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PEUGEOT IS DESPERATE for attention. The French automaker’s TV ad forthe 1987 505 STX sedan is proof.

The spot opens with a bedroom shot featuring a large four-poster. Amale voice intones: “If you think this is where the French perform best…”

Whammo!

A red 505 smashes through the window, flies over the bed andscreeches to a stop. The voice resumes: “. . . we suggest you test drivethe six-cylinder Peugeot 505. Nothing else feels like it.”

Baloney.

The feel of this car is frustration.

Complaint: The 505 STX is a good car on dry, well-kept roads, butit’s a tentative performer on rough, slippery highways. The culprit’s afront-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout that tends to lose its composurein the mush. Coupled with wide, low-profile tires, the 505 STX’sdrivetrain arrangement on less-than-ideal roads becomes, well, less thanideal (although the excellent anti-lock braking does help keep the carstraight in panic stops).

Praise: Great craftsmanship in the test model. Perfect fit andfinish. Excellent dashboard layout. Leather, leather everywhere. Asumptuous auto cabin if ever there was one. This, perhaps, is the “feel”Peugeot is bragging about in its TV ad. But.

Complaint, again: Just when you start enjoying all of this stuff, itstarts raining. You tense up, because you know that this car getsfrenetic in wet weather. And the test model’s streaky windshield wipers,admittedly minor irritants, don’t help much.

Epiphany: Every now and then in a test car, something jumps out atyou. You hardly see it at first. But, then, zap! It’s there. Thishappened in the 505 STX. The dual sideview mirrors! They’re big and wideand well-placed. They’re the first sideview mirrors in dozens of testcars that actually make sense.

Head-turning-quotient: This Peugeot is a frog, and frogs ain’t sexy,no slur intended. I mean, look at this thing. Those wide, oddly-angledheadlamps on that oh-so-common body. If this car even parked outside mybedroom window, I’d scream.

Acceleration: The 505 STX is powered by a smooth-running,fuel-injected, 2.8-liter, V-6 engine. Horsepower is rated at 145 at5,000 rpm. A remarkably quiet powerplant.

Sound system: AM/FM stereo radio and cassette with graphic equalizerand six speakers. Terrific.

Mileage: About 22.5 to the gallon (18-gallon tank, 400-mile range),combined city-highway, running driver only and with heater on most ofthe time.

Price as tested: $23,750. Includes leather seats, leather-coveredsteering wheel and a full raft of power equipment, such as the powersunroof. The standard transmission is five-speed manual; four-speedautomatic is $600 extra. Add $375 for destination charge and $35 forport preparation fee. The dealer invoice price on the test model (manualtransmission) is $19,713, according to Automobile Invoice Service of SanJose.