Peugeot 164

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Continuing the Type 4 platform discussion John Wiltshire wrote "I have heard a
story along the lines that 405 design was originally presented to Alfa for the
164, but there was some question as to whether the 164 would go ahead, so the
design was offered to Peugeot and a new but similar design was presented to
Alfa once they gave the project the nod. Not sure if the above story is urban
myth (if anybody out there knows the truth please share it with us!)"

I won't claim to know 'the truth', but the first time I heard a variant of
that story was in the fifties; in it Pinin Farina (names not yet amalgamated)
had done a proposal for the Fiat 1400 which was rejected by Fiat management
and snapped up by Peugeot which produced it as the 403. Whether that was true
or not, Pininfarina has published an account of the long-standing PF/Peugeot
relationship, including photos of the 1951 Peugeot proposal which resulted in
the 1955 403. As of 1979 Pininfarina was listing the 403, 404, 204, 504, 304,
104, 604, 305 and 505 as Pininfarina-designed Peugeots, and I doubt that all
(if any) had been originally prepared for or presented to Italian
manufacturers before being snagged by Peugeot. My impression is that in any
era Pininfarina's production designs (as opposed to their splashy show cars)
were meticulous but otherwise unremarkable examples of fairly conservative
mainstream design, and that it is not at all surprising that the Peugeot and
the 164 would be as similar to each other as the Giulietta Spider and the
Lancia Aurelia cabriolet had been.

Cheers,

John H.

Raleigh, N.C.
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