Readers' emails: 1948 Peugeot 202 UH.

About a year and a half ago we featured a photograph of this 1948 Peugeot 202 UH at a car show:


The car and its owner were both well-known in the local car scene. The 202 was for sale in 2009 and that's about the last we heard of it until yesterday when we got an email from the car's new owner, Manfred Luft. He bought it in Marseille in July 2009 and kindly sent us some pictures of it in its new home in Germany:

The car is in good hands, Manfred has driven it about 4,000 kms since buying it and enjoys every minute of it.

ACAPL Concours d'Elegance.

"Concours d'Elegance" is admittedly a bit of an optimistic term on the organizers' part but the ACAPL hosted a car show in downtown Marignane today. The turnout was quite nice despite the iffy weather. Here are some of the more notable cars.

Simca 5 (a Fiat Topolino built under lisence)

A late model Simca 1000:

One of two Autobianchi Bianchinas:

Peugeot 202 pickup:

A two owner 1983 Citroen GSA, by far the best car in the show (partial to my own car? Naaaah..)

Lancia Fulvia:

Various cars spotted in SLC over the last couple of years.

Looking through my photo archives, here are various worthy cars that I've found in the last couple of years in the Salt Lake area. All are now gone, sadly.

Saab Sonnett III. This car was complete, fairly straight and rust free. Interior was a bit sunbaked but it could have been a good project.



Crosley. I admittedly don't know enough about them to tell you the year or the model, but Crosley vanished from the U.S. market in 1952 so that's your timeframe. This was fairly gutted but still had useable panels. Either way, a rare sight.

1972 Fiat 124 Special. As far as Italian cars go, the Fiat 124 is pretty common. However, 124s are common, but that's only the Spider variant. The 124 Sedan is fairly rare and I've only personally seen a handful in Utah. This one was in rough shape: interior needed work, the body was rusty and worst of all, the automatic transmission was slipping. It could have been a good project for the $300 asking price.

Musée Automobile de Provence.

The Musée Automobile de Provence is a museum with several interesting vintage cars inside (with a 5EU admission fee) but also an ever changing collection of old cars in various states of repair and disrepair outside, most of them for sale. This is a small sampling of what they had to offer a couple of days ago:

1940s Talbot Lago Record.. a rare specimen from the days when Talbot was one of the most prestigious car makers in France (as opposed to making Peugeot clones), this one was in its juice but was all there.

1947 Paris-Rhone electric car. The same people who make the regulators in my Renault 4 made this, I don't know much else about it but it makes a BMW Isetta look like a Saab in terms of safety.

1965 Trabant.. the notoriously polluting Trabant, straight from the ex-East Germany. At 500 Euros I was (and admittedly still am) tempted.

1960s Triumph Herald 1200. I've voiced this before, I'm not a fan of British cars, but I would love one of these. Built to compete against economy sedans at the time but never caught on.

1960s Lancia 1500S Vignale.. a rather rare car to have sitting around like that. The textbook definition of "ran when parked", this one is a steal at 1,500 Euros.

Finally, a 1980s LNA and a 1970s Peugeot 204 Break.. at 600 and 300 Euros respectively, these are the unloved cars of France's past. Likely doomed to never find their public as in the collector's market, they're great bargains for the few who appreciate them.