The High-Revving Peugeot 405 Mi 16 Is The Fun Family Hauler You Forgot Was Sold In America: Holy Grails

Most French car fans in America have been left without cars to buy for a long time. Citroën called it quits in 1974. Renault packed up and left in 1987. Once Peugeot went back to France in 1991, America was left without mainstream French cars. Before Peugeot was the last to shut off the lights, it went out with a bang. The Peugeot 405 came in the late 1980s, bringing along Pininfarina design and in Mi 16 spec, an engine that made most of its power right before its 7,000 RPM redline. It was a fun and quirky family hauler, but it couldn’t save Peugeot’s American business. Now, you’ll be lucky to find any 405 at all in America.

Now, I know what some of you are saying: “French cars haven’t left America! Nowadays, they just wear Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Ram, and Alfa Romeo badges. Not too long ago, you could even buy a Smart Fortwo, which was built in France! And don’t forget, Bugatti also counts as a French brand.” All of that is true, but it has been a long time since we last saw a car from a mainstream French brand.

But it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Throughout the decades, Americans have had access to some wonderful and weird French rides. We got the revolutionary Citroën DS in America from 1956 to 1972, but Americans reportedly didn’t buy a ton of them. We also got 2,037 copies of the wonderful Citroën SM, though our version got rather unappealing headlights. Citroën’s history in America goes back really far, as dealers were importing the vehicles into America before World War II.

Renault also gave America a try starting with luxury models before World War II. In the years after the war, it sent over the 4CV, Caravelle, and Dauphine. For a very brief time, the economical Dauphine, which was just $45 more than a Beetle, managed to outsell Volkswagen. However, Renault’s luck reportedly ran out once the novelty wore off and Americans didn’t want to put up with the Dauphine’s slow acceleration and amazing ability to pepper its body with rust in short order.

Still, that didn’t stop French brands from trying to prosper in America. Renault is perhaps most famous in America for its weird marriage with the American Motors Corporation. We got plenty of oddballs back then, too from the Le Car to the Alliance GTA. Technically, while Renault punched the clock in 1987, an agreement it had with Chrysler meant that the Premier, which had Renault bones, sold through the end of 1991. Since the early 1990s, Americans sat and watched as Europe got fabulous cars like the Renault Avantime, but we were stuck without them. Alpine isn’t even expected to make an appearance here until 2027.

Sadly, so many of those old French cars have fallen into obscurity. Sometimes you’re reminded they existed only when the elusive car shows up for sale on Facebook Marketplace or perhaps on Bring a Trailer. One of the cars lost after France’s automakers pulled out of America was the Peugeot 405 Mi 16, a car that didn’t seem to shine when new but is worth a look today.

Stumbles And Misfires

Peugeot was a late entry into the United States. While Americans had access to Citroëns and Renaults for years, Peugeot didn’t officially mark its start in America until 1958.

America’s first official Peugeot would be one that would become rather famous. That car was the 403, perhaps best known today for being the beater driven by Peter Falk’s Columbo. It was Peugeot’s most luxurious offering at the time and its contemporaries in America included the aforementioned Citroën DS. The last Peugeot 403s were produced in 1966, capping off an 11-year production run that saw a plentiful 1,014,111 cars produced. It’s not said how many of those were examples sold on our shores, but when was the last time you’ve seen one?

In 1960, Peugeot also gave us the 404, another vehicle developed by Peugeot and Pininfarina. The 404 was roughly a similar size as the 403, but rocked a modern style complete with tailfins. For a little blast of some Jason Torchinsky knowledge, the North American Peugeot 404s had all red taillights, whereas its European counterparts had amber turn indicators taking up much of the taillight space. Of course, our version also got sealed beam headlights as well.

Peugeot’s American imports include the 504 sedan and wagon, which began sales in 1968. This was a model that Autoweek notes was popular enough that New York City tested them out as taxis in the 1980s. Sales were pretty long as well, as the model wasn’t discontinued until 1983. We also got the large 604 sedan, which did battle against German sedans in the 1970s, and the 505, a cushy 1980s sedan and wagon for people who didn’t want to buy a Mercedes or a Volvo. Peugeot was riding at the peak of its popularity in the U.S. at the time, and the 505 briefly held a spot as a best-seller.

Unfortunately, Peugeot often struggled to find its place in America. While Americans bought the brand’s cars, it found itself lagging behind the competition. In 1991, the brand would throw in the towel. Business Horizons, an academic textbook from 1995, blames the failure of Peugeot in the United States on the company’s failure to adopt a strategy for the market coupled with its failure to adapt its vehicles for our market.

Hagerty gives an example of this. In Europe, it was common for cars to have power windows up front and crank windows in the rear. Peugeot Motors America recognized that Americans didn’t want that tomfoolery, and requested that the mothership send over cars with four power windows. Reportedly, Peugeot in France struggled to understand why the American market was so different.

Still, Peugeot didn’t go down without an admirable fight, and that leads us to the 405.

Peugeot’s Savior

As Hemmings writes, Peugeot rode on a high of successes through the 1970s oil crises thanks to the frugal diesel 504 and 505 models. However, everyone was focusing on fuel economy in the 1980s and Peugeot began losing its edge. By 1987, Peugeot’s sales were hurting in America. The brand managed to move fewer than 10,000 units for the first time in almost a decade. At the time, only the 505 was carrying the sale torch, so Peugeot needed to diversify.

L’Aventure, a French car preservation society, says the 405 was built on a lengthened version of the Peugeot 205’s platform and it was intended to replace the 505. Development started in 1982 as the D60 project. Peugeot credits the vehicle’s sleek design to Pininfarina and Peugeot’s design office, led by Gérard Welter at the time. In addition to having modern lines for the day, the 405’s designers managed to squeak out a coefficient of drag of 0.30. The 405 is also notable for being Peugeot’s first mid-size front-wheel-drive car.

The 405 was displayed at the Frankfurt Auto Show in 1987 before launching later that year for the 1988 model year. French auto press says that the car was an instant hit with both the press and car buyers. That year, the Peugeot 405 was bestowed with the award for the European Car of the Year. The vehicle’s chassis, styling, and driving dynamics appeared to have impressed. Another triumph of the 405 was its versatility. Peugeot launched the car with ten different variations, including a mix of gasoline and diesel engines, available all-wheel-drive, as well as a wagon.

According to auto publication Auto Motor Klassiek, part of the 405’s magic was its development process. Peugeot established a customer relations department where Peugeot’s customers got to make comments about what they wanted to see in the D60 project. In the early days of development, Peugeot built 11 mules, abused them, and built around 70 more. Development vehicles faced punishing road courses to test their suspensions and bodywork. Reportedly, this testing was hardcore enough to require some of the vehicles to be radio-controlled. Cars were tested in extreme cold, extreme heat, and put into wind tunnel testing. Before production started, Peugeot’s engineers drove mules and prototypes some 932,000 miles. Through all of it, there was a focus on the kind of comfort that French cars were known for.

The Peugeot 405 reached our shores in late 1988. Back then, the base model 405 was the DL, and that netted you a 1.9-liter four with 110 HP. Bumping up to the Peugeot 405 S got you luxuries like leather seats, but the same engine. We did get the wagon, as well. Peugeot even combined the 205 Turbo 16 and 405 into a killer rally car, above.

The Peugeot 405 sold until the automaker left our country in 1991, but sales continued until 1995 in Europe. Amazingly, some people in the world can still buy a Peugeot 405 new. Production of the Peugeot 405 continued in Egypt until 2001 and the Iran Khodro company built them from knock-down kits from 1992 to 2023. Reportedly, the 405 was Peugeot’s third-best-selling car in 2022. As of today, it’s still in production in Azerbaijan. If that isn’t incredible longevity, I don’t know what is.

The Grail

That engine wouldn’t be our only option. Thankfully, there was a bit of a craze in Europe for hopped-up family cars and Peugeot would happily deliver another to excited enthusiasts. The Peugeot 405 Mi 16 was touted as the big sister to Peugeot’s famous GTI variants. This is the vehicle that reader Brockett Hudson mentioned is a Holy Grail of Peugeots.

On the outside, a Peugeot 405 Mi 16 saw mild changes from the original 405. The 405 got its own body kit, including bumper, rockers, and spoiler. The sports sedan was shod in 14 inch wheels, but that was fine because it looked even more fantastic than the regular 405. Inside, the sporting driver is presented with leather seats, a power seat, a six-speaker sound system, remote locking, and a sporty leather steering wheel.

As Le Dauphine magazine writes, one of the bits of spice in the Mi 16 is its engine, which inherits some parts from the 405 Turbo 16 that ran in the Dakar. The Mi 16 gets its cylinder head from the Dakar racer, and it benefits from Bosch Motronic injection. The “Mi” in the name comes from the fact that the engine is injected while the “16” refers to the engine’s 16 valves. Europeans got to enjoy 160 horses from this 1.9-liter powerplant while buyers on this side of the Atlantic got it with 150 HP. Backing that firepower was a transmission borrowed from both the 205 and 309 GTI, but with adjusted ratios.

Supporting the drivetrain was a four-wheel independent suspension with MacPherson struts up front and trailing arms and torsion bars in the rear. Other features included all disc brakes, and power steering. Driver aids included ABS, but you did not get an airbag. You also didn’t get Peugeot’s hydropneumatic suspension, unless you somehow got your hands on the AWD version, called the Mi16x4.

Alright, so you’re batting with 150 HP, front-wheel-drive, and don’t even get a special suspension. Big deal. Well, the American automotive press fell head over heels.

In April 1991, Popular Science pitted the Peugeot 405 Mi 16 against an Infiniti G20, a BMW 318i, and a Lexus ES 320 in an entry-level luxury car shootout. The BMW won the shootout, but not before Popular Science gave the Mi 16 a lot of compliments. Among those comments were that the Peugeot looked the “raciest” of the bunch and the fact that the Mi 16 liked revving more than the BMW. Revving is necessary, too, as the engine makes its peak horsepower right before the 7,000 RPM redline. Popular Science even noted that the Peugeot was quieter than the BMW while it was getting driven hard and fast. Further, Peugeot’s patented suspension and the car’s Michelin tires combined to give the Peugeot a combination of good ride comfort and better handling than the competition.

The Peugeot was the second-fastest to 60 mph at 9.5 seconds (some magazines got times down to 9 seconds flat), third-best at braking, best on the skid pad, third-best at a slalom, and best at lane changes. Popular Science‘s only demerit was an interior filled with squeaks and rattles with just 3,500 miles on the odometer.

The Orlando Sentinel, which is known for being extremely harsh to cars, even found good things to say about the Mi 16. The review starts off like this:

The test car had more holes in it than a colander, but unlike so many other cars, it does have a personality. The attention to detail is awful, but the basic engineering is sound and the ride is terrific. Is that enough to cancel the car’s myriad of minor faults? That depends on how much of an individualist you are.

[…]

The knob for the seat adjustment got sucked into a vacuum cleaner. The tachometer needle moved in increments, instead of sweeping smoothly across the dial. The rear-view mirror on the windshield was loose. The radio-controlled door locking system did not work. The ash tray came out in my hands. So did the driver’s seat headrest. On one occasion the motorized seatbelt on the passenger’s side demonstrated a mind of its own.

And yet, even that publication was impressed, at least a bit:

The car’s road manners are like those of BMW. The suspension is firm in a sporty way. There’s very little body roll, and if the 405 has a tendency to oversteer or understeer, I couldn’t detect it.

Hemmings continues with how much the press loved it:

Fawning doesn’t describe the reaction of the American press to the Mi 16 version. After hedging bets on a preview drive, calling it “awfully likable,” “an uncommonly well-integrated automobile that does a good job at every task you assign it,” and “just plain fun to drive long and hard,” Car and Driver blurbed it as “the best Peugeot ever” on its November 1988 cover. The comments were generously laudatory. “If looks could kill, I’d be dead.” “Layer upon layer of silky talent.” “[A] heady mix of assets.” “The best news for enthusiasts since ESPN.” “This front-driver behaves as well as any good rear-drive sports sedan.”

It not only won the 1988 European Car of the Year award by the widest margin ever, but it still maintains the highest overall points total in the competition, ever. The UK’s Car magazine flat-out stated that it was the best mass-made car available in Britain (which, considering England’s track record with such things, could be seen as damning with faint praise.)

It sounds like the Peugeot 405 Mi 16 was the best thing for American enthusiasts since sliced bread. It was even competitively priced at $21,700. Don’t worry, of course, I’m going to give you a review by MotorWeek‘s John Davis!

I haven’t found production numbers for the Peugeot 405 Mi 16. However, we do know that the success that the 405 saw in other countries never translated to America. As of current, over 5 million examples of the 405 have been sold around the world. Peugeot sold just 6,713 cars in America in 1988 and by 1990, sales were down to 4,292. Peugeot finally pulled the plug on its American efforts on August 6, 1991, selling just 2,223 units. It’s not known how many of Peugeot’s last cars in America were the 405 Mi 16, but it was the automaker’s last gasp.

What I can tell you is that you might have some trouble finding one. I found just one for sale for $2,500, and it’s mighty rusty. That’s a shame. It sounds like Peugeot created a great fun family hauler, a car that liked to be driven hard. But, Americans just didn’t buy many of them. Still, we did get them here, so you can enjoy a weird French car without having to contact an importer.

Do you know of or own a car, bus, motorcycle, or something else worthy of being called a ‘holy grail’? Send me an email at mercedes@theautopian.com or drop it down in the comments!

(Images: Peugeot, unless otherwise noted)