Peugeot 204

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Peugeot 204
Manufacturer	Peugeot SA
Production	1965-1976 1,604,296 produced[1]
Successor	Peugeot 205 Peugeot 305
Class	small family car
Body style(s)	4-door sedan 2-door coupé 2-door convertible 2-door van
Layout	FF layout
Engine(s)	1.1 L I4 1.4 L diesel I4
Wheelbase	2595 mm (102.2 in)[2]
Length	3990 mm (157.1 in)[3]
Width	1560 mm (61.4 in)
Height	1400 mm (55.1 in) (saloon empty) 1340 mm (52.8 in) (saloon loaded)
Curb weight	851 kg (1876 lb)
Fuel capacity	42 L (11 US gal/9 imp gal)
Designer	Battista Pininfarina 1893 - 1966

The Peugeot 204 is a small family car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot between 1965 and 1976.

The 204, known in development as Project D12^[4] , was available in many body styles including a sedan/saloon, convertible, coupe, estate/wagon, and a van. It was launched in Paris, France on April 23, 1965 and became the best-selling car in France from 1969 to 1971.

Contents 1 Engine 2 Layout and running gear 3 The body 4 Commercial 5 Data 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Engine

The 204 used a front-wheel drive layout and was launched with a single overhead cam 1130 cc gasoline engine (the maximum allowed for the 6CV 'car tax' class in France). In September 1975, less than a year before production ceased, it received a more modern petrol engine, now of 1127 cc. Claimed maximum output, which at launch had been 53 bhp (39 kW), increased to 59 bhp (43 kW), though there was a marginal reduction in maximum torque.

Following the demise of the 204 the new 1127 cc engine found its way into a version of the Peugeot 304 estate: the smaller engine enjoyed in France tax benefits when compared to the 1290 cc engines fitted to most 304s.

For certain export markets engine compression ratios and power on the petrol/gasoline engines were reduced in order to accommodate lower octane fuels.

Towards the end of 1968 a 1255 cc diesel engine option became available for the 204 estate and fourgonette (van) versions. At the time, this is thought to have been the smallest diesel engine fitted in a commercially available car anywhere in the world. In April 1973 the diesel unit was increased in size to 1357 cc, and in September 1975 this diesel unit finally became an option also on the 204 saloon. However, out of the approximately 150,000 diesel 204s produced, fewer than 30,000 were saloons. Until the early 1980s when Volkswagen started heavy promotion of their diesel engined Golf / Rabbit, and unless cars were large enough to be used as taxis, most European customers for saloon cars avoided diesel engines.

[edit] Layout and running gear

204 engines were transversely mounted which increased available passenger space within a given wheelbase: the 204 was the first production Peugeot to feature this format which later would become normal for small and medium sized front wheel drive Peugeot passenger cars.

The power plant had a distinctive design; the gearbox and differential were located directly below the engine block. This design helped Peugeot produce its first front wheel drive car.

The 204 was also the first Peugeot to be equipped with disc brakes, albeit only on the front wheels.

The car proved to have good handling, decent performance, and excellent fuel economy.

[edit] The body

The compact engine and the transverse engine combined with a body wider than the class average to provide a level of interior space comparable to larger cars such as Peugeot's own 404: both cars were Pininfarina designs. The 204 featured neither the fins of the 404 nor the sharp corners characteristic of the other major French launch of 1965. The resulting less aggressive look has been seen as a 'more European' moving away from a tendency to follow US styling trends that had been apparent in new car launches during the preceding two decades.

The options list was not extensive but, as with the larger Peugeot sedans, it was possible to specify a sliding steel panel sunroof.

At launch only the four door saloon version was offered, but the five door 'break' station wagon came along less than six months later in the Autumn of 1965. 1966 saw the arrival of two door coupé and cabriolet versions employing a shortened chassis and priced only 20% above the level of the (admittedly not particularly aggressively priced) saloon. The range was completed in 1966 with the arrival of the 'fourgonette' van version which in most respects followed the design of the estate, but with only one door on each side and a steel panel in place of the side windows behind the b pillar.

1969 saw the Autumn launch of the Peugeot 304 which was essentially a 204 with a slightly larger engine, a restyled front end and, in the case of the saloon version, a substantially increased rear overhang giving rise to more luggage space. The 204 range was correspondingly pruned: the 204 coupé and cabriolet received the dashboard of the new 304 in 1969 only to be withdrawn in 1970, replaced by similarly bodied 304 equivalents. The estate and fourgonette continued to be offered, along with the saloon, until the 204 range was withdrawn in 1976.

Although the model run lasted more than a decade, the Peugeot 204 changed very little during that time: towards the end of the car's life, for 1975, the chrome colored front grill was replaced by a black grill of the same overall shape.

[edit] Commercial

When the Peugeot 204 was launched in 1965, obvious domestic market competitors were the Renault 10 and the Simca 1300. Both were rear wheel drive, and the Renault was rear engined. Of the traditionally more avant garde competitors, Citroën produced, till 1970, only cars that were substantially smaller or substantially larger while Panhard, starved of product investment, had retreated into a low volume niche, offering a model which would soon be withdrawn in order to free up production capacity for small Citroën vans.

For Peugeot, a traditional manufacturer of conventional bourgeois sedans, to launch a transverse engined front wheel drive saloon, was startling: no secret was made of the extent to which the 204 had been inspired by British developments.^[5] The Peugeot was the same length as the Renault 10 and over 20 cm shorter than the Simca 1300, but its configuration conferred a clear space advantage, as subsequent model introductions from Simca in 1967 and Renault in 1970 appeared to acknowledge. Sales of the 204 got off to a cautious start, with no need to compete solely on price: the car was heavily trailed by press leaks so that by the time of its formal announcement over 5,000 had already been ordered unseen. By 1969 the 204 had nonetheless climbed to the top of the French sales charts and, together with the newly introduced 204 based 304, redefined the domestic market for small sedans in the process. The sales success of the 204 also moved its manufacturer from fourth to second place in the French sales charts, overtaking Simca and Citroen in the process. In this case market share seems to have been increased without excessively compromising corporate profitability: the commercial rivals would each suffer a financial collapse, the businesses both coming under the control of Peugeot, within the next ten years.

In the 1960s Europe was still for most purposes divided into national markets and 72% of the 204s produced were sold in France. Principal export markets within Europe were West Germany - Germany being then as now Europe's largest 'national' market - and Benelux. However, most western European markets took some 204s. In Africa the 204 never achieved the popularity of its larger siblings. Nevertheless, the 204 was not entirely unknown outside Europe.

In 1976, when the 204 was withdrawn, it had been joined in the Peugeot range by the 'supermini' class Peugeot 104. Like the 203 before it, the 204 had no immediate replacement. Ultimately the hatchback Peugeot 205 introduced late in 1982 occupied a market position comparable to that occupied till 1976 by the 204. In the meantime the Peugeot 304 soldiered on until 1980, complemented since late 1977 by its replacement. Once the 304 was being produced in tandem with its successor it could be priced more aggressively, so that customers who till 1976 would have chosen a 204 were able to afford what was virtually the same car with a larger engine and a larger boot/trunk.

[edit] Data

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding Italian Wikipedia article as of 2008-03-22.

[edit] External links

• Site du Club 204-304 (In French)

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Type	1950s										1960s										1970s										1980s
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
Supermini																							104
	203															204																		205
Small family car																				304										305
Large family car						403							404
Executive car																			504												505
																										604
Off-road																																P4