505 Info required

Alan S

Alan S

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At the moment, I am thinking of buying another runaround & am looking at a CX Citroen & a Pug 505. Now the CX is no problem as I know them inside out but what about the 505??
How good are they, what is their life expectancy & what sort of fuel consumption can I expect. How expensive (or cheap) are parts? How available non genuine & second hand? The Pug is a 5 speed. What are their weak spots?
Don't want to look like a goose by asking a Pug owner when he last changed his LHM
biggrin.gif


Alan S
 
Alan, I question weather a Cit owner would be happy with a 505, compared to a CX, a 505 is a French Holden, now before I get abused, I know a little about both cars and both have good and bad parts, a 505 is basic easy to work on reliable, cheap on parts and easy to get parts, the base model has the old 504 motor and is very simple and reliable while latter cars had the OHC motor, basically the Renault motor and even the CX had a version with this motor, its much more powerful buts lets face it no one ever bought a 505 because of its performance. The CX is a limo compared to a 505, the ride, handling, quietness, smoothness of a CX makes the 505 look like a Holden and it would be hard to sell a 505 to a CX driver, on the other hand if a person wanted simple, basic, reliable no fuse transport that was easy to maintain and cheap to get parts for then a 505 is probably the best car for the job.
Seeya,
David.
 
If you get a 505, just make sure you keep the oil in the gearbox well topped up and don't abuse the gearshift. Sometimes the gearboxes die, and it is often because either the gearbox oil level has not been checked in years, or the driver has tried to force the gearshift into gear on the odd occasion that it doesn't want to go in, resulting in breaking a piece out of the synchro selection mechanism, which then falls between the teeth on the gears and destroys the gearbox. Basically look after your 505 and it will look after you. Early carburettored cars are the simplest and cheapest to fix and are not that much slower than the fuel injected ones, if you give them plenty of revs (even though they sound loud, don't worry they won't blow up unless your doing 7000rpm+ or their low on oil or some other grose abuse).

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Alan S:
At the moment, I am thinking of buying another runaround & am looking at a CX Citroen & a Pug 505. Now the CX is no problem as I know them inside out but what about the 505??
How good are they, what is their life expectancy & what sort of fuel consumption can I expect. How expensive (or cheap) are parts? How available non genuine & second hand? The Pug is a 5 speed. What are their weak spots?
Don't want to look like a goose by asking a Pug owner when he last changed his LHM
biggrin.gif


Alan S
Click to expand...
 
505 fuel consumption:
22mpg driven hard in the city
25mpg driven hard in the country
28-33 driven easy in the country

505 engine life expectancy:
250-350,000km abused
500,000km+ well looked after

tailshaft life expectancy:
30,000km very abused with no grease on splines
500,000km+ splines greased and not abused

Check for lash in the drive train usually caused by worn tailshaft splines. When they are very worn they will eventually strip resulting in loss of drive. Second hand ones aren't usually expensive. Generally (but not always) shafts from automatic cars are in better condition due to the smoother application of torque.

Heads can sometimes corrode out quickly if corrosion inhibitor is not used.

Check gearbox for noises:
slight wine -not too bad
rattly -probably needs new bearings

Parts prices (not fitted):
Head gasket $30-$40 approx
5 major gearbox bearings $300
rings and big end bearings $120-$200
clutch $250-$300
brakepads $45-$70

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Alan S:
At the moment, I am thinking of buying another runaround & am looking at a CX Citroen & a Pug 505. Now the CX is no problem as I know them inside out but what about the 505??
How good are they, what is their life expectancy & what sort of fuel consumption can I expect. How expensive (or cheap) are parts? How available non genuine & second hand? The Pug is a 5 speed. What are their weak spots?
Don't want to look like a goose by asking a Pug owner when he last changed his LHM
biggrin.gif


Alan S
Click to expand...
 
Those prices I mentioned were very approximate. They seemed to sit in those ranges for most of the 90s. With the introduction of the GST, some prices went down, but have gone up since due to currency fluctuations, so I'm not too sure what they are now. Generally 505 and 504 parts (they are really the same car with different sheet metal) are cheaper than many cars because of the fact that they made well over 4 million of these models and they are really popular in Africa, the Middle East and South America, with resulting good economies of scale. They still make approx 5000 504s per year in Nigeria.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Alan S:
At the moment, I am thinking of buying another runaround & am looking at a CX Citroen & a Pug 505. Now the CX is no problem as I know them inside out but what about the 505??
How good are they, what is their life expectancy & what sort of fuel consumption can I expect. How expensive (or cheap) are parts? How available non genuine & second hand? The Pug is a 5 speed. What are their weak spots?
Don't want to look like a goose by asking a Pug owner when he last changed his LHM
biggrin.gif


Alan S
Click to expand...
 
Drive both cars, come up with your own opinion.
I've Never heard of a 505 being referred to as a French Holden
until now (interesting...)
I can tell you though, my GTi will drive circles around your average commodore
of the same year, goes well in a staight line too.
I've never had anything serious go wrong either.
 
I'd agree that the 505 is a French Holden...

Simple, basic, reliable, popular... in their homeland... and certainly compared to a Citroen.

But anything French is a better handler than Holdens of that era, so don't be put off by this comment.
 
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