Start with what the Peugeot 402 is: a 4-door sedan / Long-wheelbase ‘familiale’ sedan / various cabriolets and coupés / van and utility versions with 1991 cc straight-4, built from 1935 to 1942, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. What it meant takes a little longer.
The background
The Peugeot 402 is a large family car produced by Peugeot in Sochaux, France, from 1935 to 1942. It was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in 1935, replacing the Peugeot 401. The Peugeot 402 stands out in automotive design by its very streamlined, but also still somewhat Art Deco styling, strongly influenced by that of the 1934 Chrysler Airflow; especially the low-volume 402 Darl'mat coupé is viewed as distinctly Art Deco. Peugeot's 402 took it two steps further, however: the grille has an even more pronounced rake, but most importantly, Peugeot brought the headlights to the center, behind the grille, and in front of the radiator, sixteen years before the 1951 General Motors Le Sabre concept car. Contrary to Chrysler's Airflow, the Peugeot 402 wasn't a sales flop. Furthermore, the 402 Éclipse décapotable, made in collaboration with Pourtout coachbuilders, was one of the world's first convertible hard-top production cars.
Despite being introduced some thirteen years after the demise of the 402 during World War II, the Peugeot 403 was clearly intended as the 402's successor, given that after the war, the market first needed cheaper and smaller, more frugal cars. Peugeot saw this and thus focused on their 202 and 203 models during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The engineering
The engine is 1991 cc straight-4; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1110 -. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2880 mm légère (light) / 3150 mm / / 3330 mm longue / familiale. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the Peugeot line-up the Peugeot 402 has a clear place: it replaced the Peugeot 401; it handed the line to the Peugeot 403; the factory was Sochaux (Sochaux Plant), France. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Bugatti Type 57, the Chevrolet Suburban, the Volkswagen Beetle. Its Peugeot stablemates include the Peugeot Onyx and the Peugeot Pars.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Peugeot 402 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.