1982 Peugeot 505 GR Estate Goes for a Drive 

Thirty years ago, when I was living in Boston, MA and regularly traveling to NYC on business, the cab fleet in the Big Apple was mostly Ford Crown Victorias, some Checkers and a reasonable number of Peugeot 505s. Among my coworkers, at least, we all knew that the Peugeots were far better equipped for the potholed streets of the city and we'd cross our fingers in the cab queue at La Guardia and wave a little more frantically at them when flagging a cab in town.

That interior is beautiful and the condition has to be the cleanest old car I have ever seen and the tea shelf is HUGE!

One of the Mums who was in our school car run had a 504 then a 505 estate 7 seaters. They were so comfy, and cavernous. We all wanted to sit on the 3rd row of seats. Amazing cars.

What a fantastic car! Love the old Peugeots. When I was a kid my father had a beige 305 estate as a company car. That car had the smoothest ride ever, economic diesel, the softest carpet in the enormous boot (a little smaller than this 505 estate obviously). Great cars. Wish Peugeot would go back to the more stately, no-nonsens cars.

Hello. I like your reviews of ordinary, simple cars . As a 48yrs old man I remember all of them. Normal family cars and not some weird super performant exotica that you cant connect with in any way.Greeting from Slovenia.

What a wonderful thing, to find this video. I drove an '82 505 Estate for many happy years. And mine was red! It was one of the most reliable and tough cars that I ever owned. I lived in Illinois, USA at the time, and I drove that car through some very difficult winters. I put studded snow tires on the back, and the car confidently went any direction that I pointed it. Those lovely headlights were my favorite feature of the 505. You made my whole day with this video. Thank you so much! Cheers, from Utah, USA.

Back in the mid 90s I had a 505 GRD (I think?) in saloon version. It was an absolute beast. I traded my Peugeot 205 for it at the old car dealers on Clapham Common who used to specialise in French motors. Went to buy a Citroen CX but bottled it at the last moment and bought the 505 which had only just come in. Less tweed and way more velour. The most comfortable seats in any car I've ever driven.

This brings back so so so many memories ! My dad brought one when I was a kid C183GAR we had the 7 seat option as we're a big family. We went everywhere in it many family holidays to Cornwall and Devon. Normally with mum dad in the front three kids in the middle and two in the back ! . Thanks for reviewing so many great family memories came flooding back. Another one to review would be the montego countryman estate .... The other 7 seat family wagon we had which was mum's car. Thanks for sharing

Matt, you've managed to describe this wonderful car like a French wine ..

Peugeot 505 is a heavily revamped 504 which goes back to late 1960’s, just goes to show what an advanced design it was in order to run right up to 1992. Very well built family car and should last forever if you look after it.

My Grandad had a C reg Talbot Solara that had tweed covered seats in it, and they looked just like the seats in this beast. What a stunning car.

Tea shelf rant made me laugh 😂

What a beauty! Very well kept/restored.

So many happy memories in a blue, 7 seat version we used to have when I was growing up. Amazing car. ❤️

A good weekend camper if you think about it with a boot space that large... I could easily see myself going to the lakes and just sleeping in the car at night 🤣🤣

It reminds me of the 104 that my family owned from 1979 to 1988. Much smaller of course! Nice video. 80s nostalgia alert!!!

This car brings back so many memories! In Australia, they started out being assembled from CKD kits in Melbourne by Renault Australia (who were also responsible for selling the cars), who also assembled the 12, 16, 18 and maybe the 20 from kits, as well as Ford Cortina wagons. When Renault shut their factory around 81/82, production shifted to PMC (Pressed Metal) in Sydney, who also made Mokes, Land Rovers and bus/coach bodies until about 1985, when they went to import only. They had a clearer market position in Australia, they competed mainly with the Volvo 240 and later on, the 740 and were a prestige Euro car option for not much more than an Australian or Japanese car. Very popular with farmers, as well as middle class city people wanting an affordable-ish Euro car. The interior of this car is exactly like a sedan a school friend’s mum drove, except hers had power front windows and air con and lots of other kids at school were from families with wagons. They were a common sight until about 20 years ago. Apparently lots were shipped to east Africa. A very comfortable and tough car, if only the French still made them like this

I grew a up with a white of these from 1989. It is pretty much my dream car in this red colour.

I can remember the 504s in the 70's, here in Sydney, basically a burnt orange colour and in the estate form. Would have loved a 505.

my Grandad had a J (92) plate 505 estate for a few years in the mid '00s. I think it's one of his favorites he's owned. I loved the 3rd-row seats as a kid.

The good old 505 estate was lavish in those days, a couple of things I like about this car are the tweed upholstery, the brick red dashboard inlay, the classic beige roof lining and the massive cargo space at the back.

I was taken to school in one of these. My parents were in a school run car pooling club, and one of the other parents had a black 505 with the extra back seat in the boot. If ever a car was designed for the school run, this was it, and I seem to recall it swallowing about a dozen of us. No rear seatbelts in those days, or health & safety lobby groups. So great to see one again.

Tea shelf ? Non monsieur. Its for slicing open baguette's & filling with jambon fromage while leaving space for 2 beakers of vin rose at the clock end. Vivre le picnic !

A Pininfarina great! Fioravanti was a genius. When I was a kid we had two BRAND NEW 505 GTI 7-seaters, 1988 and 1992. These late versions are my favourites, with late Mercedes-style dash, velour seats, el.mirrors, windows, remote locking, aluminium wheels, metallic paint etc. Shame they never put the 180hp turbo-engine in it!

Had a Rover 3500 SD1 back in the late eighties that had a temperature gauge that showed just under mid way even when the engine was off. After about a year of ownership, I discovered it had been glued there! Lovely car was that but the electrics were woeful. Taught me a lot about electric windows, central locking, switches and wiring.

I had the 405 Estate and it was a marvellous motor , my missus still says that it had the comfiest seats that she's ever experienced in a car :)

what a beautiful example of a phase one 505 she's like new and automatic..oh my heart melts! brings back sweet memories when we were teenagers we used to sneak our neighbor's 505 for a rave in town all 9 of us

I have had one for 25 years now and i still rather drive the 505 than my 2019 citroen 3 air cross i love my 505

That's what I'd describe as split mint, incredible its held up so well. A modern Peugeot falls apart after 5 years. Remember lots of these back in the day, a guy I worked with in the 80's had 5 kids and drove a brown 7 seater estate, that looked huge at the time. You need to offer a Hubnut style 'knees alert' warning tho during this hot weather mate😂

Matt what a good video,thanks. Brought back a lot of great memories. We had one of these in the early 80's. It was an 8 seater automatic with power steering and air conditioning. We had 6 kids and they loved this car,so did I. This was a superb workhorse,we even used it when moving house because when the seats were folded down you could practically GET half the house in it ha ha.

A friend's parents had one of these. I loved it! It was blue and it was so big it almost had its own postcode. I remember how high it sat and I could almost climb into the wheel arch! Looking forward to watching this!

Nice car and review is great as usual, reviews of such vehicles are far more interesting than all those supercar review channels

Great review. Lovely to see a classic old Peugeot bus again. My parents had a 309 GRD turbo that was probably one of the best all round family cars we ever had; comfortable, practical, reliable and looked fairly good while doing it all.

My father had a 504 wagon here in Texas in the eighties, and I drove it many times. The back seat was enormous and nearly as comfortable as those massive front chairs...

What an incredible example of a, now very rare, car. The new owner is very lucky. Many thanks Matt.

After a succession of Volvo 240s my family went through three of these 505s in 7 seat configuration, we didn't have much money so I'm talking late 90's early 00's. One of them was silver with factory alloy wheels, and a 'private' Irish plate - looked quite mean. In general I was possibly a little embarrassed at the time to be seen in such an old car but I look back on them now fondly.

‘An easy pass’ 😂 Good on you Matt 😀 The thing I remember most about those 505 estates was their ‘enormousness’ 😀

Great video. Thank You for giving me a Joy Ride on memory lane. Our family had a 505 GR sedan version from 1985 and I drove it until a married and sold it in 1999. Great car. So reliable and comfortable. The seats was Amazing and “sofa” on the back - I have never been in any car that was so comfortable ever since. The cussion was excellent and the fabric very Classy…better than leather. The 505 was everywhere in Indonesia back then and quite affordable for middle Class family, but was luxurious at the sama time.

I remember being bundled into the back of one as a schoolboy, my headmaster realising I had a bad concussion.... it was really comfy in the moments that I was conscious :-)

Love this model! I had a Sochaux-built 1984 with the X2DS engine. Heavenly ride, hellish running costs. The only car I shed a tear turning over to the scrappers.

I am the youngest in a big family. And growing up in the 80's that is a boot I would've been happy to ride in 😂

I was in my cousins 505 estate when he tried rallying it through the country lanes of Suffolk. Needless to say we ended up in a ditch, but the ditch came off worse and a kindly farmer hauled us out with his tractor and we were off again. Indestructible is the word that comes to mind when I remember the 505 estate!

What an incredible car, always loved the 505, these were the cars from Peugeot that were so incredibly robust, nice to look at and drive. Super video, thanks.

I have one ... with it's golden colour .. I working on it these days ... I rebuild it from zero to 10 ... My father own it from 2002 .. when i was 2 years old .. I love this awesome car ❤♥️

This car lasts forever, well built and i think Peugeot must return to this engineering perfection.The 505 were abused in my country Ghana as they were used for long journeys with 8 passengers on board with lots of luggage in the boot and badly maintained by those transport owners.Just like the 504 which also lasted well they did these jobs for well over 2 decades.The 505 especial;ly was smooth very comfy and was quite fast on the highways back then.You appreciate it more on bad roads as it glides over potholes and smoothen rough surfaces.You appreciate it the more when on long and twisty roads even at 140 km/h this vehicle just takes the bends in a stylish fashion.This model in the video is base model, there was a 2.2 litre version and even the v6 evolution.Some were equipped with the Renault 21 engine.Way back in the late 1990's these vehicles were used as passenger vehicles from Aflao near the Togo border to Cote d' Ivoire border and some run from Accra to Lagos in Nigeria.Since its demise the transport company that runs these vehicles collapsed because there was no fitting three row passenger vehicle to replace the 504 and 505 ,the 806 Peugeot the transport owners adopted were not readily available.I believe that market can be revived as passengers want 7 and 8 seater vehicles which gets full quickly and is quite fast and comfortable.The Toyota hiace and Urvan air conditioned vans that carry 14 passengers have replaced the 505 and 504 on the routes that they used to ply..

I haven’t seen this car before but it looks very good. Especially the front and as an estate. Thanks for the high quality video again!

I had a US gasoline 84 four door sedan 5 speed. Fine car. Drove it for 25 years and 259K mikes. I test drove the auto. Too sluggish. 5 speed was fine. The car felt like it was designed for me. Everything felt right at hand. Turning radius was about 28 ft. Great for city driving. Wheelbase was 120 in., which made for a comfortable, non choppy ride. Engine was codeveloped with Volvo and Renault. Only major problem I had was a head gasket. I maintained it for the last 10 years. It had its quirks, mostly related to US (CA) pollution controls, but if you understood them, it was easy to maintain. Lots of room under the hood. You got the essence of it right!!! Excellent review!

I had a 505 salon in blue for 2 years. 4 kids along back seat, ALL in child belts. Massive car that just ran and ran. Captain sensible of family cars.

Yea, I'll tell you, I'm a Sacramento boy, and can tell you, these were definitely in the states too. Wow, I noticed that all within one sentence! 😎💗

The front trapezoidal lights stance reminds me of 6 cylinder austin princesses.but over always admired the 505 and especially the estate .my dad nearly bought a powder blue familialle estate many moons ago. Wish he had now .even had the same seat trim as this one .just love the Reddy orange paintwork too.

"put washing up liquid in the tank - it will run on that" - Priceless! A long time ago I borrowed one for a day and loved it but cant remember if it was a 504 or 505 - that is how long ago!

My parents owned a Peugeot 505 GR Familiale of 1982. Since 1987. It was quite rusty in the autumn of 1982 already. Because of that, I wanted to have a 505 (familiale) as well. Anyway, I bought my 505 gti of 1985 (First model) sedan in september 2004. Yes, 16 years ago. I drove it from 170029 km's to 334500 km's. It's currently being restored, hope it's ready by summer next year. I drove 164000 km's with it myself. Nice one this episode!

Stunning, love the detail in this video, especially the description of the smell of the interior, I really get that, I almost smelt it myself

Now this is the quality gigantic French estate content I signed up for 👍🏻

Massive as I remember. That's an exceptionally clean example, so well cared for and great to see.

Great to see a 505! I worked in a Peugeot dealership from 1987-2002 and have dealt with and driven lots of these. I myself owned a 1987 GTDT auto saloon for a couple of years as a second car, It had the later dashboard which I always preferred. Great old barges! Family estates were really popular with taxi drivers, some cars I have dealt with covered well over half a million miles. Most were 2.5 diesels though we had one taxi operator who had a 2.0 Petrol GR the same as this which did about 350000 miles before the engine wore out. He traded it in for a later 2.5D and hated how noisy it was compared to the petrol! Many, along with 504’s were exported to Africa where they continued to give good service. Not exciting cars but very good at what they did and great to see such a nice clean example. Thanks!

What a stunner!!! I am obsessed with those seats!

The interior reminds me of an 80s job centre, great cars, my friends dad had one and wishes he still did today.

Wow, it's in absolutely perfect condition! Lovely car.

Love watching your videos. Excellent. This Peugeot is great .I had peugeot 305 saloon in 1987.the cars from 1980,s were great .

Always loved these 505's

I always liked the 505 - and I thought I was the only one likening the upper line of the headlights to an arched eyebrow 😀. The main competitors to the 505 estate (at least in my native Germany) were the Merc T123 (pretty freshly launched, albeit more expensive) and certainly the Citroën CX estate (for the more daring types). French estate cars were anticipating minivans like the Renault Espace as they could be ordered with a full third row of seats (not just two puny backward facing ones like the Merc). Thank you for this vid!!

Love the vid. The 505 & 504 had such a good front! And I am deffo not a fan of French cars, so that says something. Love the comeback at the guys being so grumpy over a cup test. Your vids are so very welcome! Someone being enthousiastic about what they do, going in depth and making jokes about themselves, the cars and others. TOP stuff, love the vids!

Great smooth drive and enormous space! We rode a second hand 505 break, imported from the Netherlands to Senegal in the early '90. My father felt a bit embarrassed in the Netherlands when he drove that 'oldie' to the mover. But when the car arrived in the village where we lived in the north of Senegal, people thought a minister was visiting their village! Unfortunately we had a Diesel which are notorious bad (as opposed to the petrol versions) and consequently we had numerious engine failures.

21:38 - this is why I love your reviews. I knew exactly what you meant from your description

I remember these cars so well: we had a Talbot/Simca/Peugeot dealer in our village. As a little lad I used to go to the showroom and the garage. There was a white 505 GTI that I adored back then. They even let me sit in it. These where very popular here, except the Familiare wasn't so common in this region. Popular under farmers back then over here. Now they are all gone, haven't seen one in a very long time. Very well preserved car, looks like new. Great review Matt, enjoyed it very much!

You know when someone knows about cars when they appreciate this old peugeots subscribed

What a gorgeous car... I totally loved this video, not just showing the car, but also trying to bring over the feel and smell. That was very entertaining. Anyway.... Except from all safety progress, I would die for cars to be this "basic" again. But maybe that's nostalgia.... Thank you for your video and look forward to see more of these eighties beauties. Kind regards from the Netherlands.

My parents had two of these, a petrol and a diesel, because we needed the extra seats. I remember riding in the rear row of seats sometimes made me feel a bit queasy but it was a lot more comfortable than riding backwards in the rear facing seats in the boot of the Montego we had before. As you were demonstrating the size of the boot it reminded me that at one point I designed an intercom to go in the very back to communicate with those sitting in the front, as they couldn't always hear us and we had to pass messages through whoever sat in the middle. I never built it, probably had better things to spend my pocket money on, but I did have it costed based on parts in the Maplin catalogue!

Great video. I've learned much about a car I cared little about back in the day but find very interesting now ☺

I am impressed how well-kept this car is! Looks almost brand new!

My Grandad was a Ford salesman, he could take any car he wanted home everyday for free. He bought a 505 estate.

I really do miss this kind of cars these days. The VW Passat B4 might be the last one. Big, simple and comfy. That is actually all it takes being a great family car. ;)

Love the older peugeots, especially these. You went for the gear lever at 21:07 , did you go for the clutch too? haha!

Amazing. If you search on Google "Peugeot 505 Taxi Africa" you can still see these going strong in 2020. My Grandad owned 3 and one had done over 200,000 Miles with ease. Its a shame peugeot dont make cars to this standard anymore they were built like a tank. Such a shame its getting exported would of been nice to keep in the uk! Great work Mr Furious!

What an amazing car, my dad had a rep Mobil in the 80's in the exact colour. Where has this been kept in this amazing condition. Thanks for the video content. Made my dad's day..

Really enjoyed the video. Thanks very much 😀👍

I always loved the 505 cause the special and massive design . Top Peugeot at the time . Desire

Always loved these big practical estate cars , I remember as a teenager that we could pile it full of camping equipment and 5 people comfortable, by the time I was old enough to drive myself, these cars had virtually disappeared off British roads !

That is the paint code you pointed out under the bonnet.

Enjoyed that. What a time machine! They looked a bit agricultural at the time, but stylish with it.

Watching this brings back so many memories. My father drove a Peugeot 404 sedan in the early 70s, until he replaced it with a Volvo 145 wagon. One day, when i was in high school, he asked me to go with him to pick up another car he'd just bought. It turned out to be a 504 station wagon, with a diesel engine and 4 speed manual trans, which became my car for the better part of a year. It was exactly everything that a teenage boy shouldn't love - slow diesel engine and a station wagon, no less - but I couldn't help but love that that thing. Yes, it was slower than molasses in winter, but the torque curve was so smooth and cruising in third gear was just amazing. I was terribly sad when my father eventually sold it

Your weather seems to be really improving Matt.A very nice example as well.

Superb video Matt. Brought back a great memory one of my primary school mates parents always had Peugeot’s and i went with them to the long defunct Clock Garage in Birmingham to part exchange their white estate ( the older version of this shape car also a 505 ? Or 504 maybe with the longer back lights ? ) for a brand new 505 estate in Blue with blue tweed interior. This was probably 1983/84. The car was huge ! The first time I’d ever been in a car with 7 seats so me and my mate could sit right at the back of the car playing up 🤣 Really enjoyed this one - from a time when French cars werent complete garbage. Now you just need to get hold of a 505 GTi saloon 👍

I remember these Peugeots as a kid in the 80's. I really liked the front styling, and vividly remember seeing a Peugeot 505 sporty saloon in black with nice alloys that I thought looked awesome.

Wow...looks like a brand new car. Fabulous. Love the tweed and the brown, so early 80's.

You get it mate! It is so nice to watch a car reviewer who has had the same feelings and experiences. I fell in love with Peugeot when we got a top spec 306 D Turbo HDI. It just had something special about it. The leather and interior had that exact sort of almost sweet smell you are talking about. To be fair, before that we had an older low spec 306 with the older 1.9D and that didnt make much of an impact. The only smell that has come close was our 1999 Audi A4. It was a poverty spec 1.6 but it had an almost organic fresh smell that gave it a real feeling of quality! Thank god I was born into a family that had company cars throughout the 90s! 🤣

What a fabulous car, the nearest I owned to one of these was a 405 diesel - brilliant. Keep up the good work - excellent content as usual ( keep on cup holding if you want - doesn’t bother me )

Gosh this takes me back my parents had a 505GT, with the 3 row of seats, 2.2L injection, and yest it could come with with air con, as we had it, electric windows, it was kitted out. fantastic ride, so comfortable, loved that car.

Another great car, another great video. I love the fact it came from Rootes Maidstone.

WOW!!! Love this shape soooo much! And this example is a minter! Brilliant. My dad used to have a sky blue one.

Thanks i never thought i'd see this again i haven't seen one anywhere for decades

Love these videos👍

I once sat in the back of one of these in a scrap yard, it was like sitting in a living room. Later on, when my fourth child was born in 2008, I started looking for a Familiale version and realised they were well out of my price range - I ended up with an M-reg Renault Savanna 7-seater that cost me £200. I did have a 305 in the late 90s though, that was also very smooth to drive and had the cold air vents in the middle of the dash, which modern cars never seem to have any more.

Always liked the styling of these, especially front end and those huge unique shaped headlights, even better if equipped with yellow bulbs 😎

Great colour! My memory of the 505 is beige for some reason, its huge!

my 1990 pug 205 came from rootes too, it has the same rear window sticker and i have the original rootes keyfob as well, i bought it in kent last year and drove it down to cornwall

A real icon amongst estate cars must be one of the first 7 seaters available I remember many a tradesmen using these as vans brilliant car 👍👌

Thanks Matt, brilliant review of such a brilliantly mundane estate car!

There were 5 kids in our family, mam and da in the front, us lot in the back. Excellent car it was!