UK’s rarest cars: 1977 Peugeot 604, one of only eight left
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The 604 was associated with senior government officials in its homeland, preferably with the wings be-decked with tricolour flags. In the UK, it was always a rare sight – a car that seemed to regard the Ford Granada Ghia or the Vauxhall Royale with patrician disdain. But now Robert Desmond’s 1977 example is now one of only eight of all types left on British roads.
Peugeot intended the 604 to attract well-heeled drivers away from their BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes and Volvo 164s. Desmond remarks the impact of the 1973 fuel crisis led to the 2.7-litre PRV engine co-developed with Renault and Volvo being reduced from eight to six cylinders: “This is why it retained a 90-degree angle between the cylinder banks rather than a more natural [for a V6] 60 degrees.” Peugeot employed the platform and even the doors of its long-running 504 to save development funds, although the Pininfarina bodywork had no resemblance to the smaller model.
A prototype 604 starred at the 1975 Geneva motor show. Production commenced in September of that year when the French government almost immediately declared the new Peugeot its ministerial car of choice. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the President of France from 1974 to 1981, favoured the big Peugeot, and three examples joined the Elysée Palace’s fleet.
Across the Channel, Peugeot GB claimed: “The 604 sets the measure of comfort, efficiency and style to which many aspire but few achieve.” Certainly, comparatively few could also afford the 604. In late 1976, it cost £5,306 – over £500 more than the new Rover 3500 SD1 and about £900 more than a Ford Granada 3.0 Ghia.
At that time, many Britons regarded Peugeot as a niche marque, but this newspaper believed the 604 had “a classical simplicity of line that should not date for many years”. Autocar thought it “serene and comfortable, the sort of car one could drive all day without being tired at the end”.
Peugeot continued to expand the range, with the Bosch K-Jetronic fuel-injected Ti in 1976 and three years later the turbodiesel-engined 604TD. By then, the 505 was proving an in-house rival and from 1981 onwards the company sold fewer than 10,000 units per year. The Talbot Tagora we featured in 2022 was a further in-house rival, selling 20,133 between 1981 and 1983 – Peugeot sold 16,370 examples of the 604 during the same period.
Production of the 604 ceased in November 1985 after 153,252 units, although sales continued until as late as July 1987. Peugeot would not introduce its 605 replacement until 1989. The 604 had never achieved its domestic sales projections, partially due to its engine’s excessive thirst and lack of low-speed flexibility. Nor had it fulfilled Peugeot’s hopes in the potentially lucrative US export market. A faintly bizarre footnote to the narrative was the 381 examples made under licence by Kia of South Korea as its rival to the Hyundai-built Ford Granada.
Today, any 604 is the province of connoisseurs such as Desmond. “This is a very early model, as per the round fuel cap and the bonnet badge,” he says of his car. “The previous owner was Keith Herbert, who was big on the Peugeot scene. He added a few little extras like the ‘F’ badges on the front wings [denoting its Pininfarina styling] and little silver lions on the rear pillar vents.”
Desmond finds his 604 will “cruise happily at 80mph and the ride is super smooth, nothing like hard-riding and jiggly modern cars. It feels similar to Jaguar XJs and Citroens with hydropneumatic suspension.
“The alloy wheels are in the style of the original TRX metric items but which accommodate normal 15-inch tyres; I have been looking on and off for 30 years to find a set. I had to get the centre caps imported from France, but I think they look far better than the 14-inch steel originals, which made it look like it was riding around on castors.”
The 604 was not a flawless machine, but at its finest it was a true grand boulevardier cruiser. When Car evaluated it opposite the BMW 528 and the Jaguar XJ6 3.4 Series 2, they concluded: “The Jaguar is still a brilliant car, but in some respects Peugeot have managed to better it. And that takes some doing.”
