Peugeot 504

Peugeot 504 at a glance

The 504 slotted in above the 404. Peugeot's other models, old and new, are in our Peugeot catalogue, and the 504 sits among the cars covered in our classic cars section.

Generations and body styles

The 504 never had a second generation. Peugeot kept the same basic car from 1968 to the end of French saloon production in 1983 and added body styles along the way, while licence and kit assembly abroad kept it alive far longer.

Saloon (from 1968). The four-door was the core of the range and the car that won European Car of the Year 1969.

Break, Familiale and Commerciale (from 1970). The estate was presented in September 1970 and went on sale in April 1971. It used a longer 2,900 mm wheelbase and a live rear axle instead of the saloon's independent rear. The Familiale had seven seats, and the Commerciale was the utility version.

Coupé and cabriolet (1969-1983). Both were shown at the Geneva show in March 1969, on a shorter 2,550 mm wheelbase. Together they reached 31,163 cars, and production ended at the beginning of August 1983. The cabriolet ended with only 970 V6 cars built over three years.

Pickup (from 1979). Introduced in September 1979 for the 1980 model year, with leaf-spring rear suspension. In France it outlived the saloon by ten years.

Production around the world

Peugeot built more than three million 504s. Nigeria assembled 425,000 from knock-down kits and Kenya 27,000. In China the car was also sold as the Guangzhou-Peugeot GP 7200. In South Africa it was built by PACSA until late 1978, after which Sigma took over in 1979.

Engines, transmissions and performance

All engines were four-cylinders except the PRV V6, which went into the coupé and cabriolet. The 2.0 was offered with Kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection carried over from the 404; the V6 switched to Bosch K-Jetronic injection in 1977.

The standard gearbox was the four-speed BA7 manual. A five-speed manual arrived in the V6 coupé for 1977-78 and later in the pickups. From February 1969 the carburettor cars could be ordered with a three-speed ZF 3HP automatic, and the V6 had a three-speed GM automatic as an option. The power converter translates the period DIN figures into other units.

Chassis, dimensions and space

The 504 used MacPherson struts at the front and semi-trailing arms at the rear on the saloon, coupé and cabriolet. The estates had a live rear axle, and the pickups leaf springs. The saloon had disc brakes front and rear, although some simpler later versions used rear drums, and rack-and-pinion steering. A dashboard light warned of worn brake pads.

Running costs today

There are no official modern consumption figures for the 504; period figures were measured on old national norms and are not comparable with NEDC or WLTP values. What keeps running costs down in the regions where the car is still used is its simple mechanical layout and the long production life of the four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines. If you know your own car's consumption, the fuel cost calculator gives a yearly figure.

Trims and equipment

Peugeot used equipment and engine designations rather than separate model names. Typical European badges were GL and Ti on the saloon, and V6 Ti on the later coupé. Argentine production kept its own trims into the 1990s, for example an SX with the 2.3 diesel and a five-speed gearbox in 1995. Equipment by modern standards was sparse: the 504 predates airbags, ABS and electronic aids.

Safety

The 504 was designed long before crash testing by Euro NCAP, which started in 1997, so there is no star rating. Its strengths for its time were front and rear disc brakes on the saloon and the brake-wear warning light. Any 504 on the road today has no airbags, no ABS and no stability control, and buyers should treat it as a classic in that respect.

Reliability and reputation

The 504 earned its reputation on bad roads rather than in brochures. It became one of the most common bush taxis in Africa; in Kenya it stayed on sale until 2007 and was called the "King of the African road", and in 2013 the Los Angeles Times described it as "Africa's workhorse". The car was also popular across rough-terrain regions of Latin America.

Motorsport backed that up. The 504 won five World Rally Championship events, including the gruelling Safari Rally twice:

We have no sourced data on specific recurring faults, so none are listed here. As with any car of this age, rust and the condition of the brakes and suspension matter more than the model's general reputation.

Rivals

In its time the 504 competed with other large family saloons and estates from France, Germany and Italy. Inside Peugeot, it overlapped first with the 404 it was meant to replace and later with the 505, which took over the saloon role in Europe while the 504 carried on elsewhere.

Period list prices are not converted, because they were set in francs and other national currencies before the euro existed.

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