Unfortunately, it’s hard to check directly with the manufacturer since its site is blocked to us in New Zealand (and we’ve tried US and Dutch VPNs), but we know from the Iranian press that the Peugeot Pars is no more at IKCO, finally having been cancelled in spring 2024, and our listing has been updated.
That begs the question of whether the 405 is still going over at Azermash Khazar in Azerbaijan, who is quite happy to manufacture old Iranian product. There’s even less news out of the central Asian country in languages that we know, though one Albanian reference cites its production period as 2019–25. Turbo.az, where Azerbaijanis might list used cars for sale, only has 2019–21 models. For now, we’ve gone with the latter, and concluded that after a short production cycle in its final country, the Peugeot Khazar 406 (as it was called there) is no more.
Our understanding is that IKCO’s old 405 production lines were moved to Azermash, so this wasn’t an CKD assembly operation. But Chinese and Korean cars of much newer design are available in Azerbaijan, too, as is IKCO’s newer, but still Peugeot 405-based, Dena (sold as the Khazar LD and SD), which at one point was the country’s top selling car. How many cars even leave the factory is anyone’s guess.
You’d think the demise of a car line after over three decades (the first 405s were released in 1987) would have warranted a bit more news. But the end of production of the Rootes Arrow-based, Peugeot 405-bodied Roa (née RD 1600) wasn’t met with much fanfare, even if meant the end of the Hillman Hunter running gear, dating back to 1966, for passenger cars in 2013. We’ll keep an eye on any articles and Farsi-to-English translators might get a few visits.
But it does seem like the end of the line for a passenger car we can identify as a Peugeot 405 (as opposed to any pick-ups or rebodies such as the Samand, Soren and Dena).
IKCO’s new Reera crossover, on a Peugeot 2008 (A94)-related base, meanwhile, has been added.