"Everybody needs something to trust in. Some people have friends.
Some people have a family. I have a 504 Peugeot diesel." A wise man.
This is my car.
My 504 is a 1979 sedan
GL Diesel type. It's metallic blue and has more than 230000 Km in its odometer.
The true story
This is the dashboard.The round clocks below the radio are the oil pressure gauge and the tachymeter.
Everything started in August 1979, when I was a little kid
aged 5.At that time my father bought the best car he could ever
had bought. A brand new Peugeot 504 GL diesel sedan, metallic
blue, with a gear-driven cam 2.1 litre XDP 90 engine. That car
became the best investment my father ever made and probably
ever will.
The car ran for around 50000 Km every year (my father was
a sales agent and needed to go here and there all day long)
and took us on holiday many times:in France, England, Belgium,
Switzerland... Once, my parents even went to Norway, on
August '80, in the Peugeot.
But he sold the car in January '85, with 260000 Km in its
odometer, and running like new. I was just 11 then, so I could
not think about buying it. But I promised myself that some day
I would get one.
And, in November 1993, I decided to put a an ad on a free ads
magazine, looking for one. Nobody answered that ad, at least
until April '94. And then, when I had decided to remove the
ad, somebody called. It was April 6, 1994. The car was exactly
as my father's one (type, engine, even color), and I purchased
it the next day.But that car was in very bad mechanical
condition.The person who sold it to me told me it had just
118000 Km (74000 miles), but, in fact, I'm almost sure it had,
at least, 250000 km (around 160000 miles). One of the cylinder
liners' rubber gasket was cracked, and coolant got into the
oil.
But even in that condition, the car was able to run for 23000
Km (11 months), just the time I needed to get enough money to pay
a partial engine rebuilding (just changing the rubber gasket and
the cylinder liners and pistons).
By now, the odometer indicates 222000 Km, and the car works
perfectly. I have been in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland,
even in Czechoslovaquia with it, and it has never broken down
or stranded. Particularly, I take it to Switzerland every year,
in March, to visit the International Motor Show in Geneva, and
the trip (Barcelona-Geneva-Barcelona, 1750 Km) is made in just
one weekend (Saturday 2:00 PM/Monday 11:00 AM), including the
show wisit (almost the whole Sunday).It should be noted that all
the way is done on the road and not in the motorway, which is
faster but more expensive.
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