Usually when we write about our weekly Prime Find here at ViaRETRO, we try to provide some background history to its development, links to other models, production figures… that sort of thing. One of the fun parts is looking up old brochure images like these, pictures from a different time, a different way of trying to reach an audience.
This time, however, much of this information has already been provided for me and for you, dear Readers, by our International Editor – who also found this particular prime find in the first place – when he wrote about the attributes of this chic but forgotten French coupé. So this will be one of the shorter – in fact probably the shortest, despite my blatant attempts to increase the word count with interjections such as this – Prime Find articles I’ve written (you can all stop clapping now).
This week’s Prime Find is, it has to be said, right up the collective ViaRETRO street. It’s exclusive, being an extremely uncommon sight in the UK, with just 22 left on the road and another 12 SORN’d. It’s stylish and chic – it is French, after all – without being too quirky or avant-garde and comes in a very long way below our self-imposed budget ceiling of £20,000.
So what is it? Well, it’s a 1973 Peugeot 304S Coupé in Yellow Maize with caramel carpets and a brown faux leather interior – a combination that for some of our team would take them one step closer to heaven. It’s a private sale with little information about the car other than it is claimed to be in excellent condition, both internally and externally, with “zero rust”. It also “starts fine” and “stops fine” – heady words indeed.
The odometer reads 16,500 miles, which is almost certainly on its second time around. Incidentally, I have to compliment the vendor on their excellent taste in classics – it looks like their other car is an Alfasud…
As usual, we’ve borrowed what few photographs there are from the advert – which you can see here – and it has to be said, this little coupé does indeed look to be in terrific shape. It’s not going to leave traffic in its wake with its vivid acceleration (0-100kmh in 15.3 seconds) or get you from Hamburg to Munich in record time with its top speed of 152kmh, but it will get you to wherever you’re going in style and comfort, and will put a smile on the faces of you and passers-by while it does so.
Oh, and the price for all this joy, chic-ness and exclusivity? The vendor is asking just £5,990, which on the face of it does not seem unreasonable.
As always, if you’re interested in this little gem, located in England’s South East corner in Maidstone, Kent, we highly recommend you either inspect or arrange inspection of it beforehand.
And that’s all he wrote, folks – still fewer than five hundred words even when I drag it out like this…
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk