The first production Peugeot Coupe was the Peugeot 504 and was converted from the Peugeot 504 Sedan in 1969. Peugeot in general is not especially well known for their Coupes and is better known for their range of Hatchbacks and Sedans. In 2011, Peugeot celebrated its 200th anniversary. A little known fact outside of France is that the Company began with the construction of coffee mills and bicycles with the first car being built in 1896.
Peugeot Coupes are not particularly well kn... (full review continues below)
The first production Peugeot Coupe was the Peugeot 504 and was converted from the Peugeot 504 Sedan in 1969. Peugeot in general is not especially well known for their Coupes and is better known for their range of Hatchbacks and Sedans. In 2011, Peugeot celebrated its 200th anniversary. A little known fact outside of France is that the Company began with the construction of coffee mills and bicycles with the first car being built in 1896.
Peugeot Coupes are not particularly well known and in fact in 2012 they only have one model on offer but the ones they have produced have been very impressive. Peugeot has always had a flair for style in their entire range of cars and the Peugeot Coupe is no exception. The Coupe market itself is extremely competitive as every manufacturer likes to produce at least one higher end Coupe to showcase their more avante garde designs and style. Also Coupes, due to their nature, tend to command a bigger premium than a Sedan with manufacturers relying on their design to attract buyers rather than the price. As a rule, Coupe buyers are looking for something more unique and powerful than the average family car buyer so manufacturers treat the market in a different way.
Some of the biggest competitors to the Peugeot Coupe are the Hyundai Veloster, Volkswagen GTI, Audi A5, BMW 1 Series, Porsche Cayman and the Nissan GT-R. As I mentioned earlier, there is only one Peugeot Coupe - the Peugeot RCZ which comes in 3 different models. The cheapest and ironically the fastest is the Peugeot RCZ 6 speed manual transmission 1.6 liter turbo engine which manages to produce 187 horsepower. This has pushed the Peugeot RCZ to a top speed of 149mph with 0-60mph acceleration in 4.6 seconds. It even has reasonable fuel economy with it managing 25mpg in cities and 42mpg on highways.
The other gas version of the Peugeot RCZ has a 6 speed sport automatic transmission and the same 1.6 liter turbo engine. There is a significant difference between the RCZ 6 speed base model and the sport automatic transmission in performance due to the 6 speed sport automatic transmission with the engine producing 154 horsepower at 6000rpm. Even so it still manages a respectable 0-60mph in 5.2 seconds which is somewhere above the middle for its class but has worse fuel economy only managing 22mpg in the city and 41mpg on highways. The final model is the diesel Peugeot RCZ and has a 2.1 liter turbo engine with 160 horsepower. Despite the extra power, the diesel model is still not able to compete with the six speed manual transmission version as it manages 0-60mph in 5 seconds which is faster than the automatic and has a top speed of 136mph which is also quicker than the automatic version. The biggest difference however is on the fuel efficiency as the diesel Peugeot Coupe manages a very respectable 34mpg in the city and 52mpg on the highway.