1976 Peugeot 504 GL: owner review

Note: Stock photo used (of a 504 in Africa) as none provided by the author

Somewhere in Trans-Ekulu Enugu town (Nigeria), I was driving behind my cousin in my 1976 Peugeot 504 GL, on our way to a wedding. It was sometime between 1999-2000. She signalled and entered an expressway to avoid traffic, with me following. Suddenly, the white Toyota Carina II she was driving gained speed and faded from my view. I was like, “Should I or should I not?” Damn it! I downshifted shifted from fourth gear to third and depressed the accelerator pedal halfway down. The lion-badged Peugeot surged forward aggressively, like a wild and angry lion chasing a lunch.

Shortly after, there was the white Carina II again, getting bigger and bigger in my view as the loud roar increased from under the lion’s bonnet. By the time I shifted back to fourth gear, the white Toyota Carina II was some inches before me. Suddenly, a car in front of the Toyota stopped in the middle of the expressway in the on-speed lane (stupid driver). The Toyota struggled to stop and had to steer the car away from hitting the car in front before it could stop. I quickly depressed both clutch and brake pedals and held the steering wheel firmly. The 504 GL immediately came to a halt within seconds, without any tyre scream, lock or swerve - as if I had only been doing 40km/h.

A Mercedes Benz (W124) behind me couldn’t brake to a halt like mine did and had swerved out of the road completely before their car completely stopped moving. While my heart was pounding while I thought about what could have happened to me, my cousin, the white Toyota and the white Peugeot, it dawned on me at the same time that what I had was not "just a car."

The White 1976 Peugeot 504 GL with 4-speed manual transmission was first bought and used by my father in the late ‘70s from new. The car served the entire family so well that my father didn’t mind when I took over the lion from him two decades later. The Lion became a dear friend to me, and not just part of the family. There were so many adventures that we both experienced together that the world didn’t, and will never, know about. That car taught me a lot of things about life that I didn’t get from anyone else, not even from my parents. He was a great pal who I will always remember until my last breath.

In terms of performance, most people would argue that double-pot brake master cylinders are better than the single pot I had in that 504 GL. But whenever I remember that incident on the expressway and others that I had experienced behind that lion’s wheel, I tend to disagree (mostly). The car had no ABS or any of the braking systems you have in modern cars, yet the brake performance of that car was way ahead of his time. I am yet to experience better.

The 2.0-litre XN1 petrol engine in the 504 GL was among the things that I loved about the lion, and not just the good suspension or road handling. The Solex 32-35 MIMSA double barrel carburettor was one of the best things that happened to that engine. This was a part that was gifted to me by a cousin, and had been removed from an XN1 in Peugeot 505. Was it thirsty when pushed hard? Yes. But the way the entire car's character would change when the second chamber of the carburettor kicked in was what I loved about that engine. It was this character that I described in the first paragraph. It's not a powerful engine by today’s standard, but the aggressive grunt was exciting enough to play with and listen to.

Even with all the exciting memories I had accumulated during the ownership, the car had some annoying sides that are part of the memories. The door catcher issue still annoys me. The rust issue can be a big turn off. I made peace with lack of power-assisted steering and air conditioning in the GL, but that could be a big deal to the majority of people. He wasn’t a perfect car and I never expected him to be, considering I smiled and laughed more while driving the car than having a sad face.

Before I started owning newer Lions, and after the 504 GL was no more with me, I have always imagined owning another 504 GL in immaculate white colour, just like the previous one. And now that I have reawakened that dream, owning one with a V6 engine is what excites me the most. Just as I was excited in the attached picture, jumping around behind the 504 GL when my father changed the body colour to black for awhile, I know I still have more exciting jumps to do when the ownership of my second Peugeot 504 GL with the V6 engine is physically manifested. That’s how much I missed the GL.

Owner: Ikenna

MORE: Everything Peugeot