PEUGEOT 605Timing chain or Belt?

The Peugeot 605 is an E-segment executive car manufactured by the French company PSA (now Stellantis). It was produced between 1989 and 1999. Its predecessor was the Peugeot 604 and its successor was the Peugeot 607.

The design of the Peugeot 605 was initially entrusted to Pininfarina, much like the Peugeot 405, 406 coupe, and 106. However, the rush to compete with the Renault 25 Phase 2 forced Peugeot to release the 605 prematurely, leaving Pininfarina's project half-finished. Peugeot had spent 4 years without covering the E segment, and the fear of losing too much market share to the competition encouraged them to rush the car's launch. This was not beneficial for PSA, as the build quality and reliability of the 605 were heavily compromised. It became a heavily criticized car, especially due to issues with the vehicle's electrical system. This also affected its sibling vehicle, with which it shares a platform, the Citroen XM. Ultimately, although it was promising, the Peugeot 605 had very low sales, barely reaching 250,000 units. Despite this, the platform would serve as the basis years later to build the Peugeot 607, with its design flaws already corrected.

The alternatives to the Peugeot 605 were the Opel Omega, the BMW 5 Series, and the Audi 100, a trio of German cars that were more than enough to expose Peugeot's executive saloon of that era.