Early last Sunday morning, while driving home from the bar grocery store, I spotted a Pug, and I don’t mean one of those dogs with the eyes that makes it look like the Greek Navy is in town. No, it was a Peugeot 404, in a natty shade of key lime pie, and making better time than you’d expect of a 35-plus year old European sedan.

The 404 debuted in 1960, and continued in production for over 15 years in France, and extending into the ’90s in Africa. Body styles included this elegant sedan a wagon and a very pretty coupe and convertible that sadly never made much of an impact here in the States. All the 404 models were designed by Peugeot’s long-time penner, Pininfarina, and you can see many of that design house’s sixties styling cues in this car, including the arrow straight beltline each side of which end in modest fins capturing vertical tail lamps.

I’ve seen this 404 before, but sadly couldn’t get into a position to grab some shots of its wide grille and single headlamp-topped fenders. Despite the elegant ‘Automatique’ script on the back end, it was able to easily maintain traffic speeds and scoot around corners with aplomb.
If you’re not as big a geek as I am you may not know that 404 is the code for ‘not found,’ hence this post’s attempt at a clever title. That modern usage of the numeric comes long after the French car maker decided to anoint their products with a three digit appellation indicating both position in the lineup and sequence of models.

The side marker lights mean this is probably a ’68, and I think the 404 was replaced in the U.S. by the oddly-trunked 504 the following year, so this may be the last of the breed. Of course, I could be wrong on those dates.

Here’s where we parted company, the Pug heading who knows where, and I turning towards home, my stalking ended for the moment. This was a very pretty Peugeot, and in great condition. Hats off to the owner for maintaining it in such a fashion, and more so for taking it out on the road, and letting others enjoy its Pininfarina lines as well.