Hi there. I'm Joost Lieshout from Utrecht, the Netherlands. I was invited by Michael to show you here one of my 504's along with a little story ...

This car is a 504 saloon, with chassis number A01-1030454, which left the factory for the Netherlands on March 26, 1969. A01 stands for an 1800 cc carburetor engine. It is very, very likely that this is the oldest 504 with original Dutch plates (!) and I'm very proud to be the owner.

I know that the cat was sold to an elderly man who lived close to the North Sea coast. He drove it for about 25 years and then got an accident with it. He was probably blinded by the sun and didn't notice that he was approaching a railroad and that the lever crossing was already closing. Fortunately he didn't got run over by the train, but the roof of the car showed multiple scratches and dents. Then his family probably forbid him to drive anymore and the car went up to the north of the country to one of his relatives. After one or two years she decided to sell the car and I read the ad in a Peugeot magazine in summer 1995.
 

Since I had been driving another 504 A01 (I imported from Bremen, Germany) which unfortunately crashed just a few months later, I decided to call her up to ask if the car was still there. Wow, she must have thought there was a layer of gold under the blue paint cause she wanted 6.000 Euro! (Very good 504s did around 2.500 Euro at that time) Although I didn't want to buy it in a thousand years for that price I showed interest just because I wanted to have a look at such an old 504. The car however was parked in a shabby garage she said, and because of the cold, the doors were frozen and could not be opened. She advised me to call back in spring. Then in the following months my own life changed completely and before I knew I was living in Mexico for the next couple of years and I completely forgot about the blue 504...
 

Spring 1997. We planned to come back for a summer break to the Netherlands and realized that we had no transport available go get us around. I was browsing the internet and was going through my most recent Peugeot magazines and damned... the 504 was still for sale, but now via a Peugeot dealer as intermediary. I immediately called the garage of which I happened to know the owner. He told me and promised me that the car was in reasonable shape, and was not rusty at all. The price had also dropped and after some backstopping at home I told him that he could call the owner that the car was sold to me.

The next day I received a fax. He was very, very sorry but the owner had just given up a week earlier, forgot to notify the garage, and sold the 504as a bargain to one of her nephews who needed another car to go to work. The car was not for sale anymore....
 

Now, how to trace someone's nephew in the Netherlands from Mexico. I can't remember, but succeeded. He only wanted to sell again at a ridiculous price; and what was even worse, he mounted a Liquefied Petrol Gas installation and also threw away the original interior, because he didn't like it. Hell !!
Completely fed up now, I did the most stupid thing someone can do. I bought the car for a ridiculous price without even having seen it, and had it delivered at my dad's place the next Saturday. I'm glad I was not there to see the guy's big smile... My dad asked me if I had become insane but just a few hours later he called me up telling me that the car was indeed not rusty and looked very good to him.

Now you can imagine that I couldn't wait much longer to go on summer-break and drive the 504. It served us nicely during the summers of 1997 to 2000. Then, back in Holland we decided not to use it anymore but for some short trips and give it a complete overhaul and restoration. This all happened in 2001 and the result you can see on the pictures. Despite its condition, lots of parts had to be replaced, and it took me months to get a good and original interior. Just recently the LPG installation was removed as well.
 

The 504 is now in an excellent and original condition, but we are definitely the only people who paid that much for a 504 saloon in the whole world...

The blue 504 is now sitting in its carcoon (http://www.carcoon.co.uk,
excellent things) and I can not get enough of simply looking at it. If you are interested in knowing more about my 504 hobby please visit http://peugeot.wisint.org. See you there....

-- Joost.