Talbot Tagora
The Talbot Tagora was a large saloon car model produced by Talbot in France. Much of the Tagora's early development was done by Chrysler Europe, and was intended to replace the unsuccessful Chrysler 180. When Peugeot took over Chrysler's ailing European division in 1978, the new owner immediately began to have a strong influence over the Tagora's design, insisting that it used Peugeot 505 underpinnings. They also pushed it further upmarket, slotting it between the family 505 and the executive 604. In additon to the old Simca-Chrysler 4-cylinder engines, it featured the PRV engine, (sometimes called the Douvrin V6) which Peugeot had developed with Renault and Volvo. When finally launched in 1981, the Tagora failed to match the Peugeot 505's sales success on either side of the channel, and it was shelved during 1985 - the year before the Talbot badge was discarded on passenger cars by Peugeot. The Tagora's demise was blamed on many factors - but the main one was styling, which was panned by critics from the car's inception. As well as the Tagora's akward looking front-end and headlamps, Peugeot's insistence that Talbot used the 505's rear axle, gave the Tagora a ridiculously narrow track in comparison to the width of the bodyshell which didn't help its aesthetic appeal either. The plasticky and cheap looking interior further damaged the Tagora's upmarket pretentions. By the time that production ceased, only 20,000 were ever sold and very few have survived the test of time.
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