The Peugots of Patagonia

Just back from a few days combining business with pleasure in Argentina. I was particularly struck by the prevalance of French cars that were common in Australia about 25 years ago, i.e. while I was learning to drive. Many of my lessons were on my brother-in-law's Renault 16, one in a series of Renault experiments in interesting gearshift placement - the 16 had a 4-speed manual column shift. The 16 was no longer in evidence in Patagonia, but the Renault 12, pictured below, was perhaps the most common car on the road, and many of them may in fact have been 25 or more years old. This is the sort of car I would have bought as soon as I had my licence had my father not insisted on practical and soul-less Japanese transportation.



The top photo is a Peugot 504, which appears to be of more recent vintage, and indeed is one of the cars of choice for Buenos Aires taxicabs. Also spotted were a well-used Peugot 505 (below) and numerous Renault 4s (bottom), which continue the Renault trend of random gearshift placement with a dashboard mounted shifter. Rumours of prototype rear-seat mounted gearshifts remain unsubstantiated.



A friend of mine in New Jersey drove a Peugot 505 for a while, and both he and the car survived a fire under the "hood" (as they say in NJ, i.e. in the engine compartment). Peugot gave up on the U.S. market not long after that.

Given that Argentina is often noted for its Italian feel, has Spanish as its national language, and boasts a lakes region that looks like Switzerland, it's interesting to see that the major French influence is automotive. There is a joke about heaven and hell lurking here somewhere.