North America is one of the largest and hottest automotive markets on the planet. That means it’s always getting fresh product, with older vehicles often being kicked out of the marketplace as newer, shinier machines make the aging models unviable to sell any longer. In less trend-sensitive global markets where budgets tend to be tighter, models can stick around much longer. Iran falls very much into that latter category. By virtue of that fact, it’s one country where you can still go out and buy yourself a nice new Peugeot 405.
It’s all down to Iran Khodro—one of the biggest automakers you’ve never heard of. It brands itself as IKCO, boasts 72,000 employees, and builds over a million cars a year. A great many of the company’s products are based on old Peugeot designs, some of which wear the French badge, and others IKCO. Peugeot itself put the 405 design out to pasture in 1997, but the Iranian concern plowhed ahead and has never looked back. Today, it’s building a whole family of models on the 405 platform, and there’s no signs it plans on stopping any time soon.
Chief among them is the Peugeot PARS. At one time known as the “Peugeot Persia,” it’s instantly recognizable as a Peugeot 405 at a glance. It kind of looks like what you’d get if Peugeot had released a late-stage refresh of the 405 in the early 2000s, with its clear headlights and new dashboard. Given it entered production in 2000, that checks out. You get front airbags and power windows, with the interior trunk release also listed under “comfort equipment.” It still rocks a CD player, but you get steering wheel buttons and a Bluetooth-capable sound system.
The PARS is available with an eclectic mix of Peugeot-designed engines. You can have the gasoline 1.8-liter, 8-valve engine designated XU7L3, which offers 100 hp and 112 pound-feet of torque. It also has a dual-fuel variant which also runs on compressed natural gas (CNG), but only delivers 83 hp and pound-feet of torque on that fuel. Alternatively, you can specify the 1.6-liter, 16-valve TU5, good for 105 hp and 104 pound-feet of torque. The latter engine is the only model available with an automatic gearbox; both engines can otherwise be had with a five-speed manual.
Companies don’t always publish top speed figures for cheap commuter cars, but IKCO isn’t afraid. The Peugeot PARS will top out at 190 km/h (118 mph) if you specify the TU5 engine with the manual transmission. The auto drops that to 111 mph, while the CNG model will only do 105 mph on the alternative fuel. Oh, and for a further taste of the old school, it’s available with 14-inch and 15-inch wheels.
Despite the name change, the PARS is still a Peugeot 405 through and through. But what of the other cars that IKCO has developed from the 405 platform? Well, there’s the IKCO Dena, which has been in production since 2015 as a family sedan. It’s kitted out with the IKCO EF7 engine, a gasoline engine that the company designed in partnership with German engine company F.E.V GmbH. It’s good for 113 horsepower and 114 pound feet of torque, and in manual form, it’ll do 31 mpg combined. The older IKCO Soren is similarly a four-door sedan based on the 405 platform, using the same engine in current production but in a more dated body.
But that’s not what you want to know about. You want to know about the IKCO Arisun. It started out as a simple ute based on the ancient Paykan, a vehicle built by IKCO based on the British Rootes Arrow design from the 1960s. Built from 2015 to 2020, it got a tray-back bodyshell built using Peugeot 405 panels laid on top. It retained the rear-wheel-drive layout of the Paykan chassis underneath, and was outfitted with the IKCO OHVG2 engine, capable of running on gasoline and CNG. It was good for a maximum of 86 horsepower and 103 pound feet of torque, or 78 hp and 94 pound-feet on CNG. It used a leaf-spring rear end and rode high at the back, and had a max payload of 600 kg (1322 pounds). Hilariously, despite its ancient underpinnings, it came with an interior not out of place for the 21st century, though basic in its appointments.
It was then succeeded by the Arisun 2 in 2022, which abandoned the rear-wheel-drive Paykan chassis and was built on the 405 platform instead. Still in production, the Peugeot-based ute is thus naturally front-wheel-drive. It does still rock leaf springs at the rear, but the new model can take a heftier payload of 750 kg (1653 pounds). It runs the gasoline-only Peugeot XU7 engine like other IKCO models, and delivers 98 horsepower and 107 pound-feet of torque. IKCO reckons it’ll do zero to 60 mph (well, 0-100 km/h) in around 13.8 seconds, so don’t expect hot quarter-miles out of one of these.
It’s interesting to see how cars develop in weird markets outside our own. Often, market effects, geopolitical conflicts, and general human ingenuity tend to have an effect not dissimilar from the way the Galapagos Islands evolved such unique creatures. Iran ran with the 405 much like China ran with the Volkswagen Santana, and Brazil, the Beetle. In this case, IKCO then evolved it into a whole family of new and interesting creatures that hint at some distant, reserved French ancestor. It’s kind of beautiful.
The idea of driving a cheap front-wheel-drive ute with French underpinnings and decent fuel economy is intoxicating, but you’ll probably never get one in the US. Maybe in 25 years, you could import one and enjoy its Peugeot drivetrain and the fact that nobody at Cars and Coffee will have ever heard of it. What a day that would be.
Image credits: IKCO
I actually live in Iran. was searching about how good is the TU5 engine in the internet and suddenly saw this article. was interested to see how other people in more advanced countries think about this. just wanted to add some new information. Iran does not allow import. well, technically it does but we actually have to pay extra fees when we want to buy a foreign car. they call it “Gomrok fees”. this makes it that for example a BMW X4 2017 model is priced a around 13 billion Tomans(Iranian currency) if we convert it to dollars it will be near 326,307 USD. this makes import for average people nearly impossible. they say the want to promote domestic industries but that’s not really true since as you can see they are not willing to improve. other than that, about Pars; they used to make the Citroen 7L4 engine back from 2001. they were actually the best versions of this car known as the ELX version. which was basically taken from Xantia Citroen. now we have this car with three different engines, XU7, XU7 Plus, and TU5. the TU5 version is the most expensive one. they changed the interior design of this car and made it look like Sonata’s dashboard since 2014. their recent models even have daylight. the car is actually worth around 21000USD and provides little to no options nor safety since the material quality is very low on the body of these cars. however, I can tell you between Iranian cars, Pars is the most favorite one for people and you can see it everywhere. further, Dena uses three engines, EF7, EF7 Turbo, and EF7 Plus (also known as EFP) Turbo. recently the made Tara which uses the TU5 Plus engine and the platform is taken form Peugeot 301. All and all, Iranians really love to have foreign cars but they are forced to choose between these cars. we al know how bad these cars are but we still need a car for our daily lives so we are buying these. I really liked your article thanks for noticing Iran’s car industry.
Fascinating information!
I purchased a brand new 405 in December of 1989 from the Peugeot dealer on the island of Guadeloupe. That was 34 YEARS AGO!
Wild! you got in early!
It’s neat to see more about these time capsules. The Iranian car market is isolated for a lot more reasons than just not being a “big market” though…
Yeah, I touch on that in the latter half without wanting to get into 60 years of geopolitical complexity. I can write on those topics, but I think it’s best left to outlets more aligned to that kind of work.
They use these as taxis in Dakar, Senegal. Shocked the heck out of me when my French-speaking colleague told me that the car we were riding in was Iranian! BTW, if you speak French apparently the taxi drivers in Dakar are HILARIOUS.
I’ve been to Iran a couple times. The cars there are horrendously bad. They make malaise era cars seems like finely crafted machines. My father in law had this PK1600 which is basically a le car from the 80s. This was back in 2011 and I shocked to learn it was less than 10 years old at the time, for how beat it was. Rode in a taxi that was less than 3 months old, roof leaked and the back door barely shut. My brother in law had one of those Iranian 405s, it was new at the time so it wasn’t too bad and it was like riding in a brand new 20 year old car at the time.
I’d be interested to try out some of these old designs.
I think it’s interesting. 80s, 90s cars routinely lasted for 20 years+ out on the road and survived well. 70s cars seemed to have a shorter useful life.
Thus, I’d expect cars like the Zamyad Z24 to be crappier while the 80s-based Peugeot Pars to do better.
There’s still a few hundred Peugeot 405’s registered in the UK, although that works out to about one in a thousand surviving since they were sold.
(Strangely there’s almost three thousand SORN’d, ie the owner still has the car, but it’s currently off the road).
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/family/peugeot_405
I’m surprised the cng car doesn’t do better… mustn’t be liquid phase injection like late model Australian Falcons were
Looks like they put the facelifted Peugeot 406 front seats in the PARS. Cheaper and less comfortable, but still better than most car seats on the market today.
On another note, I would love to own a slightly used Arisun 2 to use as a daily driver if I could (, and if Iran wasn’t a hostile nation). Wonder what the tow capacity is…
I don’t quite understand what’s going on with the engine choices. One 8v 1.8 and 16v 1.6 with the same power. Why not just pick one?
The XU7 (1.8 8v) is older, simpler, SOHC, probably cheaper to run and repair. This is important in countries and areas where spare parts might be non-existent, or just very expensive.
I agree
I hardly imagine the Iranian market has people umming and ahhing over rival models and numbers of valves
Probably the most progressive thing in the country. I’m surprised it’s not only available in any colour as long as it’s black.
Would you feel it was a fair representation of you and the rest of your countries citizens if some random on the internet assumed you agreed with everything your government did? Plenty of progressive Iranians its a huge country with many differing views. Like everywhere else.
I kind of shocked that Peugeot is okay with their brand being displayed on these things. I thought they be like “You can have the stamping dies but for the love of Allah please take our name off of it.”
They may not, but what are they going to do about it if they don’t like it? Or they may still have an agreement to use the name and dies/IP.
I think the fact that many of us had never heard of this car until yesterday means that it’s not doing their brand much harm.
If anything I’d love to try a brand new Iranian 405.
You missed one – the Roa, which is more or less the sedan version of the first Arisun, with a 405 sedan top hat on a Paykan chassis.
Beat me to it – my first thought was this was RWD, did some digging and realized it was the ROA/RD I was thinking of.
How come there aren’t many Japanese cars with extended production in third-world countries?
For example, the 3rd gen Camry is the best car ever made. The 90s Corollas are also very very good cars that have stood the test of time. Even the Echo is an awesome car worthy of extended production.Could you imagine if they still made EG/EK Civics somewhere in the world today?
A lot of Daihatsu and Suzuki kei vans and trucks went on to very long lives in China
And there was the Nissan Tsuru in Mexico
oh yeah, there is the Tsuru, and also Toyota’s older Land Cruisers still on sale in some places.
Just too bad Toyota didn’t do it with older generations of the Corolla and Camry.
Don’t forget Isuzu, whose licensed pickups are all over the world, especially in China.
And Proton got a lot of life out of an old Mitsubishi platform
Zamyad still builds the Nissan Junior in Iran last I checked (introduced in 1970!).
Also there is Maruti, and tons of Japanese cars are built across Southeast Asia. I do not see license producers of Japanese cars take liberties like these, though, although I can think of plenty examples to disprove that rule, too – like the Subaru Tutto of Taiwan, the Indonesian Daihatsu Zebra, or the Mazda Rustler of South Africa.
Maruti ditched the last of its really old models, the Gypsy, a few years ago. The Indian car market is big enough, and Maruti large enough, that the brand can afford to have a fairly modern lineup now.
Yes, can’t remember how long the Omni lasted, but nowadays they’re mostly locally developed and no longer updated and rehashed old designs. (sad face)
First of all, all kinds of Japanese car makers have and continue to do this.
That said, it is in the interest of top-tier brands like Toyota and Honda to present a fairly cohesive worldwide product line, and evolve their models as new regulations and consumer expectations change. Why doesn’t Toyota still sell the 3rd gen Corolla in emerging markets? Because it sells the current-gen Corolla. They round out their subcompacts with the Yaris, and a bunch of models we don’t see in North America. People in developing countries want new things too.
Sometimes there are diminishing returns to the cost amortization of keeping old models in production. At a certain point, manufacturing techniques become obsolete- automation improves, and a new model must be designed to take advantage and stay competitive. Also, tooling does not last forever. At a certain point, molds and stamping dies wear out, and replacements must be made. This is wildly expensive, and car makers are wise to take the opportunity to design a new model. Eventually the production line automation and assembly equipment become dated, worn and difficult to maintain. Parts run out and manufacturers must move on.
The Volvo 240 is one vehicle that stuck around by popular demand, well past its expiration date. It was produced almost 10 years after the model designed to replace it (740) entered production. By the 90s, Volvo was basically building the 240 out of sheer good will- it was NOT a money-making endeavour.
Despite being ‘simple’ and ‘low tech’ the body stampings were quite complex, and heavily dependant on skilled, laborious manual assembly.
Volvo people often muse that Volvo could produce the 240 as a ‘low cost’ sedan for the developing world, but it’s just not possible- cheaper labour only goes so far.
Yep – same thing for Saab, who kept the 99 around as a low-cost alternative to the 900, even though it cost 30-40 percent more to build. Then they briefly offered the Saab 90 (a 99 with the 900 two-door sedan rear end), which only cost 15-20% more to build than a 900. D’oh.
I did not realize that, makes a lot of sense though.
Maruti Suzuki was producing the 800 for 31 years.
The 5th gen E90 Corolla was first produced in 1987 for the 1988 model year.
The South African version was produced until 2006.
ok
Came here for that. Toyota Tazz!!!
“Often, market effects, geopolitical conflicts, and general human ingenuity tend to have an effect not dissimilar from the way the Galapagos Islands evolved such unique creatures.”
What a lovely and simple way to describe the Iran of the past 50 years. I’m actually kind of impressed in a “peek through my fingers” kind of way.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bowdlerized
I look at it like the way Cubans kept old American cars running by swapping in non-original parts. You can be impressed by the results even if you don’t want to get too deep into the context and unpleasant history that led to that ingenuity. I won’t blame the site for not wanting to go down the rabbit hole of the Islamic Revolution and what caused it.
I was talking in the general sense, really. It’s why so many countries have unique cars; from South Africa to Malaysia, from Australia to New Zealand.
Besides, going further really would be out of our scope here.
I’d love to write “How Ayatollah Khomeini and a Failed U.S. Hostage Rescue Operation Led To The Peugeot 405 Staying In Production For 36 Years” but I think that would be drawing a very long bow, and in itself, oversimplifying the matter.
Yeah this isn’t the Histopian. I’m glad we try and stay focused on cars here. The Autopian is such a nice bubble of fresh air in our fucked up world where everyone needs to have an opinion on everything. Nice write up Lewin, you made me want to import one of those Utes and give it an OG 405 facelift just to see the confusion on my French compatriots’ faces.
Of course – the car is what interests us here, and I am quite serious when I say I’m impressed with how well you handled it. A nice piece of writing.
Wait, since 1997?
…
OK, so who is going to be the first Autopian staff member to import an Iranian car and write articles about it?
It’d be fun, but you would come up against some serious possible embargo violations. We’re probably breaking some rule just thinking about it.
They make and sell these (mostly as taxis?) in Senegal, so you might be able to somehow import one from there? https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2021/12/22/iran-restarts-west-african-auto-plant-leaving-arms-shipment-dispute-in-the-past/
Good, now I have some options for my next car. Although the Senegalese ones will have to wait until 2046 before they’re eligible for import…
Unironically China, Russia, and Iran make a lot of cool shit, however to me the reason why a lot of it is cool is because they keep old designs in production like the UAZ 452, The vehicle mentioned in this article, etc.
I’d much rather buy old designs that have updated internals for modern times than modern designs that are full of unnecessary BS.
The main irony is that China, Russia and Iran would be put in the same basket here – which is normal given the sheen of romanticism that comes with products and markets that we have no contact with.
The cool shit from China is orders of magnitude better than anything Russian. We’re talking comparing a Japanese built Corolla to a Yugo (and the Yugo is better than anything Russian-built, but it’s the one reference we could get for the US market.
A Chinese Landwind pickup truck is a real workhorse – I’ve seen them as fleet vehicles which have barely seen any asphalt, lasting for years. They might not be in Toyota Technical territory yet, but they are real, usable vehicles that one can do work with.
My contacts with Iran’s production were the Iran Khodro Mercedes Benz TN (MB 207-ish) clones used as factory workers’ and shuttle transportation in Eastern Europe in the mid-80’s, and while I haven’t owned one – they seemed better than the Soviet atrocities that were the only alternative. Then again, we also had local 4×4 small Setra derivative shuttle vans that were interesting (if very rustic).
We also saw a few Saipa Renault 5 clones (did anyone mention Saipa above ?), which looked cool, but the batch that came into the country was – strangely enough – with no cabin heating whatsoever. Which was a bit strange. We decided it’s because it’s hot in Iran. However, that was naive – they have places where one could joyfully freeze any time of the year.
The UAZ is still made to this day, “modernized”. It’s called the Patriot, and it’s still the same absolute POS as it ever was. It might be offroad worthy when it works, but one has to realize that you have two types of Soviet/Russian vehicles POS made for civil use and POS made for military use.
The only plus of the civil use POS is that it’s relatively easy to wrench on (which won’t help when your chassis rusts or you get stuck in the middle of nowhere with a grenaded differential).
The military use POS is mostly robust, but has constant, incessant, and free maintenance baked into the concept. An army of conscripts is an army that is not getting a salary, and putting three teenagers to wrench on vehicles day in and day out is not a problem. Owning one outside of the army infrastructure is more interesting, and once you make it work – you have to do with the fact that most of it is gas rather than diesel powered, which make the budget interesting.
“The interior of the Pars today is about inline with what you might expect for a budget model”
“IKCO is not afraid of a little color.”
Love it! Throw in a pepper grinder and I’m in!
I saw the colors! These just look eager and fun. I almost wish we could keep older platforms soldiering on here, but then I recall the fleet special turn of the century Malibu and Century.
Go check out the Zamyad Z24, Iranian-built variant of Nissan Junior 140.. still in production today. Same design since 1970.. probably a global record.
Also go check out the Instagram accounts showing them getting up to all sorts in the Iranian mountains.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Junior
“In The Name Of God”…
Wouldn’t invoking the name of God on an owners manual not violate one of the Ten Commandments?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou_shalt_not_take_the_name_of_the_Lord_thy_God_in_vain
The commandments? That are relevant to Judaism and Christianity?
And why would this be a concern in…. Iran?
Because Islam is also an Abrahamic religion, just like Judaism and Christianity. Those commandments apply to Muslims too:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions
Even this one:
https://www.today.com/style/nike-air-max-shoe-logo-called-offensive-muslims-allah-design-t147626
Its worded a bit differently but I think the jist is the same:
“Thou shall not use God’s name in vain.”
Vs
“Make not God’s name an excuse to your oaths” (2:224)
https://www.islamicity.org/3096/ten-commandments-from-the-bible-and-quran/
Typically, in vain is understood to mean “in an offensive manner” or “without thought”. So long as their use doesn’t violate those standards, I doubt it would be considered in vain. And if they mean it, then I doubt many would consider it to be a misuse.
Its an owners manual for a knockoff Peugeot, not a religious text so I do think there’s a good argument for “without thought” applying.
Yes but that is an opinion. If the people running the company carry a belief that they are running their business in a fashion pleasing to God, then they are not acting without thought.
I would consider using “God” as an expletive or saying “Thank God” constantly, without ever uttering an actual prayer, specifically thanking God, far more concerning as “vain”, and far more common.
That’s fine, it doesn’t offend me. I just find it a bit weird. There are other folks though who take religion much more seriously with a chip on their shoulder and may have a different opinion.
I don’t think you have a choice in Iran – I imagine any printed material has to start in the like manner, however absurd.
Maybe. Perhaps it’s the equivalent of US court procedure of pinkie swearing on the Bible.
JFC I break that commandment at least 5 times an hour.
Maybe they subscribe to the idea of Deus ex Machina. Which you’d probably want as those engines don’t make a hell of Allah of power (ok ban me)
Fun fact, Khodro, spelled خورده in Persian literally translates as car. Well technically “goes by itself” but that’s the word for car in Persian.
I thought the Persian language was called Farsi?
Kind of interchangeable, Farsi is probably the preferred name for the language in academic/scholarly circles if you want to be precise about it, but Persian is acceptable in casual use, people know what you mean.
Iranians will call it Persian, but outside of Iran it can be Persian, Farsi, or Persian-Farsi. From a linguistic perspective, Persian is the language family with Farsi, Dari, and Tajik as dialects
Iran at one point built the world’s most powerful natural-gas powered car. Check out the 2009 Samand Soren ELX. I think it was capable of 135 mph.
There were also EV prototypes of this car, and years before fast charging infrastructure became standardized and mainstream in the U.S., Iran was experimenting with sub-15-minute fast charge stations for its prototype EVs.
I think the impetus for a lot of that was that, until pretty recently, Iran didn’t have much refining capacity and so had to import pretty much all of their gasoline
I tried to find an old video from 2010 that appears to have been scrubbed from the internet since, but there was a 5-minute fast charging station demonstrated, charging a converted Opel Tigra EV which had a 180 mile range.
Is the purpose of listing the oil capacity without the oil filter so that people would know how much oil would be needed for an oil change if you didn’t change the filter?
Who In the Name of God would do such a thing?
I’ve considered doing that a couple times on cars that don’t see a lot of mileage. In those cases I figure the oil has been sitting around long enough to have aged out, but the filter still has life left. I’ve never done it, though, mainly because filters are cheap and not changing it just seemed like a cheapskate thing to do.
For a car that is burning oil and needs frequent top-ups, it might be useful info to have. I dunno.
There’s also those people that like to fill the filter with oil before putting it on, in which case you’d need to know how much to add to the engine minus the filter amount.
“There’s also those people that like to fill the filter with oil before putting it on”
That sounds interesting. What the reason for that?
Supposed to get oil to the moving bits quicker on first startup after the oil change. Dunno how much help that really is since there’s still a film of oil on everything anyway. Most of my cars have had the filter mounted at an angle that makes doing that either impossible or basically ineffective, so I’ve never done it, but that’s the reasoning behind it.
Not sure if its still a thing, but you used to be able to hold your gas pedal at WOT and crank and the combo of those two settings would not allow the injectors to open.
With my truck I do that till I see pressure, then lift my foot from the gas so it’ll fire.
I want to say I heard that on an early (or at least ’80s) episode of Motorweek in a retro marathon recently, during the Pat Goss car care segment.
I didn’t realize that this was something people didn’t do anymore. most of my car knowledge comes from people who got their start in the 70s or earlier but I didn’t realize this wasn’t still a thing.
I don’t have much experience with older motors, but the ones I work on all have the filter mounted at an angle where most the oil would spill out before you could get it screwed on, so why bother filling it?
I have one where the filter is mounted completely upside down. You would completely dump it out. Other one is mounted at an angle, like you said.
I don’t really know, that’s just the way I was taught. my explorer one is at an angle too and i just fill it like halfway up. its weird and probably unnecessary.
Back in my long-lost youth working at a quik-lube, we offered an “engine flush” service. We’d drain the oil pan and refill with 1/2 oil and 1/2 transmission fluid. We’d then run the engine for a few minutes, drain the pan and replace the filter. The idea was that the detergents in the trans fluid would clean out a lot of gunk.
Would I do that to my car now? No effin’ way.
I used to do something similar, but with brake fluid. It flushed the gunk right out. Probably not good for more modern cars anymore.
I do, for a specific reason. Draining the pan on my car gets you 3.5 quarts of the listed 6.8 quart capacity. Going 5,000 miles between changes when I am only going to get just over 50% of the oil seems not ideal to me (even though with modern oils it is likely fine). So I drain the pan, fill with 3.5 quarts and change the filter on every other oil change. Thus my filter sees a 5,000 mile interval, but I am changing half the oil every 2,500 miles. Overkill? Probably.
On my JDM car, the oil change sticker on the door jamb indicates oil changes every 5,000km, filter changes every 10,000km. Seems like a false economy, perhaps.
Well, oil itself might be cheap but filters could be relatively expensive, possible shortage due to embargo, would be my guess. You make do with what you have.
“Iran Khodro” sounds like the thing one of the overhead outdoor commercials is saying in Blade Runner. As far as I remember.. It’s probably something else in the movie 😉