The Iranian car maker Iran Khodro Industrial Group (IKCO), best known for keeping the Hillman Hunter in production for almost 30 years after British assembly stopped, has launched a brand-new, locally-designed saloon called the Samand.


The new car will eventually replaced the Hunter-based Peykan which was designed in the 1960s though the Iranian version has been extensively modified over the years.

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An IKCO spokesman told just-auto.com that the Samand had been engineered to deliver high standards of ride comfort, handling and performance, and to meet growing Iranian customer expectations.


Designed by IKCO’s in house, R&D centre, the Samand has a 1761cc fuel-injected engine (shared with the Peugeot 405 IKCO also builds) coupled to a five-speed manual gearbox. The engine develops 105bhp at 6000 rpm with a fuel consumption of 5.5 litres per 100 kilometres.

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