Since purchasing the British Rootes Group from Chrysler in 1978, Peugeot took on Talbot, a British marque that was dwindling from one year to the next. Mainly this was due to a range that had as much appeal and styling pizazz as a prison cell. Look back at pictures of their last models such as the Samba, Horizon, Solara and Tagora and you can see why the Talbot brand was losing buyers.
Peugeot had started work on designing a new family car to replace the Horizon that was due to be christened the Talbot Arizona; however, in 1985 Peugeot decided to drop Talbot and the last passenger cars rolled off the production line in 1986. This resulted in the car becoming a Peugeot instead - the 309.
The resultant design of the 309 appeared more Talbot than Peugeot. In fact Peugeot wanted to separate and distinguish the car from their range by naming it 309 rather than 306, (a replacement for the then current 305 family saloon).
The 309 was manufactured in Ryton, Coventry - the first Peugeot to do so. This was followed up by the 405, 306 and 206. Launched in 1985, the 309 soldiered on until 1993 when the 306 replacement arrived. Peugeot then shifted the tooling to India where it was produced from 1994 until 1997.
Some of the engines used in the 309 were derived from the ailing Simca marque, a French based car company also owned by Peugeot. One engine that transformed the ultra conservative 309 into something altogether more interesting and crucially entertaining was the fuel injected 1905cc petrol powerplant used in the GTI. This hot hatch received good reviews although naturally fell into the shadows next to its little brother the 205, still regarded as one of the best hot hatches ever produced.