Rare Rides: A 1991 Peugeot 405 Mi16, the Last-ever New Peugeot in America

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis

The Rare Rides series will always have space for unique French cars. It’s featured several Renault vehicles and a couple of Citroëns to date, but only one Peugeot, to my recollection. That one, a 106 GTI, was an import to Canada by an enthusiastic second-hand buyer. Today we feature a second Peugeot: one actually sold by a dealer, brand new, in America.

It’s the hottest 405 sold in the U.S. — the excellently named Mi16.

Introduced for the 1987 model year, the 405 was a consolidation effort on the part of Peugeot. The large (for Europe) family sedan was a replacement for the aged (and smaller) 305 sedan, and the aged (and larger) 505 sedan. Upon the 405’s introduction Peugeot continued production of its predecessors for a few years. The old sedans wore their sheet metal in a much heavier and more serious way than the slick, Pininfarina-designed 405.

With much confidence in its new family car, Peugeot released 10 different variations. There was a front-drive version, an all-wheel drive version (Mi16x4), and in 1988 an estate was added to the lineup.

North America was more limited in its 405 selection, as one might expect of niche French car offerings on the continent. Available from the latter part of 1988, the base DL and mid-level S trims were complimented by the range-topping Mi16. The lower two trims were also available in a now-hen’s-teeth Sportswagen.

The 405 found immediate success in Europe, especially in the home French market. North America was a completely different story. By the late 1980s, Peugeot’s North American sales were dwindling as the 505 model aged into oblivion. The 405 was sort of a last-ditch effort to turn the brand’s fortunes around, after the company decided not to import the sporty 205 hatchback.

In 1990 Peugeot managed 4,261 sales in North America, followed by a drop to 2,240 between January and July of 1991. Shuttering a business opened in 1958, Peugeot ended its North American operations entirely and headed back home.

Today’s Rare Ride in gorgeous emerald is a 405 Mi16. Powered by a 1.9-liter inline-four producing 160 horsepower, horses travel to the front wheels via the five-speed manual transmission. With a high 203,000 miles, the owner offers a full binder of service paperwork as a testament to their faithful care of this rare Peugeot.

Said seller is presently asking $7,500 (a lot), but it’d be tough to find another in this condition.

[Images: seller]

Corey Lewis
Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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  • ThomasSchiffer ThomasSchiffer on Jul 26, 2018

    In Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt (countries which I have visited) these and other older Peugeots (usually the 504 and 505) are still common sights and used as taxis. The bodies are bent and falling apart and some have rust issues but the drivetrains are durable and reliable. Reliability also means that a particular car is easy to service and easy to repair/maintain. And in these case of these ‘Third World’ nations it also means that their local garages can come up with quick and cheap fixes and create replacement parts for issues which may pop up.

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    • ThomasSchiffer ThomasSchiffer on Jul 27, 2018

      @tonyola Good and valid points. However, I think if some complex but rather useless feature in a Peugeot in Africa have failed, the drivers would not be in a hurry to get them fixed. What matters to them is that the vehicle starts and drives from A to B and back. Interestingly, though, two of the legendary Mercedes W123 taxis I rode in in Egypt had automatic transmissions.

  • WildcatMatt WildcatMatt on Aug 10, 2018

    The interior looks ridiculously like a Volvo 850. I'm fascinated, but not at that price.

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