Myth Buster
Debunking the most common old wives’ tales
Peugeot 205
PININFARINA STYLED IT
The Pininfarina name is attached to the 205 but it wasn’t, as widely believed, behind the entire range. The handsome hatchback was penned by Peugeot’s in-house team led by head of design Gerard Welter. Paul Bracq, who’d previously worked for MercedesBenz and BMW, came up with the interior. However, when it came to a convertible in 1986, three years after the tin-top, Peugeot did turn to Pininfarina to make it happen. The Italian carrozzeria also came up with an estate version, but it didn’t go into production.
THE T16 IS BASED ON THE 205
To homologate the turbocharged T16 for rallying, Peugeot had to build 200 road versions. Despite appearances, there’s actually very little original 205 in the T16, which was four-wheel drive, mid-engined with a 16-valve twin-cam 1775cc unit, had a hinged rear section, a tubular frame, glassfibre panels, longer wheelbase and reworked double-wishbone suspension. It’s more a silhouette than a 205. However, it’s not true that only the windscreen is shared – doors and headlamps are also pure 205. 219 T16s were built and sold at a loss.
IT WAS THE BIGGEST-SELLING PEUGEOT OF THE LOT
The 205 was a massive success, helping to turn around financiallytroubled Peugeot and inject some excitement into what had become quite a dull marque. A total of 5,278,050 were sold from 1983 to 1998, and it became Peugeot’s biggest seller in the UK. However, it’s not the most successful Peugeot ever, as many think – its successor, the 206, holds that title with 8,358,217 sold from 1998 until French production ended in 2012. And it’s still being built in Iran… Richard Gunn