Street-Spotted: Peugeot 505 V6 STX Sedan
A PRV V6 under the hood of a Volvo won't surprise anyone these days. But what about in a car that represents the first letter in PRV?
The Peugeot 505 effectively split the difference between the 504 and the 604 when it arrived stateside, becoming the French marque's main model in North America in the 1980s. The plush sedan offered boxy American styling and dimensions while also serving up some European handling.
The 505 itself was launched at a time when diesel engines were still popular by necessity, lest we forget, so four-cylinder diesel engines were in demand early on and there wasn't a rush to offer as much power as possible.
The 2.8-liter V6 in the 505 served up 145 hp and 173 lb-ft of torque for 1987 in the V6 STX, representing a notable bump over the base four-cylinder, while still landing short of the 150 hp (and later 180 hp) offered by the turbocharged 2.2-liter inline-four in its top form—at least later on, by the end of the decade.
Motorweek's tests at the time clocked the V6 STX in a sprint from 0 to 60 mph at 10.1 seconds, and the quarter mile in 17.7.
The V6 option gave Peugeot some bragging rights, especially when it came to comparison tests with other V6-engined European cars, with the automaker eager to play up its sporting ambitions.
"Both the STX and the Turbo S employ front and rear anti-sway bars and sure-stopping disc brakes enhanced by a computerized antilock system," ad copy of the time promised.
The V6 option was also confined to sedans—Peugeot didn't offer it in the 505 wagon.
But the PRV V6 didn't make its first appearance in the 505, even though that's where most of the remaining units can be found. The older Peugeot 504 and 604 received it earlier, even though 604 sales totals in North America were nothing to write home about. Likewise, the 504 still saw quite a few diesel sales, simply because its time on the assembly line overlapped with a bit of a fuel crisis stateside.
What else did the 505 promise?
"Fully independent suspension that allows each wheel to adapt separately to the terrain. And responsive, power-assisted, rack-and-pinion steering. An electronic variable power version is employed on the high performance STX and Turbo S," Peugeot said at the time.
The steering in the 505 was indeed pretty quick and responsive, we can confirm, having driven a handful of these recently. And the suspension, despite being in a car that's nearly 40 years old, felt a bit ahead of its time, especially compared to domestic offerings of the era.
How did the 505 fare in comparison tests of the time?
The midsize Peugeot sedan was still relegated to the "other" category in various European sedan shootouts, alongside Saab and Volvo, scoring plenty of praise for its suspension setup but perhaps not straight line acceleration. It tended to receive more praised than the Volvo models with the PRV V6, perhaps due to its nimbler handling, but it was still considered a step below the Germans, as we recall.
It was also a bit pricey for the day, with the V6 model positioned just below the $25,000 mark in the mid 1980s. The impact of this number is perhaps largely lost on today's car shoppers, but let's just say that pricewise these competed with well-optioned Audis and Volvos of the day.
Crucially, it was also positioned about $10,000 above the base 505 model, representing a big step up for buyers.
Perhaps another aspect that's now largely lost to the sands of time is the fact that car buyers could go out and shop for a V6 Peugeot in the first place. The French marque had a somewhat regional presence in the US, with quite a few dealers in states like New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, where we saw this example, but relatively few outside the northeast, and generally quite few in between the two coasts.
In another decade or two, spotting a Saab sedan will be as rare an occasion as spotting this Peugeot.
Were there any Peugeot dealerships in your area by the late 1980s or early 1990s? Let us know in the comments below.
