The Tale of the Lion Quest

[Plex]

Peugeot 404] Peugeots Never Need Spares
By John Erasmus - WarkWorth (finalist)

Back in the fifties and sixties I lived in East Africa. Back then garages and spares were a rarity. It was therefore common practice for a car dealership to provide you with a box of goodies prior to long journeys - fan belt, water hoses, coils, points and so on. On your return you handed the box back, paying for those items used. . In 1963 my wife and I were in Paris taking delivery of a new Peugeot 404. The plan was to tour Europe in it, ship it back to Beira with us then drive up East Africa to home. We considered spares an absolute necessity for the journey.

You would imagine buying spare parts for a French car in Paris would pose no problem. Wrong. We enquired at the export agency who acted as middleman for Peugeot. They spoke little English, carried no spares and couldn't help.

We took ourselves off to the French Touring Club. Again language was a problem. We were getting nowhere fast when an American journalist with a working knowledge of French offered his help.

We readily agreed but each enquiry was answered with a series of questions. "What was wrong with the car?" "Where had the car broken down?" "Where was the accident?' "What part had been damaged?" "What needed replacing?' "Why did we want spares if nothing was wrong?" We tried to explain our reason for wanting spares, but this just set up another round of questions. With our translator also becoming frustrated, we tried one final plea. "Our car is brand new, we have just taken delivery of it. All we want is to know where we can obtain certain spares and someone who knows the French name of the spares we want."

The exasperated reply came back: "If there is nothing wrong with your Peugeot why do you need spares." Then we were dismissed with the remark, "Peugeots never need spares." We trudged around Paris trying dealer after dealer. They too could see no reason why a perfectly sound Peugeot should need spares. Eventually we found a dealer with a smattering of English. With difficulty we managed to persuade him to take us to his spares department. Pictures overcame the language barrier. We went through the catalogue and every time we came across a required item we pointed. An assistant then brought the said item to the counter. A long, laborious and tedious process. But we had our spares.

We owned that Peugeot 404 for 18 years, traveled 194,000 kilometers through African jungle and semi-deserts. After all that hassle of acquiring spares we never once touched them. The box was passed on to another 404 owner, intact.

In those 18 years the Peugeot 404 had only its clutch - and pressure plate and rubber boots for the steering and suspension replaced. Nothing else. And we managed to sell it for the same price we paid for it.

But now, 30 years later I have to admit the woman at the French Touring Club who airily told us "Peugeots don't need spares' was right after all.

Source: http://peugeot.mainspot.net/story/03.shtml