My dad had one of these. It broke down in Durban on the way to a funeral.
In this first installment of which car is which country at the World Cup, Algeria is the Peugeot 504. The 504 to this day is a common sight amongst the bustling North and West African taxi scene. It’s reliable. Predictable. Dull. And immensely stubborn. It promises little and delivers less. If your destination was the goal, it would take you via the Suez canal to your hotel 4 kms from the airport in Cairo. If you’re a foreigner. It is a car that is capable of combining the Gallic shrug and flick of a cigarette with the African penchant for taking the long way round, without ever getting there. The 504 left the World Cup without troubling the scorers and yet returned to a hero’s welcome in Algiers. Via Rwanda.
Like the cabbys who drive them, it will take side streets and odd decisions instead of having a direct crack at the destination (the destination being the back of the net in this extended metaphor). And not for the first time it frustrated and infuriated English tourists in South Africa.
Gavin Williams
