CC hunting in Tokyo is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. Today, even as the city went under a COVID-19 “lockdown” that, as I understand it, is purely voluntary, I caught a few interesting cars. Some foreign, some Japanese – the usual. But I caught two blue Peugeots. And that’s special.
One was a 406 Coupé. It’ll be in the next batch of T87 single outtakes. But the other, which I bagged just as dusk was about to arrive, is this incredible early model 104 saloon. You just don’t see these anywhere anymore – even in France.
I already covered the 104 when I wrote up this late model coupé, so I’ll avoid repeating myself too much. Just to sum up: this car was launched at the 1972 Paris Motor Show as a four-door saloon – the coupé arrived a year later. For the first three model years, the 104 saloon had no trim level to speak of. There was just one model with one engine: an all-alloy 950cc OHC 4-cyl. (providing 46hp) mounted transversally and almost laid on its side, to keep the centre of gravity low and provide enough room to fit the spare tyre under the hood.
The 104 was made until 1988, but I’m pretty sure this one is a 1973-75 model. For one thing, it has the right colour – not few early 104s featured this distinctive shade of blue. For another, the small taillamps were replaced by slightly wraparound ones in 1976, just as trim levels (absent here) were introduced and a year prior to the car gaining a proper rear hatch. Yes, this is another one of those early ‘70s fastbacks that really should have been a hatchback from the get-go, like the Citroën GS or the Alfasud, but did not. To their credit, Peugeot corrected this oversight in relatively little time, compared to some.
What kills me about this Pug is the condition it’s in. It looks like it just came off the showroom floor, straight out of the first half of the ‘70s. The only small modifications it has are the turn signal repeaters on the front wings and the reverse light mounted under the rear bumper. Other than that, it’s as unmolested an example of its kind that I’ve seen in the last couple of decades at least.
With a total length of 358cm (141 in.), the Peugeot 104 was the smallest four-door in Europe at the time, but in Japan there were a few four-door kei cars that were quite a bit smaller (300cm / 118 in.), such as the 1972-75 Subaru Rex K21 (above) and the 1971-75 Honda Life (below). The only downside to those is the 360cc 2-cyl. engine, which drove the Honda’s front wheels and the Subaru’s rear ones, to 90kph max. With its 135kph top speed, the Pug has more of a fighting chance in modern traffic.
And there’s the PininFarina looks, too. Maybe that tipped the scales for the Francophile connoisseur who must have paid more than the car is worth to ship it from Marseille or Rotterdam to Yokohama. The French number plate is still on the car – this 104 came from the department (France’s equivalent of a province) of the Loire, pretty much smack dab in the middle of the country. And now it’s in Japan, looking like a million yen. I feel a strange kinship with this 104. Wish I were in as mint a condition as this.
Related post:
Curbside Classic: 1988 Peugeot 104 Style Z – Pint-Sized Pug, by T87
Excellent find. The basic greenhouse appearance is very similar to the Talbot/Plymouth Horizon. Crisper exterior design details, with fewer soft curves and more modern wheel arch styling, and this basic shape could have been world class until towards the end of the 70s. Rather, the design looks more Fiat 128 like than the fresher VW Golf/Rabbit design from ’74. I found the bodyside ‘debossed’ crease line dated it.
“Rather, the design looks more Fiat 128 like…”
I briefly mistook the featured car for a Yugo until I noticed the Peugeot badge and the four doors.
LOL… No disagreement from me! It does resemble the Yugo in some details.
Well, interestingly, it has a Yugoslavia (YU) oval country code decal in the rear window
I don’t really disagree with how you see the 104 Daniel, but keep in mind that it was released in ’72, and the Golf in ’74. Chickens and eggs and all that. Maybe Guigiaro got the now-signature C-pillar treatment for the Golf from Paolo Martin (of Fiat 130 coupe fame) in this 104, followed, ofcourse, very closely in style by the Talbot/Horizon you mention?
This is the fun part of debating car design. We each have different angles to our POV. Does it look more modern than the Fiat 128 introduced in 1969? It doesn’t to my eyes. In fact, with that bodyside crease, I find it looks older.
Small car styling was moving quickly at the time, and I find this car looks borderline dated for 1972. It looks like a car developed in the mid to late 60s. It looks like a number of 60s French cars.
Amongst ’60’s Frenchies, it DOES look a bit like the unfortunate Renault 6 from ’68.
I was really ( if unclearly) referring to what you said about the greenhouse, and I reckon there’s a lot of that greenhouse in the Golf and then ofcourse the Horizon. The designer of the latter was Roy Axe: a Simca Alpine from ’76 or so looks enormously like a Passat (Dasher) to me, so perhaps he was a bit of a, er, adopter, shall we say.
For clarity, this Pug does look a lot like a less-elegant 128 to me too.
Stunning find. It looks immaculate. My only complaint would be the mud flaps, personally. As a small car connoisseur, these have always held my interest. So clean, simple, and French. With no kids or partner, I honestly can’t envision needing more than this. And talk about perfect timing regarding OPEC on Peugeot’s part. Charming in a way only a minimalistic approach could achieve. The color is fantastic; I have a Le Creuset Dutch oven in identical iconic French Blue, of all things, as well.
Remarkable find. Who would have thought?
An excellent design for the times, although the lack of a hatch initially really was a lack of vision. It’s not like Renaults didn’t all have hatches by this time, except for the elderly R10.
R12?
OK, not all. The R12 was obviously designed to be a trunked sedan.
Your answer should have been a haughty, “I was ofcourse referring to the R12 wagon.”
Actually, I reckon the lack of hatch was just as likely the renowned conservatism of the family-owned company.
Love the color! No hatchback initially, like the ill-fated GM Aerobacks of the late 70s.
I love this post, these pictures, and this find. And this really nice 104 does look almost showroom-fresh. I’ll always have a soft spot for these, especially around these model years, as I had purchased a toy one-of-these while traveling abroad as a kid in Paris. I still have that toy somewhere, and I wish I hadn’t abused it. C’est la vie.
Wow, this one IS entirely unexpected. For such a long run there are so few still around and then to find a pristine one half a world away, c’est magnifique! and BTW, it looks like a lot more than a million yen, that’s not all that much money in the grand scheme of things!
What an absolute beauty – that’s one proud owner.
And I’m sure your wife, like mine, is feeding you lots of natto – so no doubt you’ll be in tip-top shape, mint condition soon…:-)
It’s really amazing that all these old bread and butter cars you find are in showroom condition while just being used like a normal car.
It fits a common stereotype about the Japanese – that they keep their stuff in order. I guess that goes with 5S from lean terminology and erhm Marie Kondo.
Really impressive and admirable.
PSA lays their engines down like that to keep as much weight within the wheelbase as possible to improve handling usually the crankshaft is just ahead of the front axle line with everything else behind it and give the way their cars handle the idea seems to work.
Used cars arrive here from Japan looking as if they just left the show room new, whether its some horrid little econobox or something semi desirable they look after their cars appearance really well, mechanically often not so much.
Considering how narrow the street is, I’d be afraid the right hand mirror would be toast in a week or two.
This is surely some zonky version of the idea that if one leaves a frog in slowly heating water, it doesn’t ultimately know it is being cooked, this version being that if one leaves a Frog in aspic for long enough, it doesn’t know it’s now in Japan. What an inspiringly odd find, a cooking 4-door forgettable (at home) being what appears to be a concours restored jewel in Japan. Long live oddity, say I (and I should know, but am digressing).
The elusive French blue, sometimes racing, varied to a degree almost comical on anything French up to, and most certainly including, Bugattis. This here is particularly nice derivation.
Unconstrained by crash regs, the 104 is a fine attempt at a wee car, though I do agree (above, somewhere) that it’s all slightly not quite there as a whole.
Fine photo, T.
Oh, and I share your dream of a returned personal mintiness, though in reality only being able to achieve slightly new shirts.
That has to the CC find of the year so far!
A great catch anywhere in Europe but in Japan, on French plates!
I had a lot of seat time in the early 1980s in a 104S, an 1124cc 5 speed semi sporty version Mum had for a couple of years. An intriguing combination of sporty and basic, with body roll to die for . Also, the head gasket went twice, and that was enough to condemn it to being replaced a Chrysler Horizon.
Renault and Peugeot agreed that the brand new launched Renault 5 would not be sold as a 5-door car while Peugeot would not come with a hatchback for the 104 so the two cars would compete in different markets.
The 954cc engine is also an engine shared with other manufacturers, I am sure Renault used it and I believe the Citroën Visa 4 cylinders had the same powerplant.
This is definitely an Mk 1, chrome bumpers, square headlights and small taillights.
Those headlights were also used on the Euro 604’s as the inner highbeam lights.
The Renault 5 is seen as the real first Supermini, but this 104 equals the R5 and it also handles like a much more mature car.
Later they came with a 104 ZS, a 3-door coupé with a peppier engine and Euro headlights in the 504 style.
Actually the famous Jean Todt started his career as a rally navigator in a 104 ZS works car and the famous 504’s
Much later after the take over of both Citroën and Simca-Sunbeam-Chrysler Europe, Peugeot re-introduced the 104 as a hatchback and used the 3-door body style for the rather poor and weak Citroën LN, using an air cooled Citroën flat-twin and as the slightly more successfull Talbot Samba.
One footnote is that the famous naked lightweight “Rallye” versions of the Peugeot 205 & 106 were first used on the Talbot Samba.