Newbie from Nashville

[Madman Of The People]

Greetings, shite fans! Although I'm originally from Chicago, I've lived in Nashville for the past 18 years. I've also been to the UK on a number of occasions and am a devotee of transatlantic shite.

 

Speaking of which, here's my shite.

 

A 1990 Volvo 740 Turbo saloon I purchased way back in 1999 and is still my daily driver.

 

 

 

And a 1997 Honda Odyssey (known to you lot as the Shuttle) which I purchased earlier this year.

 

 

 

If you want more shite, heres the list of previous cars I've owned.

 

1991 Volvo 240 saloon. Part-exed for the Honda Odyssey/Shuttle.

1987 Volvo 240 DL saloon. part-exed for the 740 Turbo.

1990 Peugeot 405 DL Sportswagon. VERY rare car in America. In six years of owning one I only ever saw two others!

1985 Peugeot 505 Turbo saloon. Backup car to the 405. (needed often)

1985 Merkur XR4Ti. German-built Ford Sierra with 2.3 litre turbo sold in the States under rubbish "Merkur" brand name.

1983 Renault Alliance DL saloon. Wisconsin-built R9 was proof Americans could slap together Renaults just as badly as the French!

1979 Chevrolet Caprice Classic estate. Inherited from the in-laws. Big as a barn and just as ugly.

1975 Volkswagen Transporter. Big, slow and hopelessly unreliable.

1980 Fiat X-1/9 Bertone. Built in between strikes by disgruntled communists when they weren't hurling bricks through the factory windows!

1979 Volkswagen Rabbit (Golf) C 3-door hatch. It was brown, the colour of shite. That should have been my first warning!

1976 Ford Pinto V6 Coupe. Holes in bodywork compensated for broken air-con.

1952 Chevrolet Styleline Deluxe saloon. Classic shite.

 

 

Cheers,

Madman of the People

[autofive]

nice shite collection

 

welcome to the forum

[steve austin]

Love the big ol saloon Volvo's, especially the turbo's, greetings from England.

[michiel]

Wow, a shitist from the town that gave us Lambchop (and much more). Welcome! Excellent car history.

[barrett]

Welcome to the site. Always nice to see a Yankee with a penchant for rubbish European cars

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Welcome.

Is the 405 Sportswagon a station wagon? I didn't think they were imported to North America.

[Gompo]

Hello Madman, I've enjoyed your posts on Pistonheads in the past.

 

Welcome to the 'shite..

[eddyramrod]

Hello Madman, welcome! Been to Nashville myself (where I was assumed to be a Country singer... ) and been a long-time devotee of American shite, so we must have some crossover... oh yes, it'll be the 740, I love them too.

[Madman Of The People]

Welcome.

Is the 405 Sportswagon a station wagon? I didn't think they were imported to North America.

 

 

"Sportswagon" was how Peugeot marketed the 405 Estate in the US. It was available here from 1990-92 and sold in microscopic numbers. The 405 also had the distinction of being the last Peugeot launched in America before pulling the plug on their North American operations.

 

Here's what mine looked like just before I sold it to another Peugeot enthusiast in South Carolina:

 

 

 

And a snap of my old 505 Turbo saloon:

 

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

I wonder why the 405 estate didn't sell nearly as well as the saloon (relatively speaking) in the US, are small(ish) estates unpopular in the US? The load area in the 405 is enormous, I'm sure it trumps a lot of larger estates with suspension intrusion.

 

This one looks nice

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3038532/1990-peugeot-405

[Madman Of The People]

I wonder why the 405 estate didn't sell nearly as well as the saloon (relatively speaking) in the US, are small(ish) estates unpopular in the US? The load area in the 405 is enormous, I'm sure it trumps a lot of larger estates with suspension intrusion.

 

This one looks nice

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3038532/1990-peugeot-405

 

 

Peugeot was nearing the end of a long, downhill slide in America before giving up completly. They were effectively a one-model (the 505) company for most of the 1980s. The 405 Saloon was launched in 1989 and the Estate in 1990 but it was too late to stop the rot. Peugeot sales peaked at 20,007 units in 1984 and had collapsed to only 2,223 by 1991, the last full year available here. Being smaller than the 505, most of Peugeot's few American customers saw the 405 as a step down. In addition to a limited model range, Peugeot's American sales were also hampered by a small, spotty dealer network, quality glitches and an unwillingness on the part of the French bosses to understand and cater to the US market.

 

Cheers,

Madman of the People

[eddyramrod]

a small, spotty dealer network, quality glitches and an unwillingness on the part of the French bosses to understand and cater to the US market.

 

That's fair enough; pretty much describes Detroit's attitude to Europe until very very recently. This is not a crit, by the way, I love the way American cars were always bigger, brighter and so much more glamorous than almost everything else on the planet. Those are most of the reasons I bought a 1962 Cadillac, after all... and I miss it.

[Negative Creep]

Welcome. Everyone calling your 405 a Pooge-o must get really annoying

[RedSparrow]

Welcome!

I didn't know Pug had lasted even that long in the US.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Alfa Romeo lasted about as long, I'm surprised you haven't had a Milano or 164 Madman.

[warren t claim]

Can I really see automatic seatbelts fitted to your 405?

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

[warren t claim]

 

Please tell me it doesn't have an 85mph speedo!

[Richard]

It doesn't have an 85mph speedo.

 

So with an automatic seatbelt you still have to put the lap part on manually? That doesn't sound very automatic to me.

[worldofceri]

Those auto seatbelts are demented.

[gtd2000]

I love the way American cars were always bigger, brighter and so much more glamorous than almost everything else on the planet.

 

Oh really......

 

 

I must admit up to the early 1970s (from around the mid fifties) things automotive were pretty fab from the US of A......then it all went generally a bit pair shaped to say the least....

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

The Aztek looks quite appealing to me, but I think I'd have to select the Septic Tank/Bathroom Tap Subaru Baja collaboration instead.

[eddyramrod]

I must admit up to the early 1970s (from around the mid fifties) things automotive were pretty fab from the US of A......then it all went generally a bit pair shaped to say the least....

 

So you use a pic of a 1999 flop to illustrate... actually I can't argue with it, the Aztek was panned, and looks frankly horrible, even if beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But I would set the threshold later than you do, having owned American autos of the 80s and 90s. They never lost the knack of power, comfort and general smoothness, but as time went on you could see the style draining away. Shame. And modern ones, of course, are plastic-coated, electronic-laden FWD blobs. Just like everyone else really. The 70s did mark the beginning of serious downsizing, which was a bit of a mistake. Detroit did big cars really well, but had never quite understood small ones. Having said that, my 1979 Cadillac was "downsized" and it was still over 18 feet long, and still had a 7 litre V8.

[gtd2000]

Always remember, at the heart of it I'm usually just being a sarcastic twat that likes to play devils advocate

 

Yeah, I'm not taken at all by most modern American stuff - it just seems like cheaply built crap on the whole - I'm sure there might be exceptions though. For the past 5 years or so when I've working in the US I've always opted for non-American "brand" (as opposed to "built") rental cars - such is my general dislike of them...

 

Funnily enough, I now also feel that the Aztek looks so fucking shite, it's actually becoming cooler....

[ProgRocker]

Welcome, madman. Cool Volvo, by the way.

[VWPowered]

volvo looks well clean, loving the 505 too, hello and welcome to as

[Minimad5]

Welcome to the world of Shite !

 

Got to say them automatic seatbelts are crazy looking things ...... Are they height adjustable ? (If not bye bye midgets head)

[Richard]

As far as I can tell from the comments it's bye bye anybody's head if they don't use the manual lap belt.

[Madman Of The People]

Alfa Romeo lasted about as long, I'm surprised you haven't had a Milano or 164 Madman.

 

 

Well, I did once come dangerously close to buying a 1992 Alfa Romeo 164 L. Lost my nerve at the last minute!

 

Cheers,

Madman of the People

[Madman Of The People]

Can I really see automatic seatbelts fitted to your 405?

 

Yes. Beginning with the 1990 model year, all cars over here had to have "passive restraints" which means either an airbag or some form of automatic seatbelt. Peugeot were too cheap to fit airbags so we got motorised shoulder belts on the 405. For the 505, they simply attached the top of the shoulder/lap belt to the top of the door frame!

The passive restraint law was rendered redundant when airbags were made mandatory for all cars beginning in 1997 and all trucks beginning in 1998.

 

 

 

 

Please tell me it doesn't have an 85mph speedo!

 

No, 85 MPH speedos were gone by the mid-'80s. My 1983 Renault Alliance (R9) had one!

 

 

 

Welcome to the world of Shite !

 

Got to say them automatic seatbelts are crazy looking things ...... Are they height adjustable ? (If not bye bye midgets head)

 

No, they weren't height adjustable, but you could detach the shoulder belt from the motorised carrier, which is what everyone did.

 

 

Cheers,

Madman of the People