Friday, December 5, 2008

Peugeot Sugar Daddy





Over the past 6 months I've come to build a picture in my head of the average Peugeot owner. It's not pretty. Most of them have been... well... eccentric to say the least. Some of them in a good way, like the gruff lovable old guy who gladly shares his knowledge with the younger generation. And some in a bad way, like the gruff not-so-lovable old guys who seem to think a Peugeot should be hermetically sealed and placed on display in the Louvre. Like the old guys chronicled in my last post. The one unifying element between the two groups is great age. Young Peugeot owners seem to be in their late 60's.

Last weekend I had my picture of Peugeot owners shattered. Alan had posted an ad on Craigslist for all of the bits we'd removed from Pujo. Interior trim, full a/c system, power window motors and regulators, sunroof track, leather seats, carpet, various switches knobs and dials. All of it was in pretty good condition for a 20 year old heap. The ad wasn't up very long before it was answered by an astonishingly young and normal guy. He had the usual encyclopedic knowledge of a Peugeot enthusiast but only half the age. He was 40. We chatted for about an hour about his car (which was the cleanest and nicest 505 I've seen since they were new) and our car (he was thrilled we were going to be using it as a race car)and he gave me a lot of useful advice on cheap fixes for common problems. Long story short, he bought everything we had. His intention is to restore everything, use what he needs, then eBay everything else. He said he feels he can make a decent profit on the stuff he sells. The most amazing part of the whole deal was how much he paid for the stuff. $500! Who knew these cars were worth more dead than alive? With all of the previous parts we sold from the car, we have managed to purchase the price of the car down to -$280! $780 worth of stuff off a $500 car and we still have a RUNNING car!

When we're done with this car, I think I'll just sell it in pieces, make a fortune and retire to the South of France. :-)

-Sean

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Worth more dead than alive? I hope that's not an omen!

TriumphRacer said...

Omen? The would explain the "666" inscribed on the engine block.

Anonymous said...

He was way to nice. I think he is a spy or maybe a monk,....I'm not sure.

Scott