Most cars improve within their production life. They start off with a plain-Jane price leader and a deluxe / sporty variant, then other trim levels are added, engine and transmission options are grafted on, more options become available, defects are remedied, facelifts and safety features change the car’s appearance. With the 504, Peugeot sort of bucked that trend – this 504 L being a case in point.
This one hit close to home when I saw it back in the old country last month. My father had one just like it, albeit in Diesel flavour and in a different colour, when I was born. It was one of the few cars he ever bought new, sometime around 1975. Ten years later, he traded it in for a second-hand 604 SL (can you feel the social elevation?) – a move he soon regretted, from a financial point of view. Just like how Peugeot themselves felt about the 504 then: it was a good decision, broadly speaking. Over three and a half million satisfied customers the world over can’t all be wrong.
The 504 L can trace its roots directly to Peugeot’s postwar renaissance, incarnated by the 203. It arrived on the scene in 1948 and established the basic pattern for Peugeot’s next few decades: four door saloon with unit body construction; a range of variants including a wagon, a pickup and swanky two-door variants; a sturdy 4-cyl. engine with a column-mounted 4-speed – only one engine, until the 403 introduced the Diesel; the front suspension did evolve with the 404’s struts, but the rear’s coil-sprung and worm-driven live axle (with specific variants for wagons and pickups) remained.
Within this framework, the progression of Peugeot’s basic saloon from the 203 (1.3 litres, made between 1948 and 1960), 403 (1.5 litres; 1955-66), 404 (1.6 litre; 1960-75) and 504 (1796cc initially, then upped to 2-litres for MY 1971) was almost seamless. Well, except that the 504’s party trick was its IRS, but we’ll get to that.
Cut-rate Pug saloons – above: 403-Sept (1961 Dutch brochure); below: the ephemeral 404/8
The other trick Peugeot invented to make sure they kept a loyal following was to create base-spec versions long after their new car was launched. In early 1960, the 203 went out of production, but Peugeot immediately introduced the 403-Sept, a super-basic 403 with a 203-size engine. The 403 died in 1966, but the base-spec 404 wagon had a 1.5 litre engine since MY 1962 (not the 403’s engine, but a 404 block shrunk down to the 403’s displacement) and it only took Peugeot till 1967 to launch the 404/8 saloon – a stripped-down 404 with the 1.5 litre engine.
The 404/8 was a sales dud and only lasted a couple model years, even as the 504 joined the range in late 1968. Then came time for the 404 to be put out to pasture, so Peugeot played the same trick again with the 504 L. The ultra-base-spec 504 arrived in the spring of 1973 – about 18 months prior to the 404 saloon’s European market exit. This time, Peugeot did not fit the older model’s engine in the new one: they just re-used the 504’s initial 1.8, which was a direct evolution of the 404’s 1.6 anyway.
However, they kept the cheapo feel of the 403-Sept and 404/8 in many ways, both inside and out, as well as underneath: the 504 L forewent the IRS used on its pricier stablemates (above) and reintroduced the solid, rigid and oh-so-lively rear axle, hitherto only seen on the 504 wagon, back to the saloon. Just as on the wagon, the 504 L’s rear brakes were downgraded to drums, but the wagon’s double coil setup was simplified to a single pair for the new base-spec saloon.
Thus the 504 had four different rear suspensions throughout its long production life. The 2-litre saloons and the Pininfarina-built two-doors (top left) kept the IRS. The 504 L / LD (top right, the latter being with the 1948cc Diesel version, a.k.a the car we had when I was a kid) had a solid rear axle with a pair on coils. Wagons (bottom right) had a double pair of coils, inherited from the 404 wagon. The 504 pickup (bottom left), which only took over from the 404 version in late 1979 (!) featured leaf springs, as any truck should. Incidentally, the pickup outlasted the entire rest of the range in Europe, being made in France until 1996.
Mirroring its undercarriage, the interior of the 504 L was pretty old-fashioned. Peugeot used the base-spec “Commerciale” wagon’s rather severe dash, with its horizontal tachometer (from the 304) and uniformly black plastic trim. At least they used the regular steering wheel on the saloon, as opposed to the Commerciale’s ancient item. For its part, the 4-speed gearbox’s lever was on the column, whereas the higher-trim 504 saloons had theirs moved to the floor for MY 1973.
I kind of flubbed the photos of the interior, so here’s a clearer rendition of the 504 L’s distinctively uncluttered interior layout (top pic), as compared to the higher trim mid-‘70s 504 GL / TI. Pretty stark comparison! When Peugeot decided to go austere, they did not mess around.
External differences were more discreet. One key feature of the L was its lack of black bumper guards, though our feature car has them – plain 504 bumpers are apparently hard to find these days, these must be replacements. Other distinguishing marks were the L’s black plastic grille and painted door frames. The usual stripper fare.
The thing about the 504 L is that is eventually eclipsed its higher trimmed sisters. This did not happen overnight, but was the normal consequence of attrition within the Peugeot range. In 1979, the 504 L just became the plain old 504, got a better-looking dash with its four now firmly on the floor and bumpers with rubber guards, so it became less of an outlier within the range. The next year, the lowest-spec 504 saloon became the GR, now paired with a mechanically identical (but better equipped) SR.
Peugeot 504 French brochure excerpt, MY 1983
The 2-litre IRS saloons disappeared in 1980, and so did the SR in 1982, leaving the formerly-known-as-L 504 GR as the last saloon in the European range for 1983, alongside the wagon, pickup and the PF coupé/cabriolet (those still had the IRS, of course). Thus ended the 504’s European career: all of the 504’s attributes and engine options had gradually been transferred over to the 505, barring the live axle for saloons and the PF variants, which sadly just disappeared. The 505 wagon kept the 504 L’s single coil live axle setup, much to the chagrin of the many folks around the globe who praised the 404 and 504 wagon’s tough-as-nails derriere.
Peugeot themselves called the 504 “the French Mercedes” in some of their foreign adverts. With the 504 L (79hp, top speed: 155kph / 96mph) and even more so with the LD (56hp, top speed: 132kph / 82mph), the comparison with Benz is somewhat tenuous. If you thought the oil-burner W123 was kind gutless, you should try the Peugeot version. In terms of durability and reliability though, the 504 does have some similarity with Stuttgart’s best export.
As far as I know, the Argentinian- and Kenyan-made 504 saloons, the latter being sold until 2001, had the same live axle setup as our 504 L. The Nigerian cars (above), assembled until 2005, apparently had the pickup’s tougher leaf-sprung rear end, though a thorough CC investigation about these global 504s would be far more instructive than hazy and sometimes contradictory Internet sources.
I was very glad to see that at least one 504 L was not shipped off to Africa and remains, pristine and with its original plates, in its home country. This was probably the first one I’ve seen in 20 years. They are not drop-dead gorgeous like the coupés, but they certainly have character. And those “Sophia Loren” eyes – one of the only bits of the car they never really messed with. Everything else, from the rear lights to the bumpers, from the dashboard to the grille, from the engine and the rear suspension, was up for grabs, sometimes for the better, mostly for the cheaper. Peugeot really did us a solid with that one.
Related posts:
CC For Sale: 1976 Peugeot 504 Diesel – More At Home In France Than Seattle, by Roger Carr
Vintage Reviews: 1970 and 1971 Peugeot 504 – Dialing The Right Number For New Orleans, by GN
On-The-Road With The Cohort: Peugeot 504 – Is Madame In Distress?, by Jim Klein
COAL Capsule: Peugeot 504 – My Most Beautiful Failure, by Laurie Boussom
“Did us a solid” always sounds somewhat excretory to me, but given the reputation of French cars in US service, my thinking may for once not be inappropriate.
Not so shitty in many other places, of course, where the 504 is regarded as being as tough as it actually is, including in Oz. Just don’t gild the lily with aircon and self-rising windows and automatiques, because, by and large, the air won’t long be cool, the windows won’t long be co-operative, and the auto won’t much matique. (Actually, as to that last, it will, but only in the oh-so-god-help-me-there’s-an-18-wheeler-coming-at-us-despite-the-two-mile-run-up sort of way).
I’ve owned the underpinnings of two 504 non-L’s, which might be thought an odd purchase – and indeed, it would be if that’s all I’d got – but they were bolted, ofcourse, to some 505’s, as that’s what lay beneath. Great old waterbeds, they, but not properly great. The 504’s I’ve tried, from injection auto to 1.8 base, were better machines, but the 404 (also twice owned) was a better whole than either successor. Amongst other complaints, the independent rear also introduced The Gearchange Driveline Clonk, which, with a lowly-powered biggish car needing many gearbag stirrings, was excretory and apparently ineradicable.
Luckily, Orstraliya never got the basic L, nor the column wafter thingy (thought the later 404’s one was the one to show the world how to do one such). We got a smallish range of versions which were all assembled in the Renault factory – no, really – in West Heidelberg (no, really, it’s a Melbourne suburb), and don’t mention The War.
Very nice preserved old dear here, and, in shape and colour, most familiar, as I reckon every bloody 504 made here was white!
The L version was never sold in the US, not surprisingly, as that would not have been consistent with the upscale image Peugeot was cultivating.
Millions of people can be wrong. Just look at small block Chevy lovers. The most crude and disposable lump of iron to ever to come out of a sand mold, yet still loved to this day.
I wonder how many thousands of people were frustrated by the sloped rear stopping the lid from closing on a bulky item in the trunk. Butt it’s instantly recognizable.
Interesting and informative.
Not sure I understand the point of a column shifter if you’re going to have a hand-operated parking brake between the bucket seats though…
It’s been a few decades, but I’m pretty sure I remember seeing Peugeot 404 with bench seats as a kid.
Peugeot was my favorite French car, by far, back in 1970s.
We had a 404 and a 504. Both were rock solid mechanically but living at the beach was no friend to the 504. Rust produced a large hole near the license plate area where you could just reach inside the trunk, no need to open the lid.
I had a red 504.L Diesel break as a company car chasing ships all over Europe.
There was no van capable doing 120 km per hour and the L Diesel with a tandem axle trailer proved to be a strong combo, the 504 L did 120, loaded with heavy Halon or Co2 cilinders or empty it did not matter. I lived in the car and loved it, sometimes parked onboard a car-carrier sailing while working onboard and going asjore when ready, sometimes Sweden sometimes the UK but the 504 Indenor Diesel never missed a beat.
Or the story of the Egyptian ship, we had worked onboard but as a good nautical custom the ship’s Captain had to.pay COD (cash on delivery) not HID (Have it In December) and of course there was a brown envelope for the Captain. After a lot of hassling he paid, I signed the bill as paid and going down the gangway there were men busy connecting my 504 to the loading beam to hoist the car onboard.
They told me the Captain instructed them to do this so I went onboard again to ask what was going on here.
The Captain apologized and asked me how much I wanted for the 504 ( she was to be replaced later that year) but I told him the car was leased and not ours.
He insisted he wanted it because it was exactly what he wanted to have back home.
It took me a long time to convince him that he could not buy the car from me.
When I told my boss this story the next morning he told me I was an idiot, the money the Captain offered me was far more then then the remaining lease term and the fixed price our company had to pay for the car to purchase it, or we could had given it up as being stolen and split the money I was offered. I still know the car’s licence number DN 49 ST a 79 L Diesel break almost 300000 loyal kilometers.
Then an Opel Rekord 2.3 Diesel Caravan came, what a disaster was that compared to the 504
Some French family friends had a 404 in the 60s – I was struck by how well insulated from road noise the interior was. Some neighbours in London in the early 70s had an old 404 wagon – some nasty rust. Maybe the salt on wintery roads did that, but it was pretty bad. They replaced it with a 504 wagon. I’ve always loved those postwar Peugeots – you used to see the 203 and 403 blatting along those long French main roads with effortless speed – not quite up to the Citroen DS but pretty impressive for the time.
As far as I know, the Argentinian 504 always had a solid axle. Its parking brake lever stayed under the dash for most of its life, going to the floor in the late 80’s. Same with the starter switch, it didn’t go up in the column until the later ’80s. Pushbutton door handles stayed that way until the early 80’s. And floor shift cars had a weird lever, not like the French short one, but a longer one coming almost from under the dash. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for this one, but I don’t know it. About the time the 504’s European production was over for good, most of the features appeared in the Argentine version, though with an “updated” front and rear.
You might like this French article along with some photos about the 504 sold in Argentina where it was nicknamed “El Yeyo”.
https://www.carjager.com/en/blog/article/peugeot-504-el-yeyo-a-la-conquete-de-largentine.html
Thanks, Stéphane! I’ve read this article. As you say, I really liked it. In Uruguay (as in Argentina) the 403, 404, 504 and 505 were relatively expensive cars, even though they were sometimes used as taxicabs. They were part of my childhood and teenage skyline.
About that floor shifter – most probably it was connected directly to the gearbox. I had such arrangement on the Kadett tip A and Volvo 144 and it was actually pretty cool feature – no additional cables or levers with ball joints made for very satisfactory operation
You are right on spot. The difference was the same as between a ‘72 and ‘73 144 or a Kadett A/B. Thanks for the highlight!
In another bit of decontenting, the 504 L also lacked the sunroof that most 504 sedans had.
The 404 I had too briefly was I think my favorite of all the sedans I’ve had, including even my Alfa 2-liter Berlina. The night I drove four of us through a twisting road through an Alaska swamp and then slowed down because the state troopers often lurked where the road went straight … and I was flagged and ticketed for almost 70 MPH – no, the speedometer was not working! – which surprised us all, as it had felt more like 40! It took us and my mother on many lovely rides though the mountains; and other day trips, until it got rear-ended by a teenager driving her dad’s Chevy illegally on a learner’s permit. The car was totaled, but resold at a salevage price, and almost a year later I saw a Matanuska Valley farmer park it at a downtown bank, still with its butt in the air like a cat in heat. He was using it as his work truck!
I worked in Nigeria in 1992 and had a 504 and a driver. I thought the car drove and rode really well. I only drove it within the compound we were in. I’d say if it had leaf springs I would not remember the ride so favourably. So I’d say not all Nigerian 504s had leaf springs.
Unfortunately, Peugeot did mess with those Sophia Loren eyes, for the US market, not that there was any choice given regulations here. Four round eyes, that’s what we got. At least no live axle though.
Not a lot of them left alive now here apparently there was a big buying drive on 504s in the late 80s when the tsunami of used jappas began and people were keen to ‘upgrade’ the cars were exported to Africa, I fell down a Utube rabbit hole the other day and saw a vid of many 504 wagons in use in west Africa termed bush taxis they are still around and going strong but none in mint condition.
One thing that surprises me: No reverse lamps! Those were mandated in the US starting in 1966.
My first encounter with a Peugeot was in 1961 When my father traded in his 1958 Volvo PV445 Duett station wagon for a 1 year old Peugeot 403 Familia with the 3 row seating set-up, the center row being folding jump seats. Most of the time we had the Peugeot, the back seat was kept in the garden shed. Mom never liked it when the 4 of us used the Peugeot, because the folding jump seats couldn’t be equipped with seat belts.
We kept the Peugeot 403 until 1967 when it was replaced by a new Plymouth Fury wagon. I wondered why my dad, who had always used the smaller European wagons while mom drove the big American sedans, suddenly bought mom a big American wagon. That question was answered when dad brought home a new European car: A White Porsche 912 with 5 speed gearbox! And just as I was getting my driver’s license too!
Dad sold the Peugeot to another family in the neighborhood, as they had asked a couple of years prior, if it was for sale. Turned out they were missionaries making trips south of the US border. They ended up driving the Peugeot to Guatemala, then put on a boat to Ecuador, and they drove it to the tip of South America, before reversing the trip, arriving back in the neighborhood about 5 years later. I barely recognized the Peugeot because it was so badly dented and scarred. but I do remember they talked about how reliable the car was, and when it did break down, even the small local village mechanic was able to get parts & do the repairs.
In 1976 I was looking at cars in a local junkyard [remember when junkyard owners would let you wander all thru the acres of cars?], when I found our old Pug 403 wagon, stripped of most of the useable parts.
In 1997 I learned that one of my community college instructors had an ’89 504. I was intrigued, wonder how he’d managed to import it, and asked whether he ever drove it to campus and if so, I could see it.
He said he split his time between Seattle and Argentina, and the car lived in Argentina. He’d once driven it a fairly long distance in 120F heat with no problem.
I missed out on all the important differences between the 504 variants back in the day, so having an education from the Professor is welcome. It’s a thought that as late as 1973, Peugeot were selling a “premium” car with a strip speedo, column change and a (almost) hose out interior, whilst Rover were planning the SD1 thinking “modern” was the only way to go as BMW and Audi were starting to make inroads, missing out on the “reliable” bit.
Great find, and a good lesson in many ways. Merci beaucoup, mon ami!
Pops bought a 403 sedan in 1959, the tinworm got it, still ran fine but couldn’t be inspected anymore .
In 1967 he bought a 404 break, what a fantastic car, it was neglected to death and run out of oil on the new York Throughway by my sister .
He bought a 505 Diesel break in 1987 in Canada and shipped it to Hawaii , there was a massive issue with it passing through the U.S.A. on it’s way to the island .
The salty air rusted the tailgate out at least twice .
I had a beater 505 sedan, it rode fantastic but I’m not enough of a French car fan so I sold it on to two sisters who loved it beyond all reason .
-Nate
The first time I’ve personally experienced the CC Effect:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/12119356@N00/albums/72157719881949623
I spotted this car yesterday and went back to photograph it today. It’s in very good cosmetic shape for its age. I wonder where the owner got the headlights. I would have liked to have those on my 504s.
I too happen to have several oldies, amongst them are 59-203, 71-404&504 this a sunroof version and 1of 4 original in the country(Sri Lanka) by far the best cars I have in comparison to the British, German makes if the same era.
First time I see a 504 without reverse lamps, all South African models had them including the base L model
ik vind de 404 qua model het mooist. het huilende motorgeluid,het pruttelende geluid van de uitlaat,de heerlijke vering,etc. m n vader heeft 3 504 z gehad,vanwege de caravan, deze had een zelfdenkende ventilator. de laatste was een l. helaas roestte deze al na een half jaar. na 3 jaar ingeruild tegen ford taunus.
ik kijk nog steeds met veel plezier naar youtubefilmpjes van rijden met de oude 404 van 1964,met dat typische huilende motorgeluid. peugeot was ook standaard voorzien van gele koplampen en een schuifdak. het comfort,met name de heerlijke vering………….de 504l, had, net als de 404,een zeer soepele motor, als gevolg van het gunstige koppel bij 2500 tm.