What Kind of Car Did Columbo Drive? Peugeot 403 Convertible

Lt. Columbo drives a battered Peugeot 403 convertible, the French four-seat cabriolet that Peugeot built from 1956 to 1961. The one detail that trips people up is the year: sources describe the TV car as a 1959 model, some mention a 1960, and the often-repeated 1970 cannot be right because no 403 convertible was made that late. This page lays out what each source I could read actually says, what the car was like on paper, and how rare it really is.

The Big Reveal: Identifying Columbo’s Iconic Ride

Columbo, the rumpled detective created by Richard Levinson and William Link and played by Peter Falk, ran on NBC from 1971 to 1978 and on ABC from 1989 to 2003, according to Wikipedia. Through both runs his trademarks include a raincoat, a cigar and a battered Peugeot 403. The raincoat, for the record, came from Falk’s own wardrobe, per the same source.

The car is a two-door convertible, which Peugeot sold as the 403 Cabriolet. That matters, because the ordinary 403 was a four-door saloon built in huge numbers. The convertible was a different and far rarer beast, and it is the one on screen.

The Make and Model: A French Classic

Peugeot is a French maker and the 403 is its mid-size family car of the late 1950s. Wikipedia says it was built from May 1955 to October 1966 and was the first Peugeot to pass one million sales. The cabriolet joined the range in 1956 and ended in spring 1961. RM Sotheby’s describes the convertible as Pinin Farina styled, and the Consumer Guide blog likewise credits Pininfarina.

So when someone asks what kind of car Columbo drives, the full answer is: a Peugeot 403 Cabriolet, in a worn, faded paint finish. Wikipedia calls it grey.

Why the Confusion Over the Year?

Every source I read gives a slightly different picture, and none of them is the maker or the studio. The table shows who says what, so you can judge the weight of each claim yourself.

Source	What it says about the car	Caveat
Wikipedia (Peugeot 403)	Grey, derelict 403 convertible in the 1970s series; the car still exists and was offered for sale in 2022	No model year given
Consumer Guide blog	A beat-up 1959 Peugeot 403 convertible; studio is said to have leased two other 403 convertibles	Presented as unconfirmed
Daily Review (newspaper feature)	1959 403 cabriolet; three convertibles collected for the later run, one of them a 1960 model	Does not say how many were used overall
Peugeot Vintage website	Four 403 convertibles used in total; one went to a retired Florida couple	Gives the run as 1967 to 1978, which does not match the 1971 NBC start
RM Sotheby’s lot page	Falk chose the 403 Cabriolet after seeing one in the studio parking lot	Lot is a normal 1958 car, not a screen car

The takeaway: 1959 is the most common year given, with at least one 1960 car in the mix, and the number of cars used is somewhere between three and four depending on who you believe. Treat any page that states one exact year and one exact count with confidence as guessing.

A year of 1970, which older versions of this page and some other sites repeat, fails a simple check. Wikipedia and Classic & Sports Car both give 1956 to 1961 as the cabriolet’s production span so no 403 convertible carries a 1970 build year.

Deep Dive: Understanding the Peugeot 403

The 403 sat in the middle of Peugeot’s range and was built for ordinary families. The convertible, in contrast, cost real money: Wikipedia says that in 1958 it was priced 80 percent above the entry-level “berline grand luxe” saloon. The Consumer Guide blog puts the US price at around $3,900 according to some sources, which it compares with the cost of a 1959 Corvette.

Engine and Performance (Keeping It Simple)

The 403 was never about speed. The convertible used the 1,468 cc overhead-valve four-cylinder engine that Peugeot fitted across the range. Here are the numbers I could source.

Spec	Figure	Source
Engine	1,468 cc inline four, overhead valves	Wikipedia; Classic & Sports Car
Power at launch	58 hp at about 4,900 rpm	Wikipedia
Power from 1958	65 hp	Wikipedia
Torque	101 N·m at 2,500 rpm	Wikipedia
Gearbox	4-speed manual	Consumer Guide blog
Top speed	About 85 mph	Consumer Guide blog
0 to 60 mph	17 to 22 seconds	Consumer Guide blog
Body	Four-seat convertible, 1956 to 1961	Classic & Sports Car

Two cautions. First, the power figure depends on the year, which is another reason the car’s exact model year matters to enthusiasts: 58 hp before 1958, 65 hp after. Second, the acceleration and top speed come from a blog summary rather than a factory brochure, so treat them as indicative. For a wider look at the brand, see our guide on whether Peugeot cars are good.

How Rare Is the Convertible?

This is where the numbers get interesting. Classic & Sports Car lists 2,050 cabriolets built between 1956 and 1961, RM Sotheby’s says just over 2,000, and Wikipedia says only that they were built in very modest numbers. The Consumer Guide blog adds that 504 were built in 1959 alone.

Put that next to the whole model run of 1,214,121 vehicles, which Wikipedia says includes commercial versions, and a few ratios fall out. These are my own calculations from the sourced figures, not published statistics:

• The 2,050 cabriolets are about 0.17 percent of all 403s, roughly one in 590.
• Spread evenly over six years, 2,050 works out at about 340 convertibles a year, though 1959 at 504 was clearly above that average.
• If 1959 is the right year for the TV car, it comes from a year that alone accounts for about a quarter of the entire convertible run (504 of 2,050).

That context is the real information gain here. The detective who looks like he cannot afford a decent car was driving one of the least common body styles Peugeot sold in that era.

The Story Behind the Car: From Concept to Set Prop

How did a small French convertible end up as a Los Angeles homicide detective’s daily driver? Three accounts circulate, and they do not fully agree.

• Falk picked it from the lot. The Consumer Guide blog says Falk is supposed to have selected the Peugeot himself from Universal Studios’ back-lot fleet, and RM Sotheby’s says he chose it after seeing one in the studio parking lot.
• Falk hit one first. The Peugeot Vintage site tells it as a story: Falk was meant to find a car that suited Columbo but neglected the job, and a few days before filming the first episode he crashed into a 403 convertible in the studio lot, which had already lived a hard life.
• It was an actor’s old car. The same site offers a theory that the car had belonged to the French actor Roger Pierre, who supposedly traded it for a Cadillac. It is labelled a theory, and I found nothing else to back it up.

The first two are compatible, since choosing a car and bumping into it are not mutually exclusive, but all three are retellings, not production records. I could not find a studio document, a Universal page or a Peugeot heritage page that settles it, so the honest summary is that Falk was closely involved in the choice and the details are folklore.

The Mechanical History

How many cars did the production actually use? The sources above give three (Consumer Guide: the studio leased two more, making three) or four (Peugeot Vintage). The newspaper feature says three were collected for the later ABC run and that one of them was a 1960 model. A reasonable reading is that there was one main car plus stand-ins, but I would not put a precise number on it.

Why does that matter for viewers? Because it explains why enthusiasts argue about details such as the year, the paint and the dents from episode to episode: more than one car, over decades of filming, means more than one set of details.

Where Is Columbo’s Car Now?

Wikipedia says a grey, derelict 403 convertible was the car in the 1970s series, that it still exists, and that it was offered for sale in 2022. The Peugeot Vintage article describes one of the cars as having been sold to a retired couple in Florida, kept in original condition, still fitted with a rod for a camera, and offered at $350,000. That article carries no date, so I cannot say when that asking price applied or whether the car sold.

Neither source names a museum or a current owner, and they do not say which of the several cars is meant, so I cannot tell you which one is “the” Columbo car. If you see a claim online that a specific car is the original, ask for provenance paperwork before believing it.

What Does a 403 Cabriolet Cost Today?

There is no single market price, and the data points I found are thin:

Car	Price	What it tells you
Screen-used 403 convertible (Peugeot Vintage listing, undated)	$350,000 asking	An asking price for a car with TV history, not a sale result
1958 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet (RM Sotheby’s, Saragga Collection, Lot 103)	Sold for €46,000	A normal car with no TV history; the lot page does not show a sale date

Read those two lines together and the gap is the screen premium, or at least the screen hope. A normal cabriolet changed hands for tens of thousands of euros, while a car with Columbo provenance was listed at several times that. Since neither figure carries a date I can verify, check current auction results before using them for any real decision.

Character Connection: Why This Car Fits Columbo

The Peugeot works on screen because it contradicts what a detective is supposed to drive. It is old, foreign, scruffy and an open-top car in a city of glossy sedans and coupes. That gives viewers an instant read on the man: someone who does not care about status and is easy to underestimate. The sources I read give no production quote on this, so it is my reading of the show, not a statement from the makers.

If you enjoy this kind of television car trivia, our page on the car used in Back to the Future covers another vehicle that became a character in its own right.

The Raincoat and the Dog

Two other props round out the picture. The raincoat came from Falk’s own closet, according to Wikipedia, where he is quoted saying he felt comfortable in it. The dog is a Basset Hound, which the character calls simply “Dog”, per the newspaper feature quoted above. Like the car, both are deliberately unglamorous.

Frequently Asked Questions About Columbo’s Car

What kind of car does Columbo drive?

Columbo drives a Peugeot 403 convertible, sold by Peugeot as the 403 Cabriolet. It is shown battered and faded, and Wikipedia describes the car as grey.

What year is the Peugeot 403 that Columbo drives?

Sources most often say 1959, and one newspaper feature says at least one of the cars was a 1960 model. No source I read gives an official year from the studio or Peugeot, and a 1970 car is impossible because the cabriolet was built only from 1956 to 1961.

How many Peugeots were used in Columbo?

Sources disagree: Consumer Guide implies three cars, a newspaper feature says three were collected for the later run, and Peugeot Vintage says four. There was more than one car, but the exact count is unconfirmed.

What happened to the car Columbo drove?

Wikipedia says the grey, derelict car still exists and was offered for sale in 2022. Peugeot Vintage says one of the cars went to a retired couple in Florida and was offered at $350,000. Neither source names which car is the original or where it is now.

Why did Columbo drive a Peugeot?

Accounts say Peter Falk picked the car from the Universal back lot or after seeing it in the studio parking lot, and one story says he crashed into it first. Nothing I found is an official production statement.

How rare is the Peugeot 403 convertible?

Very. Classic & Sports Car lists 2,050 built from 1956 to 1961, out of 1,214,121 Peugeot 403s of all types built, which is roughly one in 590.

What kind of dog does Columbo have?

Columbo has a Basset Hound, which he calls “Dog”, according to a newspaper feature on the show.

Conclusion: The Legacy of the Little Convertible

Columbo’s car is a Peugeot 403 convertible, most often described as a 1959 model, built in a run of about 2,050 cabriolets and played on screen by more than one car. The most useful correction is the year: if you see 1970, discard it. Everything beyond that, from who chose the car to which one survives, rests on retellings, and I have said where the sources stop. If you want to see the car for yourself, the box set above is the simplest route.