e90 vs 405

My 2nd car shopping continues.

I found an implausibly cheap 1990 SAAB 9000 for sale, I think it was a 9000CD 2.0 but not sure, very very old people who can’t drive anymore. This happens fairly often here and sometimes you can get a really amazing car. My old 900 was a similar story. Old guy bought it in 1985 with a bunch of extras, spared no expense maintaining it, got too sick to drive (or died, don’t recall) in 2000 and the car was taken it off the road. Grand daughter “found” it in the garage in 2005, a whole bunch of money was spend getting it back on the road, she got her license in it, drove it just other a year, then bought a new car and wanted rid of it. And I got a decent car for minimal money…

Sadly this wonderful 9000 was sold about 20mins before I got there. As they say in Swedish: “Fan men jag var så jävle arg!” (This is very rude, far ruder than the direct translation into English would imply and adequately expresses my emotions at the time.)

Anyhow, on Sunday went to go check the next car on the list. A 1991 Peugeot 405 GLX. I am a fan of older Pugs but at the same time scared of French cars.
This was owned by one little old lady (yes, really) from 1991 until the end of 2007. Then some other guy has had it nearly a year but doesn’t need it anymore.

First surprise: Keeping in mind I have only sat in 406s and 407s, the 405 seems so small and unassuming.
Second surprise: The spec…despite grandiose GLX badge: there isn’t any. Everything is manual, there is no rev counter, just a giant clock. Steering takes about a million turns lock to lock, very light though.
Third surprise: Slow. This is an 81kw 1900, the engine from the 205 GTi 1.9, and this 405 is not a heavy car, but it seemed very slow to me. I suppose considering the owner came with on the drive and there was no rev counter I probably didn’t rev it high enough.

Of course it is very difficult and totally unfair to drive somewhere in my 320i, then get out and attempt to objective about 10-25 year old cars. Obviously they all seem shockingly awful. (And vague, and worn, and spongy, and rubbery, and, and)

But this 405 was rather nice. Very very comfortable, more so than my 320i infact, and excellent visibility. For want of a better analogy it put me in the mind of a (much) more charming Toyota Carina E.

This week I have borrowed “my” old 85 900i back. Partially I am doing this to keep mileage off my 320i (on nearly 28000kms already) and partially I am doing this as it helps me be more reasonable when I go and test drive 9000s, 405s, 309s etc…

Very little in current production measures up to the e90…it’s just too hard to fair when climbing straight from it into some 20 year old relic.

Actually, my search may be over, I do like that 405…