Last year I reached the decision that unless large sums of money fell from the sky, my 1915 Peugeot type 153A project was beyond my resources and capability if it was ever going to be finished in my lifetime, so I sold it, and looked for something else interesting to replace it with. Of course, any intelligent person would have just finished the 1928 Renault and been satisfied. But not me...
I had always wanted a 1930s Sochaux Fuseau- styled Peugeot. Ideally a 302 or 402. I had tried a friends post-war 202 here and while it was a cute little thing, it really was a bit too small and gutless for me. However I then drove a friends 1937 202 in France and it won me over as it seemed quite happy buzzing around at 100 km/h and I started looking around. It was immediately obvious that a decent 402 or 302 was outside my budget, so with help from my French 202, Renault KZ and Citroen C4X mate the search got serious . I had almost decided on an unrestored but totally complete 202 in Nantes, when I saw an ad which caught my eye for a 302. The photos were of a very dirty and dusty car, clearly just dragged out of a barn. The ad just said it was complete, in good condition but the engine was seized. The price was a little higher than I was hoping to pay for a car but it was close enough to message Dominic and ask him his thoughts.
He responded within a minute. He had seen the ad and was wondering how long it would take me to find it, and what did I want him to do? I wanted him to ring the seller and find out a bit about the car. Half an hour later I got anther message. The car had been purchased by the late father of the seller, and the family were reducing the size of his collection, the 302 was surplus to requirements. It had last been registered in Paris in 1970 and their father had bought it in 1973, taken it from Paris and taken it back to where he lived, 60 km from Lyon, put it in a shed where it had sat ever since. It was totally complete with the exception of the inside light lens, as far as they knew, nothing had been touched, modified or butchered and it hadn't moved since 1973 apart from being take out to take photos prior to sale and if I checked my email, a file with 113 photos of the car front front to back bumper, top to bottom, inside and out was waiting for my inspection.
Several hours were spent pouring over the photos, then trawling the internet to see what I should know about a Peugeot 302. At the end of the exercise, sadly I could see no good reason not to continue with my enquiries. More messages back and forward to France (Facebook messenger has very much become my friend!) and a day later Dominic asks what I want to do now? Between us we had decided that assuming the car we had photos of was the car which was for sale, it looked to be an excellent buy. Not wishing to start an international incident or mortally offend the seller I had to ask what was the norm in France. Was the asking price the price, or is it like here where one enters into delicate negotiation with the vendor to meet at a mutually acceptable price? It turns out the French do enjoy a good bartering session. Dominic suggested what he thought would be a fair price and 24 hours later a deposit was paid and I was the owner of a 1937 Peugeot 302 Berline Luxe, on the opposite side of the world.
This is how it looked when I got my first glimpse of it
I had always wanted a 1930s Sochaux Fuseau- styled Peugeot. Ideally a 302 or 402. I had tried a friends post-war 202 here and while it was a cute little thing, it really was a bit too small and gutless for me. However I then drove a friends 1937 202 in France and it won me over as it seemed quite happy buzzing around at 100 km/h and I started looking around. It was immediately obvious that a decent 402 or 302 was outside my budget, so with help from my French 202, Renault KZ and Citroen C4X mate the search got serious . I had almost decided on an unrestored but totally complete 202 in Nantes, when I saw an ad which caught my eye for a 302. The photos were of a very dirty and dusty car, clearly just dragged out of a barn. The ad just said it was complete, in good condition but the engine was seized. The price was a little higher than I was hoping to pay for a car but it was close enough to message Dominic and ask him his thoughts.
He responded within a minute. He had seen the ad and was wondering how long it would take me to find it, and what did I want him to do? I wanted him to ring the seller and find out a bit about the car. Half an hour later I got anther message. The car had been purchased by the late father of the seller, and the family were reducing the size of his collection, the 302 was surplus to requirements. It had last been registered in Paris in 1970 and their father had bought it in 1973, taken it from Paris and taken it back to where he lived, 60 km from Lyon, put it in a shed where it had sat ever since. It was totally complete with the exception of the inside light lens, as far as they knew, nothing had been touched, modified or butchered and it hadn't moved since 1973 apart from being take out to take photos prior to sale and if I checked my email, a file with 113 photos of the car front front to back bumper, top to bottom, inside and out was waiting for my inspection.
Several hours were spent pouring over the photos, then trawling the internet to see what I should know about a Peugeot 302. At the end of the exercise, sadly I could see no good reason not to continue with my enquiries. More messages back and forward to France (Facebook messenger has very much become my friend!) and a day later Dominic asks what I want to do now? Between us we had decided that assuming the car we had photos of was the car which was for sale, it looked to be an excellent buy. Not wishing to start an international incident or mortally offend the seller I had to ask what was the norm in France. Was the asking price the price, or is it like here where one enters into delicate negotiation with the vendor to meet at a mutually acceptable price? It turns out the French do enjoy a good bartering session. Dominic suggested what he thought would be a fair price and 24 hours later a deposit was paid and I was the owner of a 1937 Peugeot 302 Berline Luxe, on the opposite side of the world.
This is how it looked when I got my first glimpse of it
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