The Peugeot 604 in British Columbia

Russell Hall said:
In both Mt Gambier and Hamilton businessmen owned 604's. Within six months of each other, they both burned out at intersections in the centre of the respective towns. Which seemed to indicate this was not a random fault.
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No, it wasn't random.

If my memory serves me correctly, it was Pugrambo who told me something about a fuel line being located too close to either the exhaust (heat issues) or too close to an electrical circuit.

The reliability problems of a 604 were minor compared to the 12 cylinder Jaguars.
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My brother owned a 6 cylinder Jaguar for a time during the 1980s and it was problematic enough. But I remember that people often said things like, 'if you have a V12 Jag, you have to have space in your garage for two of them. One car is to drive and the other is for spare parts.

You should have bought the Casterton 604. The seller was a dealer of sorts with a dodgy reputation but it was a good car. Salman came up and spent a couple of days on it. It was immaculate and brought good money.
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Was that directed to me, Russell?

I couldn't have bought it. Until this afternoon, I had never heard of Casterton, and even then I had to look up what it was. When I discovered that it is a place, I then had to find its location!
 
julian c b said:
I always liked the look the 604 and couldn't understand why they were not popular here.
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I think that if Peugeot had given Australia either the fuel-injected version (like the Volvo had) or the Turbo-diesel (like I think that every market in the world except Australia got), the 604 would have sold a lot better than it did here. New Zealand got the 604 Turbo-diesel. I think that a choice of those three engines would have been the best for Australia, but someone made the decision not to give Australians that choice.

That has never made sense to me.
 
I had a friend buy a 12 cylinder Jaguar, for a modest price. Lovely car. Used to spend weeks at a time in the garage. I had the impression that the performance would be wonderful but it would be like a firework, one spectacular performance and then that would be the end of it. So it was driven sedately until disposed of.
How can you have never heard of Casterton, centre of civilization of the Western District and once home to a Peugeot dealer. Source of many 03 wrecks. Visited by many well lost tourists.
 
Russell Hall said:
How can you have never heard of Casterton, centre of civilization of the Western District and once home to a Peugeot dealer. Source of many 03 wrecks. Visited by many well lost tourists.
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Possibly for the same reason that I could name a few places that you haven't heard of. If you haven't been in the area, why would you need to know about them?

The closest I've been is Horsham and that was only once, in about 1999. I had to drive through Ballarat - and that place certainly didn't impress me. I have no desire to return to that area!
 
Sorry country humor. Standard joke with those who come from obscure unknown places. Particularly when you've got your district tanker away at a fire and it's possible to construct a fine tale of the metropolis whose name is on the side of the truck.
 
Russell Hall said:
Sorry country humour. Standard joke with those who come from obscure unknown places. Particularly when you've got your district tanker away at a fire and it's possible to construct a fine tale of the metropolis whose name is on the side of the truck.
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I think that you might mean, 'Victorian Humour'. :p

I live in the country, too, and that type of humour isn't common 'round 'ere! :D

But it's all good.
 
The fault with the 604 was same as the Cortina.Loose outlet pipe ...not secured correctly.maybe needed an extra punch to secure.
I worked at Kellow Falkiners in 68.Range Rovers left at Dandenong ..OWNERS DUMPED THEM AND WALKED AWAY We bought back an XJ6 v12 Daimler 6 month old paid $32,000 bought back for $5,300 fuel had skyrocketed.WOEFUL GARBAGE!!
I repeatedly asked for a batch of 504's RED I WILL PUT MAG SON THEM...AND SELL THE LOT!!' ARRIVED AT THE END OF THE RUN.PLEASE GIVE ME A BUNCH OF 604 STI;S 505 MAGS,WIPERS ON HEADLIGHTS PRICE THEM AT 26.500 ..JUST UNDER JAGS EVERY JAG IN FOR SERVICE....HE BUD TAKE THIS HOME FOR A RUN..TELL ME YOUR STORY ..TO MORROW THEY WERE NOT WORLDS APART THEY WERE LIGHT YEARS APART.!!
As most of us realise themajority of concessioners Peugeot chose did not come anywhere near than what their products deserve .
Peugeot has an amazing record of how they treated their workers in many different ways,unlike most other manufacturers.Lets hope we see a discontinuance of avoidable errors....Oh there were a few 604 STI's that came to Aus,one came to W.A. ,possibly from South Africa,where quiet a number of those that made the journey were of the rarer models.
 
Only 10.5% of British Columbian 604s ended as salvage - which is a low normal rate and would likely have been ll down to collision damage and not fires.
 
there was one ,around here for a while with a Comadore v6 fitted ,last saw it near Mulumbimbi ,at a property i went to to buy 405 parts ,was in the shed ,probably still there ,pugs
 
Mike Tippett said:
Only 10.5% of British Columbian 604s ended as salvage - which is a low normal rate and would likely have been ll down to collision damage and not fires.
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Did you get the V6 SL model, Mike?

I don't know if all of the V6 SL models got the same carburettor version that we did or if some were fitted with fuel injection. I also don't know if RHD vs LHD made any difference to the likelihood of the fires because of the repositioning of various components for RHD as we are in Australia.

It would be interesting to see statistics for other RHD countries which got the same model/specification that we did.
 
I drove a '78 private import 604 4 speed manual with no pollution junk in the early'90s which really flew. Surprisingly economical, great cruising car, & the closest ride to the DS Citroen in my experience. The only major problems I experienced was two head gasket failures until the motor suddenly developed a metallic tapping noise which I suspected was a broken ring. Sold it cheap to a local enthusiast but never saw it again to find out what the problem was. Still one of my favourites out of the over 80 I've owned in 60+ years.

Richard
 
505604 said:
Did you get the V6 SL model, Mike?

I don't know if all of the V6 SL models got the same carburettor version that we did or if some were fitted with fuel injection. I also don't know if RHD vs LHD made any difference to the likelihood of the fires because of the repositioning of various components for RHD as we are in Australia.

It would be interesting to see statistics for other RHD countries which got the same model/specification that we did.
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We got V6 SL with twin carbs: one one barrel and a vacuum operated two barrel. 133 HP SAE Net which was the same power as the 136 PS European one. We also got the 80 HP turbo-diesel in 1981 and 1983.
 
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This was my Aus. spec 604. Ordered it in Aus. 1978 picked it up in London mid 1978 drove it around a lot then shipped it home late 1979 arriving Jan 1980. It was probably #1 on the Aus. compliance plate and a beautiful car to drive. Only issue was the world energy crisis in the 1980s and fuel was gold and it drank dollar notes. From memory it cost me about 7,500 pounds and an extra 10% VAT if I didn't get it out of the UK within 15 months of purchase. I eventually sold the car to a Sydney plumber and sadly never heard of the car again. The only thing I have of left of the Pug is one UK export number plate WYK 574S, the "S" stands for the year it was first registered 1978, unfortunately l lost the other plate in the Cyclone Debbie flood.
 
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Rather more expensive than the immaculate 111,000 km deceased estate I advertised on here for $6500 in Dec 2011. Old ad still on the site under cars for sale but I can't seem to transfer the ad. Found them in my file.
 

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