Start with what the Peugeot 601 is: a saloon / limousine / familiale / cabriolet / roadster / coupe with 2,148 cc straight-6, built from 1934 to 1935, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. What it meant takes a little longer.
How it came about
The Peugeot 601 was a range-topping car produced between 1934 and 1935 by Peugeot. It had its formal launch on 5 May 1934 and marked a return by the manufacturer to six-cylinder engines.
The car was Peugeot's first entry into the luxury car market since 1932, after which the Peugeot Type 183, Peugeot Type 184, Peugeot Type 174 and Peugeot Type 176 had been discontinued. Together with the Peugeot 401 Eclipse, the very limited production 601 Eclipse was the first series produced car to be built (by Carrosserie Pourtout) as a coupé-convertible, with a retractable hardtop, that could be moved and stowed under a reverse-hinged rear luggage lid.
The hardware
The engine is 2,148 cc straight-6; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1400 kg. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the Peugeot line-up the Peugeot 601 has a clear place: it replaced the Peugeot Type 183 / Peugeot Type 176; it handed the line to the Peugeot 604. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Bugatti Type 57, the Chevrolet Suburban, the Bugatti type 49 limousine. Its Peugeot stablemates include the Peugeot Onyx and the Peugeot Pars.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Peugeot 601 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.