During the summer of 1987, I worked as a forecourt attendant at a Peugeot garage and I became quite fond of the little Peugeot 205, although I bought a Citroen later on in the 80s, so maybe I just had a thing about French Cars!
This popular car was built between 1983 and 1998 (the last models for the UK market were built in 1996), with around 5.3 million units being sold during this period. Built in France, Spain, England, Indonesia and Chile, the 205 was the replacement for the 104 model, and came as a 3 door and 5 door hatchback and a 2 door cabriolet and awesome GTi model.
In it's first year of manufacture it was beaten by the Fiat Uno as the European Car of the Year, but it won the Car Of The Year award from What Car? magazine the following year, at least.
The standard models were the Junior, XE, Base and GE which came with a 954cc engine. The Style, XL and GL came with 1124cc, although the XL could also be bought with a 954cc engine. There were diesel models available which came with a 1.7cc engine.
As far as the GTi is concerned, well I never had the opportunity to have a drive in one, but I was let loose in a Citroen Visa GTi when I was just 19, which was asking for trouble! The acceleration was frightening and I could hardly keep the thing on the road - the handling was dodgy to say the least. Looking back, I'm glad that I only had access to the little beast for about an hour or I may not have lived to tell the tale.
This is a 1996 Peugeot 205 (I'm not sure which model, though), and by now the supermini was coming to the end of its life in the UK.
The 205 Rallye was built by Peugeot-Talbot Sport as an alternative to the GTi. It looked sporty, but was quite a raw car with all the luxuries stripped out. However, this made it lighter, making its 1.3 engine pretty responsive. It was also cheaper to buy than the GTi and much easier to maintain. A 1.9cc version was built between 1990 and 1992.
Here is someone going crazy in a modified 205 - check out the doughnuts!
Public Domain image of a white Peugeot 205 with French plate
There were two engine sizes available for the CTi softtop models. The 1580cc was built between 1985 and 1992, and the 1905cc was built between 1986 and 1992.
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