I bought this beautiful Peugeot 203 Fourgonnette on the 5th of July 2021. Besides the fact the model looks great, the times this model is offered for sale is basically limited to a rare occasion (Perhaps in France a different story, but not sure).
So when I saw the advertisement on a Dutch Peugeot forum (text only), I immediately approached the seller for an indication of the asking price and asked for photos since I still had no idea what the car looked like. After seeing the photos, the decision was actually already made before seeing it in real life.
History easily retrieved:
- Date of 1st admission:
30-06-1953 - Date of 1st registration in NL:
28-12-1998 - Date of registration to the seller:
07-11-2017
The seller turned out to be someone who loves this French brand and owns a warehouse where I could admire the 203 (and many other beauties). There had already been interest from a well-known dealer of classic cars in the area, but the car had to go from an enthusiast to an enthusiast. So while enjoying a good cup of coffee and delicious cake I had to explain what I intended to do with the car.
Well that was a simple answer of course, going to join club events and going for weekends away or on holiday with this car. The plan to drive it to Italy in 2022 to participate in a rally for classic cars also appealed to the imagination. Due to the many messages posted on facebook and Instagram of the adventures we had already made with the Berline since 2017, it was quickly shown that I was not a trader but a real enthusiast and the car was sold.
Fortunately the car came with a lot of history stored in a binder. As you might know I named the berline after the last French owner who’s name was Marie Louise. So when I saw the name of the last French owner of this car (who bought the car on 22th of November 1994), the choice of name was rather simple and the Fourgonnette as therefore called Jean-Marie.
When I proudly showed the photos of my purchase at one of the peugeot club events, someone thought he recognized the car and also knew who the owner was at the time. He later shared pictures he took from the car in 2005 with me via e-mail.
He also recalled that there was an article in a Dutch magazine called “classic & technique” about the restauration back in 1998, edition 4 to be precise. Fortunately, as a member of this magazine, I can read everything back in the online archive and read about the history and all the repair works of the first Dutch owner.
What a story and the special thing is that like explained the Dutch history is still with the car. So, based on the described repairs in the article, I was able to find out how many hours and costs were actually spent via the enourmous amount of invoices I have in posession. And back in the day no internet, so handwritten letter with intent to buy the car.
Costs nor effort have been spared by the first Dutch owner who imported the car. Will off course tell more about that later, but also about the maintance and the repairs I had to perform myself to get the car driving in a realible and safe manner, which it turned out not to be so easy ……
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