The post-1929 crisis was overcome with the help of the utterly practical model 201, also the first to sport the later patented cipher-zero-cipher scheme still in use today. This car and the related, but larger models 301, 401 and 601, were still very much rooted in 1920s design, with upright radiators, windscreens and boxy shape. A sign for things to come might have been the luxury 601 eclipse convertible with its electrically retractable metal roof from the spring of 1934. Two events shook the company in 1934: Citroen intoduced the now famous 7CV, called Traction Avant (front-wheel-drive), demonstrating modern technology in pleasing, though not revolutionary, design, and in America, Chrysler featured the first streamlined mass-produced car, the Airflow. 
 

402 Eclipse: This car precedes a mercedes SLK by more than 60 years!

In Sochaux, the engineers worked feverishly on a successor to the now old-fashioned 401/601, and in 1935 the 402 was presented at the Paris Car Show. Motor journalists immediately dubbed the vehicle „the spindle of Sochaux“ and it is easy to see why: the body was aerodynamically smoothed, the headlights relocated to a position behind the grille, introducing the unique face of peugeot models until the war. 
In technical terms, the 402 was much more conservative than its arch-rival from Citroen, but nevertheless overhead valves and a partially synchronised three-speed box were decent technology. Later even an electric preselection gearbox by Cotal could be chosen. Soon the model palette was rounded up by convertibles, 6/8-seater models, and vans. In 1937 the 302 satisfied the demand for a scaled-down version, with a smaller engine and passenger compartment. 
 

302:  This car has been subjected to a nut-and-bolt restoration. Seen at the Club Peugeot UK’s annual gathering at Shuttleworth, Beds., next to an earlier model from the 1920s.

A model called 402 Légère introduced in the same year is nothing but a 302 with the bigger engine – the Golf GTI of its day! One year later, the diminutive 202 was thrown on the market. With an overhead valve four cylinder unit of 1133ccm and 30 hp, the car competed with the likes of Simca 8, Renault Juvaquatre, Licorne 6CV and Rosengart Super Cinq and would have been bought by country doctors, travelling reps and young upstarts. Similar to the bigger models, peugeot offered a convertible, a soft roll-top called cabrio-limousine, and a vannette, and sells about 140.000 until the end of production in 1949, interrupted by the war between 1940 and 1946. The postwar models are of understandable austerity: no more „pilote“ wheels, no spare tyre cover, no more chrome handles on the seats, but at least decent hydraulic brakes are being introduced during the last production year. The models 302 and 402 haven’t even been restarted after the war, so the 203 of 1948 is the first new design in ten years.
 

202 1948 Berline Luxe and 202 1939 Berline. The wing lights on the right-hand vehicle have been transplanted from a Renault 4CV in the sixties. Originally they were housed in the number plate arrangement above the spare wheel together with the brake lights.

A brief history of the 202 pre-war model seen here:

Purchased by a lady in the southern Paris region in 1939 as one of the first 5000 ever built, the car was used as a daily commuter to work and survived the war behind a brick wall. Thus hidden, a fate as an German army commandeered vehicle probably destroyed in the russian plains could be avoided. After her death the car was bequeathed to her nephew who only used it sparingly and sold it to the present owner in 1996 due to moving house. Currently only used for shows or club runs at moderate speed (40 mph) due to its complete lack of safety equipment.
 
 

202 Interior: The dashboard with an irritating array of knobs and handles, for ignition timing, starter button, battery lock or interior lighting. An ignition lock doesn’t exist. The knob in the centre of the (non-original) two-spoke steering wheel serves as a light switch and horn.