The Fall Off of Peugeot in Nigeria

I bet we all had that uncle or teacher/teachers husband who had a Peugeot car, specifically the Peugeot 504 pictured below. My chemistry teacher from secondary school, Mrs. Okeke was one of those, as her husband had a Peugeot 504 in mint condition. One of my uncles also had a wagon type 504 that he would use to pick me and my brother up from school when my parents were indisposed. I would hop from one row to the other as his wagon had three row sitting. I always admired the 504 because for a car produced back in the 60's to 80's, they still ran so smoothly and were seemingly unbreakable nearly 30 years post production.

Peugeot 504 (1968 -1983) 

Peugeot is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810 and is regarded as the oldest car company in the world. Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria also known as PAN began production in 1975 in Nigeria with inputs shipped in bits and pieces from abroad. At onset, the cars were priced affordably and it became a popular car among the middle class. The company started with the 504 model and later introduced the 505 in 1980.  The Peugeot 504 was also the official car of General Olusegun Obasanjo as Nigeria's Head-of-State in 1979. Now you understand why the Peugeot 504 was very common in Nigeria in the 80's, 90's and early 21st century.

Peugeot 405 (1987-1997)

My Dad was personally a fan of Peugeot as his first car was a Peugeot 405 and later on in 2008, he purchased a beautiful red Peugeot 406. I remember back in 2009 when there was a craze for the Toyota Camry Pencil Light and I wished my Dad would get one but he got the 406 instead. I was sad at first because it wasn't as popular as the Camry but I fell deeply in love with that car later on. I didn't know much about cars at that age but I knew it was smooth and very fast. Almost every family in Nigeria had a Peugeot at some point but now they are close to extinction. So what happened?

Peugeot 406 (1995-2004)

The Fall Off

The fall off of Peugeot in Nigeria apparently began in the 90's, when the Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN) could no longer keep up with the local production of Peugeot cars because of a drop in oil prices, which made the economy undergo a downturn, thereby increasing the cost of production. PAN Nigeria Limited eventually dropped Peugeot and opted for two Chinese brands at the time. This was the first blow because Peugeot cars from this point on became just as expensive, if not more expensive than the Japanese imports of the time. Not withstanding the increased price of Peugeot vehicles, Nigerians had already taken a liking for these cars and continued to purchase them but fast forward a few years and sales began to drop drastically.

Top Gear Episode on the Review of Peugeot 307 and 407

The Japanese imports also known as JDM vehicles began to flood Nigeria in the early 2000's and they proved to be cheap, reliable and more technologically advanced than their French counterpart. Peugeot was flopping badly in the market not just in Nigeria alone because their cars were becoming quite unreliable. I remember watching an episode of Top Gear in which Jeremy Clarkson exposed some of the unreliability issues of the Peugeot 307 and 407. We all know that every car owners nightmare is having to visit the mechanic workshop every other week, so these unreliability issues drove away potential buyers. Why deal with an unreliable Peugeot when you can simply buy a Corolla and have peace of mind?

Top: 2004 Honda; Middle: 2004 Toyota; Bottom: 2004 Peugeot

More so, Peugeots were becoming less aesthetically pleasing. To put things in perspective, a 2004 Honda which is the End of Discussion or a 2004 Toyota being the Big Daddy Camry look way better compared to a 2004 Peugeot. The 2004 Honda and Camry are still common on the roads today and have very good resale value compared to their Peugeot counterpart. Lest we forget that Nigeria is a country of trends, as the Toyota and Honda trend spread like wild fire, people simply forgot about Peugeot. Nonetheless, there seems to be a silver lining for Peugeot but that is a story for another blogpost. 

Thank you for reading and always remember to Turbo that engine!