Pars2000–2024

The Peugeot Pars — originally launched as the Persia around 2000 — is Iran Khodro's restyled, locally engineered version of the Peugeot 405, and it stayed in production as one continuous model until around 2024. With XU7 petrol engines (plus EF7 in later years), simple suspension and a vast domestic parts base, it became one of Iran's default family sedans and taxis, alongside its Samand sibling on the same underpinnings.

Its reputation is exactly what a 405 derivative built for decades suggests: mechanically transparent, cheap to fix and tolerant of rough fuel and roads, but far behind modern norms in safety, refinement and emissions — criticisms that ultimately drove its retirement. Outside Iran and a few neighbouring markets it is essentially unknown, and it has no Sri Lankan presence; enthusiasts elsewhere would treat it as a curiosity of sanctions-era engineering.