Imperfect winner
Large French limousines often have a certain appeal, even though your head may tell you that you should go for something else. This Peugeot 605 seems a relatively safe choice. One for which you will have to sit at the negotiating table for a while.
When you think of French top models, special but also somewhat sensitive classics undoubtedly come to mind, such as the Citroëns DS and CX, Peugeot 604 and Renault 25. A little later, the French made a nice contribution to the luxury pocket with the Citroën XM, Renault Safrane and Peugeot 605, with the last two being the most ‘safe’ choices. We have already considered a Safrane, now we have a nice 605 in front of us.
Just like the Renault Safrane, the Peugeot 605 was, next to the Citroën XM, a fairly no-nonsense designed car by French standards. Peugeot played it up a bit safe; it was clearly a big brother of the 405 and was already quite popular. In a flash you could even confuse the two, although the 605 clearly had proportionately larger headlights and slightly more subtle rear lights than the 405. It shared its basis with the Citroën XM, although the hydropneumatic suspension system remained reserved for the Citroën .
You might expect that here in the down-to-earth Netherlands we had a clear preference for the 605, but nothing could be further from the truth; the Citroën In total, more than 11,000 605s were newly registered here, and in the third year (1992) this happened to this green example. A relatively modest 605; a 2.0 SRi with a manual gearbox, only the SLi was cheaper at that time. Those who really did it well left a 605 SV 24 on their doorstep, which was almost twice as expensive.
Why is this 605 interesting? Well, it’s only had three private owners and the first kept it from 1992 to 2012. That’s always a good sign, of course. The 605 has also only driven about 81,000 km, which is of course very little for a 31-year-old car. However, there are also some snags, because the Peugeot has been with car companies since 2017 and of course such a low mileage is often also a sign of a long standstill. This can be detrimental to a car and a thorough maintenance service is probably a good idea must. Finally, the price still has to drop a lot, especially if it gets another service. €5,250 is asked for the 605, while there are also some cosmetic drawbacks. Enough ammunition to shoot with at the negotiating table and sooner or later a true enthusiast will really go for it.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl