The 604 was offered in the US for awhile, but was hardly a success. Offered at first with just the PRV V6, Peugeot later offered the diesel in the US, too.
Peugeot was said to be targeting the buyers of the BMW 5 Series, Mercedes S Class and Jaguar XJ-6 with this car. The problem was the 604 was not as exciting as the BMW, as durable as the Mercedes or as classy looking as the XJ-6. Peugeot's tiny dealer network didn't help things either. I suspect that here in the US, the few people who did buy a 604 were people who already liked Peugeots and were looking for a step up from the 504.This is an interesting 604. It's a recently imported Euro spec car. It's a turbo diesel. The XD2S diesel engine was used in a number Peugeots and Citroens and is very durable. The turbo unit itself is "old school", but will last quite awhile if you follow some simple old school turbo procedures such as letting the car warm up for 30 seconds before driving, letting it idle for a few minutes before shutting it off after high speed driving, etc. The diesel gets around 30 MPG on the highway and 25 around town. That's not too bad for a big car like this.
This car is in pretty remarkable condition. 604s rusted badly and this one has very little rust. The interior looks to be in nice shape and the seller says it runs and drives well. The European bumpers and lights look 100 times better than the big bumpered, sealed beam headlight cars we received here.I'm not a big fan of old school diesel cars, but their durability and great mileage can't be denied. If that's important to you, this 604 would be a cool alternative to a Mercedes.
Located in "Casselberry / Orlando", FL, click here to see the eBay listing.
5 comments:
Oh yeah, I've come across that listing myself. An old Euro Peugeot imported from France recently is pretty rad. And, it's nice that it's in a small suburb northeast of Orlando. Not that I'll be able to purchase it, though...
This is very interesting. Only this morning, I was actually thinking about the Peugeot 604, and its wipers among other things.
Local 604's (in right-hand-drive form) had their wipers set up for left-hand-drive. This meant that the wipers sat in an ungainly clump, right in the driver's field of view. Yet this car, ironically, appears as though the wipers were actually set up for RHD, in spite of its otherwise LHD configuration.
Go figure...
This 604 features the "must have" TRX specific wheel/tire combination. These same wheels appeared on that fine 504 Coupe featured in JACG a while back.
Other makes also offered specific wheel/TRX combos, such as BMW, Citroen and others.
They were even found on the Fox bodied Ford Mustang. Ford decided to make their rims look like attachments for a food processor, which is too bad.
Try doing a Google Image Search for "TRX wheels" and see what comes up. A search for "jantes TRX" will bring up the wheels for french cars.
The WIKI page for TRX states in part:
The Michelin TRX is a radial tire introduced by the Michelin Group in 1975. Its introduction as the first "low profile" tire marked an advance in tire technology...
...TRX tires require the use of wheels that were specially mated to the tires; standard tires do not fit TRX wheels.
Hey - I totally forgot this... the 604 limo by Heuliez.
A Google image search for "604 limousine" conjures up a number of them - through the magic of the internets!
I used to see them occasionally in the old country. They were quickly eclipsed by the Renault 25 limo however.
Great car. Dad thought about getting one when new, but the price tag did him in.
Peugeot diesels are thoroughly reliable. Peugeots in general are excellent cars.
I saw the Ebay ad. The price of the car is out of line, as NADA puts the car around $4800, not the $8000 buy it now!
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