Disconnected Ramblings

Two reflections here. How strong and capable the line of Peugeot station wagons from 203 to 505 were. Peugeot design at its best. At home in the toughest environments around the world. Not "prestige " designs marketed to social climbers.
How competent the marketing of the 203 by Canada Cycle and Motor Company was. They understood the importance of a strong dealer network throughout the country. Not just the city. They put the work in and were rewarded with sales. Straight after the 203 was released in 1949 CCM had a car on display at the Horsham Show. Just like Mather had displayed two cars at the 1922 Horsham Show in support of the local dealer. A good dealer, Wilson Bolton, was appointed. Still in business but no Peugeot dealer anymore.
By 1953 Horsham needed a new ambulance to assist the two Dodges. A big ambulance district serving a highway and lots of towns. But the ambulances were only covering 5000, miles a year each which meant nobody called an ambulance unless you really needed it. Medical aid had always been a scarce service in more remote rural areas. They were driver only units which meant assistance from bystanders was often called on. As it was the practice for everyone to stop at an accident scene there was no shortage of help. Trapped motorists were released by tow truck drivers and locals. Drivers were trained in basic first aid but the aim of the driver was to load up as quickly as possible and drive flat out to the hospital. Not much different from the country today, it takes so long to pick up and transport a patient to hospital there is a survival of the fittest aspect. And then they had to survive the medical treatment at Wimmera Base Hospital which had its share of horror stories.
So in 1953 there were lots of cake stalls and fundraisers to purchase a 203 station wagon in 1954, for 1100 pounds. A station wagon not a van because there were lots of polio victims around who needed car type transport. They were impressed with how quickly the back seat could be taken in and out and it was quickly changed from stretcher to passenger carrier. In 1954 it scored a two way radio because of the Royal Visit. The massive movement of Wimmera people to see the Queen was a test for the ambulance service. The ambulance service was proud of their 203 and it was displayed at sports events and public functions.
It was regarded as fast and made good time over the poor roads of the district. It had to do a high speed dash when a patient in a country hospital needed the sole Wimmera respirator. It was written up in the Wimmera Mail Times as "high speed mercy dash", 59 miles in 60 minutes.
The administrators were impressed with the fuel economy, around 37mpg compared to 12 mpg for one Dodge and 17mpg the other. They were also impressed that it covered 10,000 miles in its first year without a fault. With two drivers it delivered a TB patient to the Austin and back in eleven hours.
But not all was perfect. In a Sun Rally in the Grampians (or was it an early BP Rally) Jim O'Brien in a 203 had a head on with a VW. The VW driver wasn't too good and the 203 ambulance from Horsham arrived. The VW driver was on the stretcher and Jim in the front seat when the ambulance stopped. The driver had no idea so Jim got out and cleaned the filter where the fuel goes into the carby.
Eventually the Horsham station went to big American ambulances that were more impressive for speeding to highway crashes. Although the drivers said the 203 was just as fast as the Customline on bad roads.
 
Peugeot returned to the diesel in 1958. Never heard of a 403D in Australia.
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They did produce a diesel 402 but were told to stop by the government because the military needed all the diesel fuel.
 
Peugeot did some crash testing with the 403. Safety wasn't too bad, the steering column didn't come in and kill you like in an Austin Healey. Unless the crash was bad enough to move the front cross member. Driver in a head on in a 403 in Gippsland was reported as being killed by the steering wheel but that was unusual. Usual cause of death was ejection with no seat belts.
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Researching motoring history is no different than any branch of activity but it's perhaps made a little more difficult because of limited sources, commercial in confidence considerations of companies and the mixture of objective motoring journalism and commercial promotion. For that reason I have always tried to find three separate sources for any important piece of information, to distinguish between the numerous stories that float around motoring and reasonably verifiable fact. Trove is a great assistance in referencing some newspapers but their search engine can give variable results. For some reason people regard reports in early newspapers as having greater credibility than they sometimes deserve. They were certainly no more accurate than news reports today. Motor firms have always been accomplished in feeding reports to the motoring press to promote their vehicles and motor journalists have always been shy of reporting faults in models.
An example is the difficulty of establishing the details of the assembly of the 203 in the Chrysler plant in Adelaide in mid 1952. All previous published accounts put the Australian assembly start date as 1953. At first the idea seemed unlikely but the J.T. Richards motor body works had only been recently taken over by Chrysler and had been jointly owned by the Dodge -Desoto Chrysler dealers of Australia who were also handling the 203. It was assembling for other firms as well notably Vanguards. People kept very quiet about the operation but verification eventually turned up but no evidence for Victorian sales. The Chrysler clubs had no info at all on the assembly.
There are numerous stories floating around and in the press that require research. It took a long time to dismiss the pre-war 202 import story, there are numerous 1948 203 import stories and little oddities like the Riverina Herald story about Rommel's Peugeot residing in the region. Some rumours like the Adelaide 402 turned out to be true. As did the story of the fast driven 202 around country NSW in 1946/7, imported by Paul Playousts wool buyer uncle.
 
Before 1910 E.W. Brown supplied catalogues of Peugeot motorcycles and in the 1920's The French Auto Company offered multi page brochures of all the company products. I have yet to find examples but such items come up online. I was able to buy copies of the first Australian pamphlets for the 203, different for Sydney and Melbourne. In the mid 1920's there was a short lived motor magazine in Melbourne. Garage and Motor Trader of the 1940's and '50's is an excellent source of sales figures. Keith Winser's Motor Manual is a valuable source of information for the Australian industry for the late 1940's and early 1950's. The individual magazines can be bought online but can be expensive. Motor books are expensive. Dumont's Under the Sign of the Lion is $200 and The Kellerman Affair nearly $700. Alan Pinkney gave me a collection of Torque from the late 1970's and early '80's that included some valuable translations by Geoff Strachan of Peugeot articles by Dumont sourced from French publications. The Heidelberg Renault factory had a house journal called Rapport that is an interesting source of news and personalities. Peugeot Sochaux also had a quality house journal. Sometimes material turns up like the unsigned history of Canada Cycle and Motor Company. Or the perfect condition twenty page booklet on the 203 produced by Peugeot for internal use that was issued to an Australian sent to the Sochaux school in 1950.
But the most important source of information is the experience and stories of the people who drove and sold and made the cars. People who started their apprenticeships on 203's and others who knew Alec Chapman. As well as more modern stories and experiences. I met people who had pre-war experience with French cars but never anyone who knew Peugeots before the war. My study should have begun thirty years earlier.
Changes in tax and import policies are complex and poorly reported in the press of the day. But they had a direct impact on Peugeot sales.
Sometimes chance came my way. I was able to meet the man Dulux sent to investigate the failure of the electrophoresis paint process and he was willing to share his results. I learned about the problem of shipping corrosion from a member of the investigative team.
Attempts to establish relations with current importers were ignored and the Peugeot Museum claimed no information of the early Australian trade.
Studies are ongoing but it is a field which has a declining audience.
 
got my copy ( probably the one i had been reading at Technical Book & Mag ) of 'sous le signe du lion' from my parents for my 21st ; it's certainly not worth $200 now ...
Dad recently remembered a REDeX 203 navigator was from the farm-machinery people in Gembrook, next to Uncle John's garage - but on the other hand has apparently forgotten all about brief ownership of a 172 in the late 50's ...
 
Its obvious that the original poster would know this, but i did not so, in case others approach my innocence ;
( first vic rego plate with three letters ( GAA 000 ) - Argus Jan. 28, 1953 story / paragraph., as pdf from Trove ... )
 

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The first 203 in July 1949 was NO. My car from May 1950 was PC. I remember a Holden from 1953 as XS. There are a few photos of 203's with OZ.
 
Around 2000 Marque Publishing came up with the idea of producing potted histories of the Australian operations of car companies for promotions. They sold the idea to a number of companies. I don't know the financial arrangements but presumably the car company paid for the production of the book which had a nominal value of $50 but was produced in volume at low cost and generally given away by the car firms. Rob Dommerson was the MD of the Australian Peugeot op which had been taken over by Sime Darby. He saw the value of using the successful past of the make in Australia to promote lagging sales so he enthusiastically supported the idea. He also saw the value of supporting the Redex Re-run. Book is not a bad result for what it was but an emphasis on later models, a reliance on what Gordon Miller supplied about the past and a number of inaccuracies. The Holden history was quite good and contained a lot of pre-war material. Peugeot the Australian Story filled a gap and perhaps encouraged some interest in motoring history.
Rob Dommerson would have been good to get on with and would have had a copy of my book in every dealership. To gauge any interest I sent a copy to the new MD of the Inchcape operation. Now in the past people always wrote to car companies for all sorts of reasons and there were standard responses. A brush off was a "thank you for your letter here is a pamphlet about our cars" type of thing. But modern business ethics do not encompass good manners and it is all too common now for anything that does not bring profit to be simply ignored. The lack of any basic acknowledgement of the book told me a great deal about the Inchcape operation and its executive culture.
 
Russell Hall said:
The first 203 in July 1949 was NO. My car from May 1950 was PC. I remember a Holden from 1953 as XS. There are a few photos of 203's with OZ.
Click to expand...
My father and uncle's 48/215 ute was UL*** so probably '52?
 
My 203, made in November, 1949, registered in May, 1950 had N.S.W. black and white plates GN. Still have them on the family Liberty.
 
UL - early 1952 or late 1951. Have a look at A French Mystery for 1949 under Froggy Chat and Mrs Pilkingtons car from 1952 is VB.
 
A couple of thoughts. I think most Australian wagons ran 185's not 170's. Hard to follow French prices in the 1950's with so many changes in the franc. Historical internet currency conversions aren't always accurate. I take note of the Autocar French price of 1951 converted to pounds sterling but no breakdown of taxes. I still have my international currency conversion wheel from the Melbourne Olympics and it's useful.
The Southern Motors pamphlet is a lift from CCM not Harden & Johnston. They used to have the cars unloaded from the ships at Adelaide. I wonder if the Chrysler assembled cars were taken by sea to Sydney? For some reason Peugeot didn't do as well in SA as Victoria but there were dealers in places like Mt Gambier and Millicent.
 
H&J notation under shield, bottom left of back page? i thought it bore out what was said about the advertising being done by them ... regarding that 'P' - i did show my newly acquired pride and joy to a lady who said "Oh, its a Geugeot, then ..."
 
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