AS_about+Peugeot

=Peugeot=

Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën. It is the second largest automaker in Europe, behind Volkswagen. Peugeot's roots go back to pepper, salt and coffee mill manufacturing in 1842 and later bicycle manufacturing at the end of the 19th century. Its world headquarters are in Paris, Avenue de la Grande Armée, close to Porte Maillot and the Concorde Lafayette Hotel but the Peugeot company and family is originally from Sochaux, France. Peugeot retains a large manufacturing plant in Sochaux which is also home to the Peugeot Museum. The company also sponsors the Sochaux football club, founded in 1928 by a member of the Peugeot family: the club' s arms contain a lion logo similar to Peugeot's. The common French pronunciation of "Peugeot" is IPA: [pøːʒo]. In Spain, it is "peyot" (less often, "peuyot"). In England (where the cars are nicknamed 'pugs'), it is usually pronounced /ˈpɜːʒoʊ/ "PERzho", while Americans pronounce it /puːˈʒoʊ/ "pooZHO" or /ˈpjuːʒoʊ/ "PYOOzho". In Malta, some people pronounce "Peugeot" as "poo goo". In those parts of North Africa colonised by France—Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco—"Peugeot" is often pronounced in the same as "bijou" ("jewel"), both because of the sometimes indistinguishable quality of vowels in Arabic when translated into French, and through affection.

Early history
The Peugeot family of Valentigney, Montbéliard, Franche-Comté, France, began manufacturing coffee grinders in the 1800s. Although the Peugeot factory had been in the manufacturing business since the 1700s, the company's entry into the world of wheeled vehicles was by means of crinoline dresses, which used steel rods, leading to umbrella frames, wire wheels, and ultimately bicycles. Armand Peugeot introduced his "Le Grand Bi" penny-farthing in 1882 and along with a range of other bicycles. Peugeot bicycles continued to be built until very recently, although the car company and bike company parted ways in 1926. In 1896 Armand Peugeot broke away from Les Fils de Peugeot Frères to form his own company, Société Anonyme des Automobiles Peugeot, building a new factory at Audincourt to focus entirely on cars.[8] In 1899, sales hit 300; total car sales for all of France that year were 1200. The same year, Lemaitre won the Nice-Castellane-Nice Rally in a special 5,850 cc (357 cu in) 20 hp (14.9 kW) racer. At the 1901 Paris Salon, Peugeot debuted a tiny shaft-driven 652 cc (40 cu in) 5 hp (3.7 kW) one-cylinder, dubbed Bébé (Baby), and shed its conservative image, becoming a style leader.[9] After placing nineteenth in the 1902 Paris-Vienna rally with a 50 hp (37.3 kW) 11,322 cc (691 cu in) racer, and failing to finish with two similar cars, Peugeot quit racing. Peugeot added a motorcycle to its range in 1903, and motorcycles have been built under the Peugeot name ever since. By 1903, Peugeot produced half of the cars built in France, and they offered the 5 hp (4 kW) Bébé, a 6.5 hp (4.8 kW) four-seater, and an 8 hp (6.0 kW) and 12 hp (8.9 kW) resembling contemporary Mercedes models. Armand Peugeot became interested in the automobile early on, and after meeting with Gottlieb Daimler and others, was convinced of its viability. The first Peugeot automobile (a three-wheeled steam-powered car designed by Léon Serpollet) was produced in 1889; only four were made. Steam power was heavy and bulky and required lengthy warmup times. In 1890, after meeting Gottlieb Daimler and Emile Levassor, steam was abandoned in favour of a four-wheeled car with a petrol-fuelled internal combustion engine built by Panhard under Daimler licence. The car was more sophisticated than many of its contemporaries, with a three-point suspension and a sliding-gear transmission. More cars followed, twenty-nine being built in 1892, forty in 1894, seventy-two in 1895, 156 in 1898, and fully three hundred in 1899. These early models were given "Type" numbers with the Type 12, for example, dating from 1895. Peugeot became the first manufacturer to fit rubber tires to a petrol-powered car that year (solid tires). Peugeot was also an early pioneer in motor racing, entering the 1894 Paris-Rouen Rally with five cars (placing second, third {Pierre Giffard, who had conceived the trial}, and fifth {Koechlin}) and the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux with three, where they were beaten by Panhard's car (despite an average speed of 20.8 km/h (12.9 mph) and taking the 31,500 franc prize. This also marked the debut of Michelin pneumatic tyres in racing, also on a Peugeot; they proved insufficiently durable. Nevertheless, the vehicles were still very much horseless carriages in appearance and were steered by a tiller. 1896 saw the first Peugeot engines built; no longer were they reliant on Daimler. Designed by Rigoulot, the first engine was an 8 hp (6.0 kW) horizontal twin fitted to the back of the Type 15. It also served as the basis of a nearly exact copy produced by Rochet-Schneider. Further improvements followed: the engine moved to the front on the Type 48 and was soon under a hood (bonnet) at the front of the car, instead of hidden underneath; the steering wheel was adopted on the Type 36; and they began to look more like the modern car.

Post World War II
In 1946, the company restarted car production with the 202, delivering 14000 copies. In 1947, Peugeot introduced the Peugeot 203, with coil springs, rack-and-pinion steering, and hydraulic brakes. The 203 set new Peugeot sales records, remaining in production until 1960. Peugeot would take over Chenard-Walcker and buy a part of Hotchkiss in 1950, then introduce a popular model in 1955: the Peugeot 403. With a 1.5 liter engine, it sold one million copies by the end of its production run in 1962, The company began selling cars in the United States in 1958, and in 1960 introduced the Peugeot 404, which used a 1,618 cc (99 cu in) version of the 403 engine, tilted 45o. The 404 proved rugged enough to win the East African Safari Rally, in four of the six years between 1963 and 1968. More models followed, many styled by Pininfarina. Like many European manufacturers, collaboration with other firms increased; Peugeot worked with Renault from 1966 and Volvo from 1972.

1980s and beyond
All of this investment caused serious financial problems for the entire PSA group; PSA lost money from 1980 to 1985. The Peugeot takeover of Chrysler Europe had seen the aging Chrysler Sunbeam, Horizon, Avenger and Alpine ranges rebranded as Talbots. There were also new Talbots in the early 1980s—the Solara (a saloon version of the Alpine hatchback), and the Samba (a small hatchback to replace the Sunbeam). In 1983 Peugeot launched the popular and successful Peugeot 205, which is largely credited for turning the company's fortunes around. In 1984 PSA developed its first contacts with The People's Republic of China, resulting in the successful Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile venture in Wuhan. A red 307 cc (coupé cabriolet), with a folding steel roof In 1986, the company dropped the Talbot brand for passenger cars when it ceased production of the Simca-based Horizon/Alpine/Solara models. What was to be called the Talbot Arizona became the 309, with the former Rootes plant in Ryton and Simca plant in Poissy being turned over for Peugeot assembly. Producing Peugeots in Ryton was significant, as it signalled the very first time Peugeots would be built in Britain. The Talbot name survived for a little longer on commercial vehicles until 1992 before being shelved completely. As experienced by other European volume car makers, Peugeot's U.S. and Canadian sales faltered and finally became uneconomical, as the Peugeot 505 design aged. Several ideas to turn around sales in the United States, such as including the Peugeot 205 in its lineup, were considered but not pursued. In the early nineties, the newly introduced Peugeot 405 proved uncompetitive with domestic and import models in the same market segment, and sold less than 1,000 units. Total sales fell to 4,261 units in 1990 and 2,240 through July, 1991. This caused the company to cease U.S. And Canada operations after 33 years. There are currently no known plans to return to the American market. Peugeot currently sells vehicles in Mexico.Peugeot Mexico Beginning in the late 1990s, with Jean-Martin Folz as president of PSA, the Peugeot-Citroën combination seems to have found a better balance. Savings in costs are no longer made to the detriment of style. On April 18, 2006, PSA Peugeot Citroën announced the closure of the Ryton manufacturing facility in Coventry, England. This announcement resulted in the loss of 2,300 jobs as well as about 5,000 jobs in the supply chain. The plant produced its last Peugeot 206 on December 12, 2006 and finally closed down in January 2007. Peugeot is developing a diesel-electric hybrid version of the Peugeot 307 that can reach 80 mpg. It is a 2-door cabriolet and is currently only in the concept stages, but if it reaches production would be one of the more fuel efficient cars available.. Peugeot is a long way off from its ambitious target of selling 4 million units annually by the end of the decade. This year its sales projects put it at 2 million, but chief executive Jean-Philippe Collin has a plan in place to reach the targets set out by parent company PSA.The plan involves expansion on two fronts. Firstly, Peugeot plans on developing new models to compete in segments where it currently does not compete. Collin figures the French automaker currently competes in 72% of market segments, but wants to get that figure up to 90%. Despite Peugeot's sportscar racing program, the company is not prepared to build a pure sportscar any more hardcore than the upcoming 308 RC Z sports-coupe. It is pursuing government funding to develop a diesel-hybrid drivetrain, however, which might be key to its expansion. Peugeot is also planning on pursuing new markets, namely in China, Russia and South America. However, while a return to the North American market is being considered, especially in light of the weak American dollar, Collin maintains that such a move would still be several years off.

Peugeot model numbers
Peugeot chooses the names used on its models in the form x0y or x00y, where x describes the size of the car (and hence its class) and y describes the model number (the higher the number, the newer the model). Thus a Peugeot 406 is bigger and newer than a Peugeot 305. This rule has its exceptions: for instance the Peugeot 309 was produced before the Peugeot 306—the out-of-step number signified the 309's Talbot underpinnings rather than it coming from a Peugeot lineage. Variants are also excluded: the 206 SW, for example, is about the same length as a "40y" car. This tradition began in 1929 with the launch of the 201, which followed the 190. All numbers from 101 to 909 have been deposited as trademarks. Although in 1963 Porsche was forced to change the name of its new 901 coupé to 911, certain Ferraris and Bristols have been allowed to keep their Peugeot-style model numbers. An unsubstantiated explanation for the central '0' is that on early models the number appeared on a plate on the front of the car, with the hole for the starting handle coinciding with the zero. More recently, on the 307 cc and the 607 the button to open the trunk is located in the '0' of the label. For specific niche models such as minivans or SUVs, Peugeot is now using a four digit system, with a double zero in the middle. It was tested with the 4002 concept car. The 1007 used this system when it was launched in 2005, and the new Peugeot Crossover SUV is named 4007.

Peugeot has also announced that after the 9 series, it would start again with 1, producing new 201, 301 or 401.

Peugeot has produced three winners of the European Car of the Year award. 1969: Peugeot 504 1988: Peugeot 405 2002: Peugeot 307

Other Peugeot models have come in either second or third in the contest. 1980: Peugeot 505 1984: Peugeot 205 1996: Peugeot 406 1999: Peugeot 206

Other products
Peugeot also produced bicycles starting in 1882 in Beaulieu, France (with ten Tour de France wins between 1903 and 1983) followed by motorcycles and cars in 1889. In the late 1980s Peugeot sold the North American rights to the Peugeot bicycle name to ProCycle in Canada (also known as CCM and better known for its ice hockey equipment) and the European rights to Cycleurope S.A. Peugeot remains a major producer of scooters, underbones, mopeds and bicycles in Europe.