Peugeot 604 — BrandWiki

Peugeot 604

Overview

Peugeot 604

manufacturer	Peugeot
class	Mid-size luxury / Executive car (E)
body style	4-door saloon
engine	2.7 L PRV V6 2.8 L PRV V6 diesel: 2.3 L XD2S turbo I4 2.5 L XD3S/XD3T turbo I4
production	1975–1985
assembly	France: Sochaux (Sochaux Plant) France: Cerizay (Heuliez: Limousine) South Korea: Gwangmyeong (Kia: 1979–1981)‡R1R‡
layout	FR layout
successor	Peugeot 605
length	4720 mm
wheelbase	2800 mm
width	1770 mm
height	1435 mm
weight	1450 kg
related	Peugeot 504
designer	Aldo Brovarone at Pininfarina

The Peugeot 604 is an executive car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1975 to 1985.[2][3] 153,252 cars were sold during its 10-year production life. It was made in France and also assembled by Kia in South Korea, between 1979 and 1981.[4][5]

The Pininfarina-designed 604 was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1975[6] and drew praise for its formal, handsome styling. Denmark's Bilrevyen 1976 ("The Car Review 1976"), for example, described the styling as possessing a "calm elegance".[7]

In the marketplace

The Sochaux-built 604 represented Peugeot's first entry into the market segment for executive cars since the 1930s.[11] It augmented the Peugeot range.[10] The drive to enter a product in this class came from the increased affluence of the French market which Peugeot felt could accommodate a car more expensive than the 504.

Price at launch was US$10,990.[12] In the UK the car was sold for £4,785 (compared to £4,399 for a BMW 520, £4,361 for a Citroën CX Pallas, and £3,485 for a Ford Granada 3000 GL).[13][14]

The 604 had several noteworthy attributes. From the 504, it inherited a damped and supple ride,[15][16][17] equal to a contemporary Jaguar XJ6, its "good handling",[18] its spacious passenger compartment[17][19][20][21] and highly rated steering described as "a model of its kind",[18] "highly accurate"[22] and "one of the finest yet produced".[17] The 604 had unusually wide opening doors which made entry and egress very easy for users.[23] This was especially appropriate for the car in its role as a limousine.[24]

Despite critical success, the 604 was a commercial failure.[25] The production of 153,252 units was half that of the V8 engine Rover 3500 and an eighth of its stablemate, the CX. Peugeot made a profit on each car made, primarily because of the shared tooling and engineering with the 504, but the car ceased production without an immediate successor.[26]

France's car manufacturers have not had much success internationally in the executive segment after the Citroën DS's successor, the underpowered Citroën CX. The 604-era was perhaps the last point at which PSA Peugeot Citroën could theoretically have focused resources on becoming a viable long-term competitor in this lucrative market segment. PSA Peugeot Citroën actually went in the opposite direction, creating a third competitor, the Talbot Tagora.[27]

The German manufacturers did not hesitate to exploit this confusion in France, with cars like the 1974 BMW 5 Series (which also entered a segment new for the manufacturer) that had relatively good build quality.[28] German cars created an unassailable position in the executive class auto market during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Germans were not challenged again until Japan addressed this segment 15 years later.[29]

Like the situation in the US with the Lincoln Town Car, French luxury cars are now primarily used in fleets.[30]

The 604 was introduced during the recession caused by the 1973 energy crisis, which created a marketplace that was even more unfriendly to large-engined cars in France. Contemporary journalists attributed this relative failure to a variety of reasons, such as the conservative styling, the lack of technical innovation, modest performance, and a reputation for problems with rust. Others said that the recent energy crisis made this an inauspicious time for Peugeot (along with Renault, whose own six-cylinder saloon went on sale a few months earlier) to be moving into the market for six-cylinder saloons.[31] However, by the time the oil shock hit the western economies Peugeot, along with joint venture partners Renault and Volvo, presumably believed they had invested too much in the design and development of production facilities for the new shared engine that would power the 604, to abandon the venture.[31]

Over 36,000 cars were built in the first full year of production (1976). The launch of the similarly sized but cheaper Peugeot 505 in 1979 along with another oil crisis, halved sales of the V6-engined 604.[32] By 1981 7,000 examples were produced.[27]

Peugeot did launch some detuned economy versions of the 604, but they did not do much to increase the car's overall sales. Most surprisingly, a turbodiesel version was introduced at the 1978 Geneva Motor Show, alongside the expected 305 D.[33] Peugeot initially tried to convince buyers of the upper-middle class that the 604 had "The engineering of the Mercedes-Benz 280E, the handling of the BMW 5 Series and the elegance of the Jaguar XJ6 "[34] but did not convince enough buyers of this proposition.[35]

Sales, which were only strong for a few years after launch, dipped further in 1980 following the launch of the 505, and the last 604 rolled off the production line in 1985.[36] A mere 581 examples were produced in 1985, with sales continuing into 1986.[37] Peugeot's next major executive car, the 605, was launched in 1989 although a V6-engined 505 served as an interim flagship model.[38]

Today the 604 is a rare automobile in United Kingdom - there are only 17 that are road-legal as of the second quarter of 2014.[39]

Development

The 604 was launched in March 1975, at the Geneva Motor Show. It was originally available in a single specification, as the 604 SL. In 1977, the 604 was launched in the US in carbureted V6 SL trim, with twin rectangular headlights and larger bumpers. In September, the somewhat quicker 604 TI model with Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection and a five-speed manual transmission was added.[40] In late 1978, for the 1979 model year, the 80 horsepower 604 D turbo turbodiesel model was introduced; it entered production in February 1979.[41] The diesel could be ordered with either a four- or a five-speed manual transmission, as well as the GM-sourced three-speed automatic.[33] The six-cylinder 604's received modified gearbox ratios.[42]

For 1979 there were some minor modifications, including the change of the petrol filler cap from round to square.[43]

Turbodiesel

The 604 is noted for being the first production turbodiesel car ("604 D turbo") to be sold in Europe,[51] the Mercedes-Benz 300 SD having been marketed in North America since 1977.[52] The turbodiesel was launched in 1979. It uses the 80 PS 2,304 cc Indénor Diesel engine with a turbo fitted, designation XD2S. This was a reliable engine, overshadowed by one major problem.[53] Like many diesel engines of the time they were hard to start in the cold weather, the 604 was one of the worst with this problem, it was a very difficult car to start and some owners ensured it was parked on a hill to get around this. However, some minor tweaks to the glow plugs and compression made the car easier to start.[54]

The tall inline-four diesel engine was slanted at 20 degrees to fit underneath the low bonnet of the 604. Sometime in 1983, this was upgraded to a 2.5-liter version (XD3S), originally producing 90 PS at 4,150 rpm.[55] This version could reach 165 km/h when fitted with the manual transmission. Soon thereafter the engine was upgraded to electronic rather than mechanic fuel injection (XD3T), and then produced 95 PS at the same engine speed. USA and Canadian market turbodiesels mostly were delivered with a three-speed ZF automatic gearbox, which was optional elsewhere - but some five speeds were sold in Canada and the USA. Thus equipped, top speed dropped to 158 km/h.[56]

Autocar's Edward Eves conducted a long-term test of the turbodiesel in 1981.[57] The test concluded that the "604D Turbo is a fine, friendly type of car which really begs to be used. This can be seen in the way the mileage is being built up with it at the rate of 24,000 miles in the year". The overall fuel consumption was estimated at 32.5 miles per gallon (8.7 liters/100 km). The author noted that while the car was not intended as a high-performance vehicle, "it is a very practical vehicle for experienced drivers and is capable of very high point-to-point averages once the technique of driving on the torque curve is mastered". It was also described as "an effortless long-distance car and should be considered by anyone whose motoring is of the order of 30,000 miles a year because this is one of the longest-legged of cars...that I have met". Regarding the diesel engine start-up procedure, the author described it as "remarkably like firing up a petrol engined model". Accommodation inside the car was viewed as being "fully up to international standards for a four-five seater touring saloon with room in the rear seat for two people to travel long-distances in real comfort". The velour seats were praised for their comfort but were viewed as being vulnerable to burns and soiling. Autocar noted that the map pockets in the doors were insufficiently deep and during the test the speedometer cable failed and the foil insert from the rubbing strip on a door detached.[58]