CAR COMPARISONS: Project Cars: 1994 Peugeot 405 Mi16 Phase II

The Drive team reveal what is hidden away in their sheds and backyards awaiting some TLC…

Update 7: Birth certificate

Sooner or later as a parent, you’ll be asked the showstopping question, “where did I come from?”.

For most, this is an awkward (for both sides of the discussion) chat about birds, bees and relationships. For some there are some scientific elements thrown in, for others a reassurance of love and the definitions of nurture and nature.

However challenging this conversation may be, the result is usually an increase in knowledge, and perhaps an even stronger familial bond as it can also provide a narrative that offers context and history about ancestry.

Where am I going with all of this?

Once immediate family queries have been addressed, you can also delve into the labyrinth of lineage for your project car, which was the path I took for my 1994 Peugeot 405 Mi16 after I discovered a new identification service was being offered through the Peugeot museum website.

These types of authenticity reports are nothing new, but as the world becomes more and more digitised, they become a great way for brands to reconnect with owners, and to leverage some of the data on hand.

For an Australian flavour, Holden still offers the service for local lion owners, but Ford says the service is not currently offered due to a system upgrade (despite the request form still appearing on its website).

The Peugeot service extends beyond offering the simple ‘birth certificate’ to providing registration papers and even a certificate of conformity to ensure that genuine and valuable classics are represented to the correct standard.

Known as L’Aventure Peugeot, the museum located in Peugeot’s home town of Sochaux in France draws on a catalogue of printed and electronic material to help owners add that final piece of their vehicle’s puzzle. In some cases, the original invoice may even be available.

To apply, you fill in a very comprehensive online form and provide all manner of data about your car. There were some that didn’t seem to apply for the 405, so I did the best I could.

You then need to provide a series of photos of the car, including the build plates (obviously), but also interior and exterior trim, and even tyres and headlamps so that a level of conformity can be established.

Then, for the cheery sum of €40 (AUD$65), a staff member at the museum will extract your data and provide an authentic birth certificate. A PDF will be emailed, but the original will be sent in the post.

What comes back may simply confirm what you already knew, but in my case, there was a bit of a surprise.

It seems I got the paint code wrong!

As noted in Update 4, when the Pug had its front bar and roof resprayed, I thought it was Magnum Grey Metallic, as that was listed as the paint available on the 405 between 1989 and 1995, but for 1994 a new grey was introduced, a far more French-sounding ‘Chateau Gris’ metallic, which it turns out my car is.

The certificate also confirms the Corfu Velour interior, and the formal construction date of Friday 14 October 1994. They didn’t seem to mind my ‘nitto tape’ pin stripes and yellow contact fog lamps, but hey, France!

Winding back the clock, I was at university (probably studying for exams given the time of year), Boyz II Men were top-of-the-pops, The Lion King and Clear and Present Danger were ruling the cinemas, the Australian dollar was buying 73.6 US cents, and the motoring page in the Canberra Times (the only online archive I could find) not only advertises a ‘high demand’ Peugeot 405 SRI for $33,595, but places it between ads for Eunos and Saab. Crazy times indeed.

This may feel like a bit of a rort, as a VIN lookup can provide a decent amount of information online for free, but it was the extra detail provided by the museum that I really wanted. Besides, the online tools say the car was built in 1994 but is strangely a ‘2007’ model. It’s any wonder I got the paint code wrong!

The team at L’Aventure Peugeot have advised me the original certificate is in the mail, so when it arrives ‘par avion’, I’ll shout myself a cheap IKEA frame to keep at least one part of the car from crumbling away like an aged croissant.

As for some inexplicable reason (read: it’s French), the indicator stalk has frozen and the blower fan will randomly come on. Strange considering the car has barely moved. From my experience with European cars, this feels like an errant fuse or stray earth, so the newly officiated Pug will go back to being a proper project car and be pulled apart to repair these electrical issues.

I’ll be able to fix the clock and install the Eurovox tape deck at the same time, so in theory, this should be a win all round!

Wish me luck!