page_title: Peugeot 304
section_title: Commercial
hierarchical_section_title: Peugeot 304 / Commercial
caption_attribution_description: 1974.
context_page_description: The Peugeot 304 is a small family car which was produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1969 to 1980.
  The 304 was introduced to the public at the Paris Motor Show in September 1969. Production of the saloon/sedan on the Sochaux assembly lines was discontinued during the summer of 1979, while the "Break" was produced until the spring of 1980.
  Peugeot, which had always been a financially prudent company, saw a gap in the midsize car market in France, Italy and the rest of Western Europe. By using the smaller 204's midsection, development costs were minimized resulting in a higher profit margin because of the higher pricing structure in the larger, better equipped market. The 304's main competitors on its home market came from Renault and Simca, with Citroen noticeably absent from this sector at the launch. The 304 was a success for Peugeot and was noted for several advanced features under its Pininfarina styled exterior. With its independent suspended front-wheel-drive drivetrain and disc brakes, it rode and handled better than most of its contemporaries, including some cars in higher price brackets.
context_section_description: Launched in 1969, the Peugeot 304 confronted a more competitive market place than the one that had greeted the 204 in 1965. From the start it found itself in a fight for market share with the Renault 12 also introduced at the 1969 motor show: after the launch in 1970 of the Citroën GS competition intensified further. Nevertheless, the entire segment was boosted by the 1973 oil price shock as motorists traded down from larger cars. The Peugeot was particularly popular with the police and other public services both within France and in the Saarland region of Germany where the German Peugeot importer is based and where locally, for historical reasons, Peugeot traditionally enjoyed a level of market penetration usually reserved, at that time, for domestically branded makes.
  The 304 saloon remained in production until 1979, by when a saloon version of the Peugeot 305 had been on sale for two years:  the break (estate) 304 continued until Summer 1980, by when an estate version of the 305 had been introduced.  In 1980, when the last 304 estates had come off the lines at Mulhouse, 1,178,423 Peugeot 304s had been produced: of these, approximately 36% were exported, mostly within Europe:  during the 1970s Peugeot was one of several European manufacturers successfully learning to treat the entire EEC region as a single market.
  The estate version was also exported to North Africa, where many were deployed as taxis and louages. In Egypt, as of 2009, the estate version of the 304 remains one of the most widespread types of vehicle in taxi service, though the government is hoping to persuade taxi drivers to adopt more recently manufactured, more government-imposed emissions compliant vehicles.
caption: Peugeot 304 coupé
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4288", "Image ImageLength": "3216", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix JX300", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2014:10:16 15:56:37", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Image ExifOffset": "332", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1026", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9568", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/170", "EXIF FNumber": "39/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "125", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:10:16 02:10:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:10:16 02:10:16", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "37/5", "EXIF ApertureValue": "393/100", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "601/100", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "69/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "11", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3216", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "900", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "6992", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "6992", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}