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Today, if you ask the average classic enthusiast to name a FWD Peugeot with a three-digit number commencing with “2”, the odds are he or she will name the 205. The first front-wheel-drive car to bear the Lion badge is now almost forgotten in the UK, but back in April 1965, a new 204 was one of the most desirable light saloons in its class.

To say that the 204 was a radical departure for the Sochaux firm is somewhat of an understatement, given that this was not only a pioneering FWD product, it also featured a transversely-mounted aluminium SOHC 1,130cc engine with its transmission mounted in the sump. There was also the all-independent suspension and the front disc brakes (two more “firsts” for the marque) while the 204’s styling bore no similarity to the 403 and the 404. Even the steering column gearchange lacked the familiar gate of the larger Peugeots.

Work on “Project D12” had commenced in 1960 with the design brief that it had to be capable of accommodating five adults, be under four metres (13ft 1 ½ inches) long and have a “6CV” engine to minimise any tax penalty. When the 204 debuted five years later, it represented Peugeot’s alternative to the likes to the Renault 10 or the Citroën Ami, and by the end of the 1960s, the small Peugeot would become France’s best-selling car.

Across the Channel, import duties inflated the 204’s price to £992 8s. 7d, making it over £100 more expensive than its logical rival – and near contemporary – the Triumph 1300.  A small Peugeot appealed to the motorist who valued engineering more than chrome decorations and keeping up with the Joneses in general. Indeed, said neighbours would have probably engaged in a bout of formation curtain-twitching and muttering when ‘one of those French cars’ materialised on the driveway next door.

In 1966, the scribe from Motor Sport regarded the Peugeot as ‘a plain-looking 4-door saloon, ugly, or at least very plain, when seen from the back quarters’ but concluded ‘I regard it as one of the most significant small cars of the nineteen-sixties. In comparison, other f.w.d. 1100s feel and sound. like—tramcars…’  If this were not praise enough, some comments from a 1967 test by Car will give an idea of why a select number of British drivers so respected the 204; ‘Compact and light to handle’, ‘Sophisticated engineering gives cheerful performance’ and ‘excellent handling, good brakes and a splendid ride without undue noise or fuss’.

The line-up eventually included a five-door estate, a very attractive three-door coupe and a cabriolet that was the virtual epitome of the word “chic”. In 1969 Peugeot introduced the 304, which was essentially the 204 formula writ large with a 1.3-litre engine, a 504-style grille and an elongated boot. Throughout the 1970s, the drophead version appealed to the motorist who wished to bring a touch of Belmondo to the Kingston By-Pass. Meanwhile the 304 SLS saloon with its sliding roof and ‘vented wheels’ was the car of choice for discerning young solicitors and anyone who thought an Escort Ghia Mk. II was a tad “Flash Harry”.

The 204 ceased production in 1976 and the 304 in 1980. By that time, the 104 supermini was already eight years old, work was underway on the 205, and drivers across the world associated the Peugeot badge with small FWD cars of quality. As the chap from Car put it, the 204 was ‘practical and well-built in a way that will delight freethinkers and appal status-seekers’ – who could demand more of a motor vehicle?