RIDING IN THE 405 COUPÉ USA
Classic Car Weekly managed to hitch an exclusive lift in the 405 parade’s flagship.
With asymmetric doors and windows – and just 62km on the clock – you might expect the 405 Coupé USA to be rather delicate. Coachbuilder Heuliez clearly wanted Peugeot to take this car seriously as part of a push to sell the 405 to the Americans; with wood, leather and an Alcantara headlining, it might have improved the 405’s lot Stateside.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. The 405 was the last model to be sold across the Pond before Peugeot abandoned sales in 1991.
Impressively, most of the 405 Coupé USA still worked, sounding and feeling like a fully finished car, with no squeaks and rattles; only the fixed glass in the doors gave the game away. In the blazing Prescott sunshine, the Webasto sunroof helped and the blower ran fully.
I watched the Coupé USA sell at Artcurial’s Heuliez museum sale at Le Mans in 2012; having read that it had an Mi16 engine, I was surprised to find it still running, sporting an 8v manifold in place of the standard item. Perhaps that’s all Heuliez had to hand when it built the car (from what must have been a very early Mi16 four-door).
They say you should never meet your heroes, but as far as I’m concerned, the 405 Coupé USA’s legacy is intact. I just wish I’d had the money to put it in my garage six years ago. Jon Burgess