You have to really stretch your imagination to picture the spit-and-shine Los Angeles Police Department employing a supervising detective who looked like he just scrambled out of a dumpster. It takes even more work to envision that in the throes of Hollywood flash, the detective meandered around in a ratty French convertible. But this is TV, the detective was one of the most iconic characters in broadcast history, and unlike the program that featured the detective, his car didn’t disappear once the production contracts ran out.
Instead, this decrepit automobile—a 1960 Peugeot 403 cabriolet, to be exact—hung on for a second act after its star turn in , the Emmy–winning mystery series whose central figure, Lieutenant Columbo, is one of global television’s most instantly recognizable dramatic characters. Like the series’ star, the acclaimed Peter Falk, the Peugeot disappeared from the airwaves for a while, and thanks to a highly improbable journey, ended up in the collection of an Ohio made its return to TV in the late 1980s. Though it hardly meets the usual definition, the Peugeot can honestly be called a refurbished collector car, even if some of the refurbishment meant banging new dents into its Pinin Farina-penned sheetmetal.
