Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën. Peugeot's roots go back to bicycle manufacturing at the end of the 19th century. Its headquarters are located in Paris, avenue de la Grande Armée.

Peugeot names the models of their cars in the x0y format; x describes the size of the car (and hence its class), whereas y describes the model number (the higher the number, the newer the model). Therefore, a Peugeot 406 is bigger and newer than a Peugeot 305. This general rule has its exceptions, for instance the Peugeot 309 was produced before the Peugeot 306 - the out-of-step number signified the 309's Simca underpinnings rather than it coming from a Peugeot lineage. Another exception is certain variants, such as the 206 SW, which is around the length of a "40y" car.

This tradition began in 1929 with the launch of the 201, which followed the 190. All numbers from 101 to 909 have been deposited as trademarks. Although in 1963 Porsche was forced to change the name of its new 901 coupé to 911, certain Ferraris and Bristols have been allowed to keep their Peugeot-style model numbers. An unsubstantiated explanation for the central '0' is that on early models the number appeared on a plate on the front of the car, with the hole for the starting handle coinciding with the zero. More recently, on the 307 CC and the 607 the button to open the trunk is located in the '0' of the label.

Peugeot is planning to use a four digit system in the future, with a double zero in the middle for specific niche models such as minivans or SUVs. It was tested with the 4002 concept car. The 1007 used this system when it was launched in 2005, and it is expected that the upcoming Peugeot SUV will also have a four digit number. Peugeot has also announced that after the 9 series, it would come back to 1, producing new 201, 301 or 401.