Over a period of 30-odd years on the TV series Columbo, Peter Falk, as Lt. Columbo, drove a puttering, smoking, but altogether charming 1959 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet.

There was no mistaking Peter Falk’s now-classic detective Lt. Frank Columbo, the disheveled, cigar-chomping, seemingly-inept-yet-mystery-solving Los Angeles police detective who amused viewers on and off for three decades on the TV series Columbo. The show initially ran on NBC from 1971 to 1978, and then again on ABC in the form of a limited series and several TV movies from 1989 to 2003.

The constant, besides Columbo himself? A rusting, dirty, and pleasantly-battered Peugeot 403, the perfect companion to one of TV’s most beloved (and schlubby) gumshoes.

Are you ready to learn all there is to know about Columbo’s unkempt, barely road-worthy Peugeot?

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1959 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet

Columbo’s creaky, sulfur-spewing Peugeot 403 Cabriolet wasn’t exactly a detective’s dream car. During Columbo’s run, American viewers became used to seeing other TV investigators fly around in powerful, eye-catching rides—think Starsky & Hutch’s red Ford Gran Torino, Sonny Crockett’s white Ferrari Testarossa and Ricardo Tubbs’ metallic teal Cadillac Coupe DeVille in Miami Vice, or Robin Masters’ Ferrari 308 GTS in Magnum, P.I. Columbo’s Peugeot 403 was not quite as sleek.

But Columbo’s 403 had a unique personality of its own. It featured a droptop (the Cabriolet was a convertible), and a 4 cylinder in-line engine that sported an underwhelming 67 horsepower. The ’59 Peugeot 403 had a top speed of 80 miles per hour and went from 0 to 60 mph in a paint-drying 20 seconds.

Peugeot produced only 500 units of the 1959 403 Cabriolet, and in one episode, Columbo remarked that his car was just one of three in North America at the time. With specs like that, who knows? He could have been telling the truth!

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Why Columbo drove a Peugeot 403 Cabriolet

When producers informed Falk that his character would be driving a clunker, he thought it was overkill and wasn’t happy.

However, as the story goes, the show’s producers gave Falk permission to pick a car from the studio’s backlot in order to mollify the actor. He didn’t see anything he liked until, out of the corner of his eye, he spied the nose of the Peugeot 403 jutting out from behind another car in the back of the lot. Once he laid eyes on that 403 Cabriolet, Falk’s worries disappeared—he knew he’d found Columbo’s car.

Of course, Columbo’s rickety ride needed some work done—at the time Falk found it, it didn’t even have an engine. After some tuning up and the addition of an engine (and a radio—the Peugeot 403 didn’t originally come with one), Columbo’s ride was ready to roll. The show ended up using three Peugeot 403s (one was a 1960 edition).

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Peugeot’s reaction

The car that Columbo made famous was out of production by the time the TV series debuted in 1971. It was produced at Peugeot's plant in Sochaux, France, which was built in 1910 and still manufactures Peugeots today. The French automaker produced the 403 from 1955 to 1966 and sold around 1.2 million cars during that time.

While the show ran, rumor has it that Peugeot executives were not happy with how their car looked onscreen—apparently, Columbo’s dilapidated hunk of metal and glass wasn’t exactly the advertisement Peugeot was looking for, even though the 403 had been relegated to history by that point.

They saw their prized 403 depicted on American television as a filthy, rusted-out husk that sported a terrible paint job and was a constantly-smoking, near-wreck. Apparently, they didn’t get that the 403 Cabriolet was the perfect match for its on-screen driver.

Lt. Columbo’s TV ride probably stunk to high heaven, what with his penchant for carrying hard-boiled eggs in his raincoat pockets. Nothing if not classy.

Just one more thing…

Just as Columbo would do at the end of an episode to reveal the kernel that solved a homicide, we here at Jerry must remind you to do just one more thing—make sure you protect your Peugeot 403 (or whatever car you drive) with a robust car insurance policy by using the

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