About

What is a 309?

The Peugeot 309 was launched on October 1985 in France and on February 1986 in the United Kingdom. It’s a small family or C-segment car designed and manufactured by French car maker Peugeot between 1985 and 1993, and between 1994 and 1997 in India by PAL-Peugeot Ltd.
The Peugeot 309 is a three-door or five-door liftback. Its body is thus between the one of a saloon car and the one of a hatchback car which has a more vertical tailgate. Consequently, its notched-hatchback places the 309 between a Volkswagen Golf and a Volkswagen Jetta.
The 309 was originally designed to fill the gap of the Peugeot line-up as there was no car between the Peugeot 205 (a supermini) and the Peugeot 305 (a family car). Note that the Peugeot 309 did not replace the Peugeot 305, which was replaced by the 405, it didn’t actually replace any car from the Peugeot line-up. The Peugeot 309 was simply an all new car even if the number “30X” could be tricky.
Despite its slight likeness with the 205, the 309 was intended to be bulkier, squarer, and more aggressive, in short more virile. Its heavy design and the thickness of its lines were entirely wished. Besides, the car was not developped in La Garenne where Paul Bracq’s team developped the 205, but in Carrières-sous-Poissy by the PSA Style Avancé studio, previously known as the Style Talbot studio.
Here’s a quick view of what is the Peugeot 309. But let’s go deeper.