Source: Wheels July '82
Page 1 of 4
It's Australias fastest diesel or slowest turbo, depending on which side of the $20,000 cheque you're on. Either way the enigmatic new Peugeot 505 Turbodiesel is liable to be greatly misunderstood: 5000km later, we think we have the answer . .
SAMUAL R. PAYNE would love the new Peugeot 505 Turbodiesel. From the sound of his letter (Readers Write, this issue ), he's hooked on diesel-powered cars. And who wouldn't be, after chopping in a 9.9km/l (28 mpg) petrol Golf for a 17 km/l (48 MPG) diesel Golf? After three years and 62,00km of economy like that, Samuel has nearly recouped the $1200 extra the Golf D cost him. Since he does his own servicing total savings have probably put his car's balance sheet well into the black.
“The Federal Government should promote diesel-powered cars and give manufacturers an incentive to build more”, his letter concludes. Leyland Australia, importers/assemblers of Peugeot cars, would do well to cultivate Samuel R. Payne . . .
The rest of us, the vast majority of motorists in Australia, don't know about diesels. You don't have to do your own servicing like Samuel -- and most owners do not -- but you must know how to drive a diesel, -- quietly, long distance -- and how to own a diesel. Samual's had his Golf three years and will probably keep it another three at least. In the first three years he paid for the car; all the savings now are money in his pocket.
These are just a couple of the truisms of living with a diesel, and they're more than usually important with the Peugeot Turbodiesel for rarely has a car come our way that is so likely to be utterly misunderstood.
For most people, just four figures from our Specs Chart-- $20,000 l60km/h, 21 second for the 400m and 11.47km/1 (32mpg) for our fuel loop -- Will be enough to dismiss the car out of hand, It's a combination that doesn't add up: for the price of a Ford Fairlane you get a laser's top speed a Daihatsu Handivans 400m time and the fuel economy of an Audi 5+ 5 a similarly-sized sedan to the Peugeot but with a third more power.
If that doesn't put you off, talk to a diesel denigrator, and for every Samuel R. Payne there's a dozen who'll willingly do the dirty on the diesel. By telling you, perhaps, how they sold their oil-burner aftermost a year or two and had to bear the brunt of the diesel mark-up in depreciation . Or how they wanted to do their own servicing but were incapable of it. Or how they had to spend so much time at the garage having their car serviced and oil- changed. Or how they had to queue up with the truckies at the inevitably filthy service station fuel pump. Why, they will scream, should we put up with all this when already diesel engine is rougher, noiser dirtier and potentially more expensive to maintain than a petrol unit?
The fact that diesel engines, until now, have had disgusting kW/litre figures only rubs salt into an already gaping wound.
The turbocharger is the weapon to change at least part of this gloomy picture: to give unresponsive weak-kneed diesel engines a semblence of a petrol units response and power without sacrificing the oil-burners thrift with fuel.
The turbo is now an integral part of diesel engine technology and is in no small part responsible for a strengthening of the diesels boom in europe and America.
Today every big car maker in the world either has or soon will have diesel engines available for its cars, and an increasing proportion of these -- from VW Golf to Rover to Mercedes -- make use of a blower to enhance performance. Ye gods, these days there's even a diesel Alfa.
Strangely, the Alfa makes the most sense, particularly in Italy where, like Holland, diesel fuel is half the price of petrol. In Australia, as in Britain, diesel costs the same, if not slightly more than petrol, and the incentive in driving a ear With a 'D' on the boot is that you don't have to fill up so often - -- fuel consumption -- and with it a welcome independence from petrol strikes - is reduced.
Generally the reduction is a healthy one.
Sometimes it's a big saving, but equally sometimes a diesel offers no fuel saving at all, it depends on how the car is used.
You may think that this doesn't bode too well for the 505TD, the first turbo diesel-powered car to reach Australia.
And for many buyers this car, which by now is being assembled at Leyland's Enfield plant alongside the petrol 505, will make no sense: It is certainly not a car for every man; For others, however, the combination of the maker's respected long standing (and mightily impresive) attributes of the 505 and a diesel engine blown to give petrol engine- type performance will represent the best news they-ve heard all year.
And the 505 is indeed a sweet way to take the bitter diesel pill. The car is one of Europe's nicest middleweight sedans, with great comfort, room and style. The Pininfarina-drawn body, sitting on a terrifically long wheelbase and using many carryover parts from the 504 and 604, has a simple elegance to it that lets the car stand head and shoulders above most of it, three-box contemporaries, and certainly any from Japan. Traditional Peugeot virtues feature in the 505 Aplenty: the soft, long travel all-independent suspension, the fabulous cabin room (there's probably as much usable interior legroom as in a Falcon), the armchair comfort (beautifully covered full-foam seats), the good visibility, dash layout and controls, and a roadability that is in the best European traditions. We said all that in our comparison between the petrol 505 and the Commodore, Audi 5+ 5, Renault 20 and Volvo 244 (wheelchair '82), when we also pointed out the five-speed manual Pug was hardly a road-burner with a 400m time of 19.8 second' s, poor even allowing that the test car had covered less than 1000km. With a greater distance under its tyres that car may have gone closer to the 18 .9 time we recorded for a previous 505.
The fact remains, however, that with the
Page 1 of 4
It's Australias fastest diesel or slowest turbo, depending on which side of the $20,000 cheque you're on. Either way the enigmatic new Peugeot 505 Turbodiesel is liable to be greatly misunderstood: 5000km later, we think we have the answer . .
SAMUAL R. PAYNE would love the new Peugeot 505 Turbodiesel. From the sound of his letter (Readers Write, this issue ), he's hooked on diesel-powered cars. And who wouldn't be, after chopping in a 9.9km/l (28 mpg) petrol Golf for a 17 km/l (48 MPG) diesel Golf? After three years and 62,00km of economy like that, Samuel has nearly recouped the $1200 extra the Golf D cost him. Since he does his own servicing total savings have probably put his car's balance sheet well into the black.
“The Federal Government should promote diesel-powered cars and give manufacturers an incentive to build more”, his letter concludes. Leyland Australia, importers/assemblers of Peugeot cars, would do well to cultivate Samuel R. Payne . . .
The rest of us, the vast majority of motorists in Australia, don't know about diesels. You don't have to do your own servicing like Samuel -- and most owners do not -- but you must know how to drive a diesel, -- quietly, long distance -- and how to own a diesel. Samual's had his Golf three years and will probably keep it another three at least. In the first three years he paid for the car; all the savings now are money in his pocket.
These are just a couple of the truisms of living with a diesel, and they're more than usually important with the Peugeot Turbodiesel for rarely has a car come our way that is so likely to be utterly misunderstood.
For most people, just four figures from our Specs Chart-- $20,000 l60km/h, 21 second for the 400m and 11.47km/1 (32mpg) for our fuel loop -- Will be enough to dismiss the car out of hand, It's a combination that doesn't add up: for the price of a Ford Fairlane you get a laser's top speed a Daihatsu Handivans 400m time and the fuel economy of an Audi 5+ 5 a similarly-sized sedan to the Peugeot but with a third more power.
If that doesn't put you off, talk to a diesel denigrator, and for every Samuel R. Payne there's a dozen who'll willingly do the dirty on the diesel. By telling you, perhaps, how they sold their oil-burner aftermost a year or two and had to bear the brunt of the diesel mark-up in depreciation . Or how they wanted to do their own servicing but were incapable of it. Or how they had to spend so much time at the garage having their car serviced and oil- changed. Or how they had to queue up with the truckies at the inevitably filthy service station fuel pump. Why, they will scream, should we put up with all this when already diesel engine is rougher, noiser dirtier and potentially more expensive to maintain than a petrol unit?
The fact that diesel engines, until now, have had disgusting kW/litre figures only rubs salt into an already gaping wound.
The turbocharger is the weapon to change at least part of this gloomy picture: to give unresponsive weak-kneed diesel engines a semblence of a petrol units response and power without sacrificing the oil-burners thrift with fuel.
The turbo is now an integral part of diesel engine technology and is in no small part responsible for a strengthening of the diesels boom in europe and America.
Today every big car maker in the world either has or soon will have diesel engines available for its cars, and an increasing proportion of these -- from VW Golf to Rover to Mercedes -- make use of a blower to enhance performance. Ye gods, these days there's even a diesel Alfa.
Strangely, the Alfa makes the most sense, particularly in Italy where, like Holland, diesel fuel is half the price of petrol. In Australia, as in Britain, diesel costs the same, if not slightly more than petrol, and the incentive in driving a ear With a 'D' on the boot is that you don't have to fill up so often - -- fuel consumption -- and with it a welcome independence from petrol strikes - is reduced.
Generally the reduction is a healthy one.
Sometimes it's a big saving, but equally sometimes a diesel offers no fuel saving at all, it depends on how the car is used.
You may think that this doesn't bode too well for the 505TD, the first turbo diesel-powered car to reach Australia.
And for many buyers this car, which by now is being assembled at Leyland's Enfield plant alongside the petrol 505, will make no sense: It is certainly not a car for every man; For others, however, the combination of the maker's respected long standing (and mightily impresive) attributes of the 505 and a diesel engine blown to give petrol engine- type performance will represent the best news they-ve heard all year.
And the 505 is indeed a sweet way to take the bitter diesel pill. The car is one of Europe's nicest middleweight sedans, with great comfort, room and style. The Pininfarina-drawn body, sitting on a terrifically long wheelbase and using many carryover parts from the 504 and 604, has a simple elegance to it that lets the car stand head and shoulders above most of it, three-box contemporaries, and certainly any from Japan. Traditional Peugeot virtues feature in the 505 Aplenty: the soft, long travel all-independent suspension, the fabulous cabin room (there's probably as much usable interior legroom as in a Falcon), the armchair comfort (beautifully covered full-foam seats), the good visibility, dash layout and controls, and a roadability that is in the best European traditions. We said all that in our comparison between the petrol 505 and the Commodore, Audi 5+ 5, Renault 20 and Volvo 244 (wheelchair '82), when we also pointed out the five-speed manual Pug was hardly a road-burner with a 400m time of 19.8 second' s, poor even allowing that the test car had covered less than 1000km. With a greater distance under its tyres that car may have gone closer to the 18 .9 time we recorded for a previous 505.
The fact remains, however, that with the