Rusty But Trusty

Well, after that run of more mainstream cars, I want to get back on the wagon of unusual rides. Since I’ve never been one to go less than full throttle in that direction (witness my choice in cars), I’ve found a Peugeot 604 to feature today. These cars have always kind of reminded me of a contemporary Mercedes in terms of their general proportions, and my experience with them is limited to spotting one on the street and saying “hey! that’s a Peugeot 604!”, causing general confusion and eye-rolling around me. I also looked at one once in a consignment lot in Santa Clara, when I was young, idealistic, and thought I could convert all my friends into liking weird cars (the score? one friend bought a Saab 900 turbo, and I changed to guiding my friends to the right cars for them).

Anyway, the story of the 604 is pretty interesting – this was the first large executive-level car they made since the 1930s, and even though it was not a great commercial success, they made money on every one since it was based on the 504. The ride also compared well to an XJ6, although the power certainly didn’t. Most relevant to our feature car, the Peugeot 604 TD was nearly the first turbodiesel production car, narrowly beaten out by the US-market Mercedes 300SD by a matter of months. Find our second-place example in Bakersfield, CA (north of Los Angeles) for $1750.

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