In the 1970s, several car makers were gaining traction in the flourishing luxury car niche. Mercedes’ W116 S-class, BMW’s E9 series, Jaguar’s XJs, and American models from Cadillac and Lincoln were selling for premium prices, helping fund growth at all these manufacturers. But in France, the luxury market was limited to derivative products from Citroen. Peugeot aimed to change that with a clean-sheet model – the 604. Despite a consecutive naming designation vis-a-vis the 504, the two cars were completely different. Whereas the 504 was a workmanlike family saloon, the expensive 604 had higher aims. Those aspirations were never realized, however: though more than 3 million 504s were sold worldwide, the 604 managed sales of just 153,000 units. This 1975 Peugeot 604 SL is available here on eBay, with bidding at $3700, reserve not met. The selling dealer is located in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
The 604’s struggles began immediately, as it was launched in 1974 amid the global gas crisis. The engine was developed jointly with Renault and Volvo as part of the PRV series, without thrift in mind: this SL’s factory-supplied 2.7-liter V6 managed only about 16 mpg in the city. Early 604 V6s breathed through a triple-choke Solex carburetor, while later versions received fuel injection. Output is around 136 hp; decent torque figures support the car’s reputation as a comfortable cruiser. This example is equipped with a four-speed manual. The odometer reads 87k km. The seller notes that the car has “always been housed” in a climate-controlled museum, covering only 1000 miles during the last four years.
The 604 is mostly lauded for its interior comfort. Reviewers say the seating is plush but supportive, though notably, if you must move the seat forward, you will find that it arcs down, disappearing from under-thigh. Veglia gauges are set in a ’70’s-style box, with nary an ounce of charm. The rest of the instrument panel is forgettable as well. That said, in terms of condition, this example is excellent.
The body was designed by Pininfarina, which delivered many a rendering to Peugeot from the 1950s forward. The 604 retains Peugeot’s characteristic clean-box look, softened by a curved front fender line, but it’s missing the dip in the hood between the two headlamps. That trademark feature, giving the illusion of a slant-eyed look, is how I know a Peugeot is approaching. Instead, it’s as if company management aimed to mimic BMW, “sharking” the 604’s nose. Whatever you think of the design, this 604 is in superb cosmetic condition. If a luxury Peugeot is on your bucket list, I doubt you’ll find better, short of traveling to Europe.
A “POO-Joe”, as the old man called them, like “Renultz”, I think he felt silly saying it correctly. Nice car, and probably the most non-goofy French car to come along. Peugeot was a tough sell, Americans just didn’t take them seriously, with French cars like the Dauphine, or ha-ha, Columbos quirky 403, very rarely would one see one in the Badger. A what now, a POO-Joe? From France? Good heavens, fat chance we all laughed,OOOO La La,,,,in ’75 that is. You can imagine the irony when the Alliance came along,,,these were great cars, and for the record, dad, it’s pronounced “puh-ZHO”!
It’s too bad French cars have disappeared from US shores. The created and continue to create some beautiful and unique vehicles. Someone is going to get one very nice Peugeot here. This looks to have been really pampered. Surprise, being from IL, it didn’t succumb to the salt.
French cars disappeared because they were/are junk. I was service manager at a Pew-gut store back in the day. We had Pontiac and Isuzu also. I had no problems with the Pontiac and no problems with Isuzu but every time I saw a Pew drive up the service lane I started crying like a baby. Well almost.
They could not be fixed. Repair something today and tomorrow something else breaks. The owners were all lunatics as that was a requirement to buy one of the ugly things.
One woman had nothing but problems and sued us. She won a few bucks and damned if she didn’t come in and trade that junk Pew for another junk Pew.
You are one of the reasons Peugeot failed in the US. They were sold at GM dealers who didn’t give a s*** about selling or servicing them. They kept coming back to your place because you didn’t know how to fix them!
Peugeot was failing in European sales and was considered an old man’s uninteresting vehicle. My father bought a 403 around 1960. Reliable and with plenty of space for a family with 2 kids at least as i can remember but slow. Then in the 90’s i think, they decided to save the marque with a totally different design direction aiming to the younger generation and succeded. The 307 among them became the 2002 European car of the year and rally wins proved that the ‘new’ Peugeot was there to stay.
A “consecutive naming designation” from the 504 would have been 505, which did eventually appear as its successor model. Incrementing the first digit to 604 indicated a size-class larger than the 504.
Of note, the 604 used the front half of the 504’s passenger cell and most of its floorpan. Pininfarina simply designed new bodywork forward of the firewall and aft of the B-pillars, along with a new interior, to derive the 604 from the 504.
Really nice looking Peugeot. We had a family friend many years ago that had a couple of 504s . They were all solid, reliable cars. They also hold up well in a collision as they very unfortunately found out. The car was totalled but they walked away. Thats the important thing. I don’t think you’d find a nicer 604 around.
HA! I Was wondering when this would re-emerge. I was the high bidder on the Bring A Trailer auction a couple weeks ago but reserve was not met. We could not come to a deal on offers. I know what he wants for it and its well above this. I sold a few things and could spend more for it but not sure I want that much dough tied up in a weird Frenchmobile….
And yet you bid on it.
Yeah up to what I wanted to spend. He wanted way more. Does that make sense?
Lovely, big, comfy and fast.
I’d rather have a 505, though…
Fast? When was the last time you drove something with a PRV engine? I believe the fastest car ever to a a PRV engine was a DeLorean.And those were not fast! And thatvwas with all the latest for the time upgrades. Working at a Volvo dealer you see the “proof of the pudding” A 740 Volvo in a standard 4 cylinder setup.(non turbo) Was worth double what one with a PRV engine was. And there was a good reason for that. It took a very reliable car and made it a gas hog, slow, unreliable piece of junk.
Peugeot (particularly the 504 series were very strong cars. Always a top finisher in the East African Safari. A friend of a friend was driving is 504 in downtown Chicago when a very large slab of marbel came off the face of a tall building and landed on his car roof. While in the hospital he ordered a new one stating ” If in another car I would be dead.” There is a 504 wagon in my neighborhood that has been parked for awhile. I keep meaning to investigate it. Yes, it is French, so it is quirky. And thankfully not as quirky as a Citroen. More in the lines of a Renault. But if you can start to understand the reasoning for the way they do things. Then it isn’t so bad to work on them.
Wrong Wayne!
PRV was used in lots of things you apparently dont know about. It also was built in displacements from 2.0 – 4.0 L.
Get ready!
PRV powered car has the all time top speed record at Lemans.
Over 240 mph!
It was a Peugeot.
The 504 coupe rally cars ran the PRV V6. I rallied then.
I owned a 604 from new. This was the car used by French dignitaries including the French president. It rode and handled superbly. My friends with MBs at the time were astonished at how superior it was to their cars. But the carb versions were horrible to keep tuned, and Peugeot had an astonishingly 100% markup on parts in the US, which killed the brand here.
I ended up losing mine in a divorce. But karma came to the rescue as she lost control of it, hit a pole on the passenger side at the B pillar totalling it ( they were solid cars, she wasn’t hurt.) and she ended up having to drive a Dodge Omni.
In the early 1980’s I had a friend and colleague in Sweden who had only been driving a beat up Volvo 142 that he had “borrowed” for years from his brother. He was finally to buy an own car, and the first dealer he visited sold Peugeot and had a very nice used 604. He sat in, and when the salesman came over he just said “I’ll have it”. So yes, it is indeed comfortable!
The 604 was quickly known for its high fuel consumption. My friend often cited a line from a German car magazine “Der Peugeot lässt sich das Benzin gut schmecken” (Roughly “The Peugeot let itself enjoy the taste of gas”) The engine got known for major reliability issues, primarily with head gasket failures. My friend didn’t experience that, but it had a distributor with dual breaker points that needed frequent fettling and the location of the distributor didn’t make it easy. And then it had a strange design flaw with a very fine spline on the input shaft to the differential where the female spline on the driveshaft coupling would quickly wear.
One mystery with this car is with the front. I’m fairly certain that these square headlights came later, perhaps 1978-79? The early 605 had a silver grille with 4 round headlights. These look better, but I don’t think they are original to a 1975.
Letting itself enjoy the taste of gas wouldn’t work today with Trump Warmonger affecting the rapidly escalation of gas prices. Is there any relief in sight?
So the left makes a comment. I guess you forget the o’biden prices before Trump came back. Trump prices will soon be back down where o’biden was determined to raise prices forever.
John F- yes, the sane made a comment.
Leftist always think that the rules don’t apply to them. Most of us don’t come here for stale political commentary. I bet you drive a Tarbant and a Lada too, comrade.
The four round headlights came in the First 504, back in 1969/1970. Never in the 604.
Yup, and the early US-market 505 also got the four round sealed-beams (later changed to two rectangular sealed-beams), but the US-market 604 always had four rectangular sealed-beams.
I’d always thought the 604 didn’t look very Peugeot-like because its headlights didn’t have the “eyes of Sophia Loren” (as Pininfarina’s Aldo Brovarone described them) arched-eyebrow shape that first appeared on the 504 and remains as a brand signature to this day.
This is a Euro spec car, imported around 2002. Headlights are Euro cuz the car is Euro!
That must have been US-market models (unless retro-fitted); Euro-spec all had the square lights pictured.
The 604 has the gearshift on the floor.
My 504 had a 4 speed “on the TREE”! (column shift)
it actually worked quite well…
A minor accident (Grill/headlights etc) left the car driveable but unusable. The body shop couldn’t get the parts for 1 1/2 years!!!
Otherwise, the 504 was a great car… Lots of suspension travel. Their engineering was innovative …right down to the stainless steel hub caps with a single bolt in the center keeping them secure!
I see a couple of people aren’t reading the rules – let’s just deal with the car and not interject personal political beliefs on this site please.
Funny story. I was service manager at a Pew-go store and I had to approve all cars going to the UC lot. One day the Import manager brought a 504 and asked to have the AC fixed. I gave it to the Import tech who came back and told me it had no AC. This was an almost new car with 4000 miles. So I had to see and yep it had no air. So I drove it over to the manager, called him out to the car and told him it had no air. So he told me yes I need you to have it repaired. So I told him to watch my lips, IT AIN”T GOT NO AIR installed. He had to look for himself. So he told me to have a kit installed and I told him you cannot install AC on a 504 after it leaves the factory. Then he asked what should he do with the car and I told him to ship it up to Minnesota.
About two weeks later after the car had been taken to the auction the Volvo dealer up the street called me about buying an AC kit for a 504. So I told him it wasn’t available and he asked me to order one. That is when I told him to watch my lips. LOL. He asked me what they should do with the car and I suggested sending it to Minnesota.
I was helping a friend look for a small pickup and we went to check out a Chevy S10. The ad said A/C blows cold. I was sitting in the driver’s seat checking everything out in there and noticed the HVAC controls didn’t say A/C. I got out and popped the hood open. And sure enough, no compressor, condenser, lines or evaporator box. I complained that he was misrepresenting the vehicle. He said “the air conditioning works perfect, you are just trying to get the price down!”
At the junk yard in San Francisco where I worked, we took in a 604. It had been towed out of a garage after being dormant for a few years and showed about 34K miles. Other than some dust it was immaculate and probably would have run if we had tried to start it. I got to examine it in detail and was impressed by the overall high quality of the fit and finish especially the seats. But there was absolutely no interest in it from anyone. We were always a bit sad to have to scrap a really nice car. After a couple weeks we pulled the wheels and Michelin tires and and prepped it to ship on a flatbed trailer to be shredded at Schnitzer Steel in Oakland. From there it would be loaded onto a freighter for shipment to Korea or China. Thus closing the Circle of Life.
I saved the only bit that survives; the chrome script “Automatique” from the trunk lid.
Peugeots were never in my wheelhouse of cars to own, however back in the late 90’s a friend of mine who lived in Cal, invited me out from the east coast. He had a 504 with a 5 speed. We drove all over mid California coast from SF to Monterey peninsula. It was extremely enjoyable to drive, especially with the 5 speed and the ride was superb. The seats were very comfortable and supportive. The only glitch in the trip had nothing to do with the car……. It was trying to drive a stick in the hilly Pacific Heights section of SF! What a pain! You could barely let the clutch out with those hills, before having to press in in for the next intersection. I love driving a stick but if I lived in PH, there is no way I would have one!!
It ended on ebay RNM $7877. Thats two auctions now well below the $12k he wants for it. I’m game at the auction prices but not gonna overpay for the French car novelty.
Hey Rallye,
I forgot about Woodner!
And John Wolfe RIP and grant Whittaker RIP died in a 504 coupe on a stage in OK.