This RWD Peugeot Sedan Should Make It Stateside

Probably the best were the rear-wheel drive 504, 604 and 505, models renowned for their German sedan-scaring performance that was also combined with classy French good looks.

But over the years, Peugeot began to focus less and less on how well its cars drove and it reached a point in the early 2000s when it really didn’t make any desirable cars at all. Cars like the dreadfully dreary 307, 407 and 607 represented an all-time low in terms of desirability, which is why if you search for any of them second hand right now, you can get them for next to nothing, even in good running order.

Peugeot attempted to reinvigorate its driving fun ethos with its 308, which later spawned the RCZ, the first genuinely good to drive car bearing a Lion badge for decades. Then the automaker pursued this goal of rekindling its sporty car ambitions and it produced its first good hot hatch in decades, the first-gen 208 GTi.

Now it looks like it’s maintaining the same path of trying to improve driver enjoyment for all its models. Just take the latest 508, a car that looks far sportier than it actually drives. It’s not bad to drive by any means, but it’s not quite as accomplished as the best sporty sedans in the segment either, nor is it as powerful.

It’s as if the 508 just lacks the final degree of polish, in terms of handling, which Peugeot most likely elected to omit because it doesn’t plan to sell the 508 with any more than 200-ish horsepower. This is in contrast with, say, a BMW 3 Series whose chassis is designed to take a lot more power than most versions of it will ever have, and thus it feels super capable through the bends and it hardly ever feels flustered.

Peugeot engineered the 508 with 200-ish horsepower in mind and it shows. Again, it’s not a bad driving experience, just not nearly as good as the best cars out there. And this is a shame, because it looks better than most sedans on the market (at any price point), it has an interior that seems to have been beamed back from some tasteful sci-fi flick and it just makes you wish it was more fun from the driver’s seat.

But now that Peugeot is merging with the Fiat-Chrysler group (FCA), things could change for the better and we may be graced by some excellent sporty Peugeots in the future. FCA owns the following brands: Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Lancia, Maserati, Jeep and Ram.

Not all of these are renowned for making sporty, good to drive cars, but two of them are: Alfa Romeo and Maserati. So once the two companies officially merge, Peugeot should get access to these two automakers’ rear-wheel drive platforms, although, to be fair, the more desirable platform would probably be Alfa’s Giorgio platform which it uses to underpin the Giulia and the Stelvio.

And both the Giulia and the Stelvio are absolutely terrific to drive. They are so good that this platform will actually be shared with Maserati and Dodge for future models, and now that Peugeot is part of the company, maybe it can benefit from using it too.

This sets the prospect for a very enticing combination - a car that looks as good as recent Peugeots, but one that’s built on a platform that makes it feel like sports car, not a city car at the limit of grip. We’d love to see what Peugeot can create using the Giorgio platform, but we have a hunch that if they do go down that road, the result will be something quite special.

Besides, the French automaker doesn’t have an actual flagship model - it discontinued its last big sedan when it launched the first-gen 508. That car replaced both the 407 and the 607 with a single model. Now the current 508 isn’t necessarily a big car, and there would definitely be room for a rear-driven halo sedan that harkens back to the 504 and 505.

Peugeot is definitely into reviving its heritage models, as it proved when it showed off the drop dead gorgeous E-Legend concept a few years back. Furthermore, it’s not like it’s out of the question for a manufacturer that only really made front-wheel drive economy cars to launch an accomplished rear-driven car that challenges the established premium players - just think of the Kia Stinger.