Peugeot to sell parts of its rare car collection
Peugeot has announced plans to auction off part of its large collection of rare cars in June to raise funds for future conservation efforts. The June 14 auction will cover about 50 vehicles, including classic passenger cars from the 1920-60 period as well as racing models and concept cars stored at the carmaker's l'Aventure Peugeot (Peugeot Adventure) museum in Sochaux, eastern French.
Created in 1988, the Peugeot museum collection includes more than 450 automobiles, 300 motorcycles and bicycles, and thousands of other manufactured products that have worn the company's lion trademark over the last 150 years.
Peugeot has not yet released a complete list of cars it will sell, but museum director Loic Henouil told Automotive News Europe that the carmaker will limit the sale to duplicates from its collection.
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One of the high-ticket items to be included in the sale is a Jordan Formula One racecar from the mid-1990s. Another is a Peugeot 405 T16 rally car driven with much success in the late-1980s, Henouil said.
Henouil said auction proceeds will be used to buy rare items missing from the museum, such as a diesel-powered version of the large 403 sedan designed by Italy's Pininfarina and the range-topping 601 Eclipse, which was produced over the 1934-35 period.
Henouil told ANE that the Peugeot sale was "part of our daily business," noting that there was "definitely no links between this event and the actual crisis" hitting the industry.
The French carmaker's decision to cull its collection came just two months after General Motors sold more than 250 rare cars from its Heritage Fleet at a collector car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.
GM said the sale was routine housekeeping at the 1,000 vehicle Heritage Fleet, and had nothing to do with the cash crunch facing the American carmaker.
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