If you ever visit Universal Studios in Universal City, California, you will want to take the studio tour.  You might recognize a number of familiar “Columbo” locations and artifacts, like the “Jaws” shark featured in “Fade In To Murder,” and some of the standard exteriors – and the tour itself, as taken by the unfortunate victim in “Murder, Smoke And Shadows”.

And you will certainly want to be on the lookout for Columbo’s Peugeot 403.

Columbo’s car can be elusive, and it sometimes goes away on tours, or is moved for special appearances – see, for example, “Columbo and the World’s Strongest Man”.

You might find the Peugeot prominently displayed with honors, as in this 1996 vacation photo sent by Adrian Oates from the UK. (Thanks, Adrian!)

Or, it might be tucked away on a back lot, surrounded by ordinary police vehicles.

Or, parked near the DeLorean time machine from “Back to the Future”.

Our intrepid webmaster, Stephen Burns, personally grabbed this picture during a tram tour of the studio. Stephen’s tram was traveling at top speed through the Universal lot when he suddenly spotted the famous Peugeot. Leaping into action, Steve jumped from the moving vehicle, risking life and limb, to capture this photo. We hope you like it. (Note, this is the “old” Columbo car!)

Here we have an extremely rare picture of two (2) Columbo cars, carefully hidden away at Universal!  We have revealed elsewhere that Columbo has owned back-up vehicles over the years (see, for example, “Death of a Peugeot”), and that tradition continues. This photo features screenwriter Frank D’Angeli, who kindly sent us the picture. Read about Frank’s script, “Columbo: Murder By Suicide” -- which we still hope to see produced -- in Frank’s article, “An Open Letter of Thanks”.  

For More car info check out

The Car Topless

"It Could Use A Coat Of Paint": Columbo's Car Crashes and Car Problems

Inside Columbo's Car