day.

 

But still an excellent vehicle

 

Tell me about it! I had a similar driving experience in a w123 300d estate I used to own, did a few europan trips in it, and planning things like overtaking (yes mainly just HGVs) took some forward planning.

[dollywobbler]

I imagine the 300D would be quite sprightly by comparison! They are rather glacial though with 88bhp to shift that much car. Dread to think what the 200D autos were like!

[Hawkeyethenoo]

I imagine the 300D would be quite sprightly by comparison! They are rather glacial though with 88bhp to shift that much car. Dread to think what the 200D autos were like!

Learned to drive in '84 2.0L petrol estate back in the day. It was being used as a 7-seater taxi then so was converted to LPG. I had 11 people in it just the once on the way to a local raft race

 

Loved that big car and it could be made to hustle when required and not carrying 11 people. Went on to do very nearly 200k before the timing belt failed leading to it going over the bridge, sadly.

 

They sure don't build Peugeots like they used to build the 504. Legend of a motor.

 

Respect.

 

Hawkeye.

[dieselnutjob]

I owned a 504 diesel for a few years.  Mine was a 2.3 saloon with a massive sunroof

 

The engine had a bit of a knock and eventually I had to take it to pieces and found that one of the pistons quite damaged, but with a tiny scratch in the cylinder wall so just put a used piston in it.

 

the problem was that the head simply would not seal back down and later I was told that they never do

 

I tried stronger head bolts off a later model but then found out that this went with stronger thread in the block too (after ripping one of the threads out) and this is despite 23 head bolts...

 

In the end I bought a wrecked pickup that had the later engine with screw in injectors (and better head bolts) and a five speed gearbox.  After the transplant it was a fantastic car.

 

It was a brilliant tow car with such a heavy and torquey engine up front.

[scruff]

The Weymouth Condor was made for Autoshite adventures. You'll feel like an extra in Bergerac. 

[r.welfare]

Good work. Spent 18 months working in Guernsey 2002-04, so many quality trips by Condor. Hope you're taking the ferry rather than the Catamaran in this weather.

 

Imported my car when I came back, fairly straightforward with the hardest bit being the Certificate of Conformity - which has to come from Honda in Belgium despite the fact the car was built in Swindon to full UK spec...also I was not liable for the VAT as I'd owned it >6 months in Guernsey but would have copped the VAT if I'd sold it within 12 months of UK registration.

[HMC]

I collected the 504 today. Its sat out on the drive, having completed a trip that started out early in the morning....

 

One flight, but 2 takeoffs and 2 landings, and I'm not all that keen on flying! The flight from Exeter stopped off at Guernsey on the way to Jersey. Yes it was small, yes it had propellers and yes there was turbulence. Relieved to be back on the ground, I waited at the arrivals gate and a gold vauxhall royale with tan velour interior wafted up to the arrivals gate, collected in style!

 

We had a good look around the Pug, and i was suprised by just how sound it is underneath, despite how it looks on the surface! It also has 8 squashy blue velour seats, ill have to take some interior pics. Considering it had been a taxi in a former life, they were in great condition. Colc had mislaid the ownership document, and in a move to shame the dvla, we drove down the road, and dealt with a nice lady in person over a desk, and following a few brief formalities, a brand new replacement ownership document was printed off in seconds. I looked on in disbelief.

 

Once parked in the ferry queue I had the time to read my way around the quirky switchgear in the slightly mouldy owners handbook, and have a closer look around the body, (amazingly sound underneath, grotty up on top)

 

 

 

 

I looked around. for any obvious MOT fails, and things could be worse. Its going in for a MOT early next week, guaranteed to fail but it'l give me something to go on. Though theres no MOT equivalent in the Channel Islands, the Pug had been a taxi for some while and there are some annual checks for these- perhaps one reason why all the running gear is together and working. 

 

The catamaran back was fast, again calling at Guernsey on the way back before docking at Weymouth.

 

 

A couple of hours drive home (drove well, quite softly sprung and relaxing to lope about in) and I swung by a takeway grab a celebratory kebab which im just finishing off as I type!

 

 

So thanks to Colc, was good meeting you, and it was nice to visit Jersey, albeit as a day trip! Now the work starts......

[Station]

Jon/Dugong has one of these, it looks in really good nick tbh.

[Ghosty]

Fantastic! I like the debadged back, combined with the Jersey plate it makes a wonderfully odd ambiguous look.

[Rocket88]

Glad the old white whale made it back ok. It looks hideous, but apart from replacing the battery, I never had a moment's trouble with it mechanically.

Nice to meet a fellow 'shiter

[twosmoke300]

Proper pug . They were almost indestructible. As a kid I remember seeing a fleet of 505 pick ups at BCA Measham and not one had less than 250k on it . All looked and sounded lovely. In bright orange.

Hope the mot doesn't present too many horrors.

[HillmanImp]

I am jealous of that, good buy. I imagined you may look like a lentil eating, tree hugging new age type driving it, as they always struck me as uni professors cars, but am glad to see that you are putting pay to that straight away with the kebab.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Proper pug . They were almost indestructible. As a kid I remember seeing a fleet of 505 pick ups at BCA Measham and not one had less than 250k on it . All looked and sounded lovely. In bright orange.

Hope the mot doesn't present too many horrors.

 

That's reminded me ,Milton Keynes car auction has had an orange 504 pickup as their yard/ jump start/ tow Lagunas through the ring vehicle for getting on for 20 years now. Every time it drags a car through the auctioneer has to keep repeating 'The pick up is NOT for sale' as all the excited Africans start waving their hands about. This one hasn't seen a spanner or filter in all that time and if one week it didn't start it would be towed through itself and be gone.

It replaced a big old Grand Cherokee from the 70's that did service for 10 years.

[ProgRocker]

That 504 looks the business.

 

In the early-mid 1980s the local vicar had a 504 estate with the seats in the boot area. I was on friendly terms with his sons. I remember the 'Automatique' badge on the back of it. It really was a lovely sight.

 

I also remember in 1989 on holiday in Majorca with my parents, Uncle and Aunty getting a lift in another 8 seater Peugeot. I think that one was a 505 Limousine. Luxury!

[scooters]

OMG CALOSAL STIFY!!!

 

last time I saw one of those was in Egypt 10 years ago - the ubiquitous taxi

[scooters]

In middle class Edinburgh in the 1970s family estate cars split into several skools

- The 140/240 estate brigade, new ones like my dad's were company cars.

- The Stalwartly British, who would have a Moggy woody, 'leggro estate  or similar or perhaps a granada estate or a triumph 2000 estate if loaded, NB if woody then frequently vegetarian or consumers of brown rice

- The 'holiday in France' brigade which split into 2 - > the citroenista, this would either be a DS or CX estate or a 504 estate - these were also the families with 4 kids

- the 'selfish dad' brigade who insisted on cramming his 3 kids and dog into his XJS or rover P6 (obviously not estate cars but included because the selfish buggers should have had one)

 

I lost count of the number of SKOOL runs we had in 504s

 

We started with an Ami 8, then progressed to a DS safari and ended up with a 240

 

interestingly enough - the 'selfish dads' I knew, to a man, buggered off with their seccys! I remember one who used to have a CX Gti saloon, 4 kids and a dog, it was the light poo brown with the beige interior in my one, he used to sear silk shirts that were a darker tone than his tie and smoked Dunhill Internationals - a smooth talking Irishman. I can distinctly recall sitting in the front seat of this amazing car on a school run and thinking - wow! When I mentioned it to my mother she came out with something like 'sodding spiv', but I was impressed! Last time I saw him as he left his wife for a Pam Am hostess and left with his CX - his former wife replaced it with a Maxi

[carlo]

Yes definitely a proper Peugeot, from an era where certain marques had a very distinct 'feel' to them; none more than Peugeot.  The lovely ride, soft comfortable seats, that unmistakeable transmission whine...

 

I had a metallic green 504 Ti for a while in the eighties. it was a wonderful machine but I think there was something wrong with the fuel injection as it did 15mpg.  Still remember the seats now.  Then I had the pleasure of owning another green 504 Coupe (ex-Martin Buckley).  Those things seemed remarkably cheap in the early nineties compared to what they're no doubt worth now.

 

Perhaps Peugeot should have renamed themselves around 2000 when they stopped producing cars and switched to motoring appliances.  In fact it may be a good thing if they did go out of business, each new model just seems to add to the general malaise.

[mercrocker]

Scooter, that was a very concise summary of how the French estate car  fitted into Seventies demography!    I could translate  each one of those  characters into my school mate's parents.   Love that 504, we had them as company cars (depot manager level, the reps would not have been seen dead  in them) and I made every excuse  to take one out.   These were all povo spec but the GL estates were lush...As has  been said, Proper Pugs!

[Grundig]

The local insurance broker had one back in the day, it got rear ended & had the tailgate replaced which rusted away very quickly