Ownership Verified: My 1992 Peugeot 405 Mi16

Yeah, we do have income tax. It varies by your income, the more you earn the higher the percentage is. At low to medium income the percentage is around 30, but it goes quite easily above 50. And VAT is 25 % on most things.

Yeah, Finland is a country which gives me a free master's degree in university, but I still can not afford a new car.
 
Yeah, we do have income tax. It varies by your income, the more you earn the higher the percentage is. At low to medium income the percentage is around 30, but it goes quite easily above 50. And VAT is 25 % on most things.
And speeding tickets that work the same way.
 
Why are cars taxed so high in Finland? Because fuck you, that's why.

The "Fuck You Tax" is a well known term on Finalgear IRC when discussing Finnish car prices.
 
Is there not a regular income tax? Sorry for the 20 questions, I like to learn about how other countries/states work.

I'm sure you can think of a few ways to spend tax money ;) Finland is one of the safest and easiest countries to live in, free healthcare, there are no homeless people, income inequality is fairly low and basic education is often highly regarded.

The flip side is that any sort of luxury is quietly frowned upon. And cars do get taxed extra, as a luxury item. That was introduced as a temporary measure in the 50s, but it hasn't gone away, actually only went up, at least until EU forced to make changes.
 
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YES YES YES!

This is awesome! I need to see it, I need to... :drool:

When do we gather up for a meeting?
 
Or the law of "hidden van" where if you had big enough trunk/bed you could turn a Caprice STW/Mercedes etc into van by removing rearseats to make it low tax van (driving around with sofa in trunk often might be seen as rearseats=100% tax) or true Finnish innovation, turn Camaro/Lincoln Mark IV etc into pick up, highly wanted at the time, now valued as scrap.

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There was always that loophole with cargo space measurements and weight. After they had sold Toyota Timangi (or Publica) pick up as the cheapest car in Finland, they set that law which required 185 cm bed lenght in all pick up trucks. Most of them had to be streched to meet that lenght. For example see that Camaro above, also VW Caddys, Subaru Targas/Brats. Guess where corrosion first started? They eased that lenght requirement just few years ago, so now that streching business is over. Until that, you couldn't also cover your pick up's bed ith hard cover, because after that cargo spaces measurements didn't meet the limits and you had to pay missing taxes. Soft tarpaulin top didn't cause that as long as you wasn't able to lock that.

Cargo space height reguirement gave us these beauties, boat factories got some extra income making those heightened roofs.

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That could also be made by buying one brand new 4-Matic Mercedes S124 with optional extras (there were weight requirement involved too, 1800 kg curb weight maybe), sawing a hole in its roof and glueing a skibox in its roof for cargo space height.
 
Fun fact: I took that BX Van photo :p

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YES YES YES!

This is awesome! I need to see it, I need to... :drool:

When do we gather up for a meeting?

I will try not to touch the car until the cambelt has been done in two weeks...
 
I will try not to touch the car until the cambelt has been done in two weeks...

That would have been a wise decision had I kept to it.. :p The engine bay was so grimy, I couldn't help washing it. I tried to protect the sensitive parts, but it looks like I still managed to get water inside the distributor cap. When I wanted to start it up and reverse out of the DIY wash, it refused to start for the longest time, then ran quite poorly for a while, dying in the end. I will dry the distributor cap tomorrow, I already came home.

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Thanks for the heads-up. (Dry all ignition parts thoroughly, a misfiring engine will easily ruin the catalytic converter.)

The cowl in front of the windshield was full of tree muck, and I also found a lot of dirt behind the headlights. That's all gone now, luckily.

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Dirty.

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Cleaner. The pressurised air I used to clean bits and pieces turned out to be strong enough to blow all the flaking paint off the magnesium valve cover. It's probably better this way.

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The Speedlines in better lighting. They have some kerb damage, but they are certainly serviceable.

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Tire sizes and pressures.

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I also wiped down and hoovered the interior. It was quite clean to begin with, but I wanted to fix it up a little. I got some of the panels looking a lot better, and the ashtray is now properly cleaned. Barely anything is chipped or cracked, the interior looks great for the mileage.

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I removed what was left of the mud flaps, along with the screws.

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Wash up time...

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And polishing time, using the Turtle Wax Color Magic bottle the seller thoughtfully included.

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There's been some treatment done earlier on.

The paintwork is very decent, it needs a good claybaring and buffing to really shine. But right now, it's enough that it's clean inside out.
 
I like the 405. Like your 205, it's a nice reminder of the times when Peugeot didn't suck. Congrats on getting one - a hot one nonetheless :thumbsup:
 
I also like the 8-valve 1.9 versions, but they always seem to have a jawless-looking front bumper and a two-spoke steering wheel, which make them look quite ordinary :)

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The car looks great, especially considering the price. Great buy!

What's that square thingy above the glovebox?

It's the "nose" for the automatic cabin temperature control.
 
It's the "nose" for the automatic cabin temperature control.
In the middle of the dashboard? :lol: Guess it was fancy enough to show off on a Peugeot in 1992?

Like the C5 Audi A6, they have a big round puck on the trunklid with "GPS" written on it.
 
It also doesn't work terribly well most of the time, as when I got the car it mainly gave me heat despite the setting being on cold. After an hour it realized, "Holy crap I can blow cold" and it proceeded to work from then on. There's a box somewhere inside the dashboard and it should be taken out, fiddled with and put back. But on a winter car, heat is fine and it gives that very quickly from the get go.
 
You could probably try blowing your nose with some compressed air. It's probably full of dust and stuff. But be careful in case there's a fan in there.

My old V70 suddenly decided to turn into a chest freezer on a roadtrip once. Anything less than "magma" setting on the ECC produced no heat at all. Some canned air fixed that.
 
I will probably not use the high pressure air that blew the paint off my valve cover :lol:

My Kelvi? Mi16 contact said he used to know a guy who fixed the noses, but apparently he moved abroad or so. But I'll have it looked at by an otolaryngologist.
 
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That could also be made by buying one brand new 4-Matic Mercedes S124 with optional extras (there were weight requirement involved too, 1800 kg curb weight maybe), sawing a hole in its roof and glueing a skibox in its roof for cargo space height.

Yes, like this. :p

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I spoke to the owner, there's a sunroof-sized hole in the roof. The only point of the added height is to get a measuring tape in there. And like many W124's, it's a diesel (what else?) with an intergalactic amount of kilometers on it.

They also did it to the Audi 200 quattro avant. :lol: Apparently it was a fairly popular car in the Audi club back in the day. Bonus swearing included.

 
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It's the "nose" for the automatic cabin temperature control.

I suspected it could be the inside temp sensor for climate control, but I thought it had manual climate controls. Still, a weird place for it, they are usually more out of sight,
 
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