Faults:

Casket leaking oil.

Engine worn, burning oil after 10000 miles.

Wheel bearings worn after a few hundred miles.

Drive shaft knocking on tight corners.

Gearbox went after a year.

Clutch went after 22000 miles.

Central locking stopped working after a year.

Front right side door speaker stopped working.

Car electrics started playing up.

Front wishbone damaged after 1000 miles.

General Comments:

This car has got pretty good handling and its pretty lively for a 1.4 espcailly in lower gears, but gets a bit breathless after about 50mph.

The build quality however is really poor, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Peugeot dealer is probably the biggest con artists in the world, be careful.

A big plus with this car is that once you load some extras on it like alloys and a sports exhaust you will have one of the best looking cars on the road, seriously.

Overall not a bad car for a first timer, but make sure you check the car with a microscope before parting with your gold.

Faults:

New Glow Plugs needed at 60,000 miles.

New Clutch needed at 78,000 miles.

General Comments:

The car is comfortable, reliable, and economical and for a diesel very quick due to the excellent turbo charger.

To use the turbo charger to best effect you need to get the revs up to 3000 rpm when the turbo cuts in and runs up to just over 4500 rpm.

In normal use I am getting approximately 45mpg.

Faults:

Worn drive shafts - replaced (£200+)

Split heater matrix hose - replaced (£100)

Leaking radiator - replaced (£100)

Gearbox differential knackered @ 67000 miles - reconditioned gearbox fitted (£600)

Coil pack & ECU blown 2 days after gearbox fitted! Coincidence? Undoubtedly caused by engine being started by Plymouth based 'transmission specialists' without earth connected. Coil pack replaced. Reconditioned ECU fitted. (£400)

Head gasket blown @ 70000 miles - replaced & head skimmed (£400)

Catalytic converter replaced following MOT failure @ 80000 miles (£200)

Gearbox differential knackered @ 85000 miles (Yes! Again!) - replacement/repair/sale of car pending!

Tyres very quick to wear. Apparently this is a consequence of the very powerful assistance given to steering a low speeds. Makes parking extremely easy, but scrubs the tyres.

NB - all prices & mileage approximate and from memory.

General Comments:

Purchased in Feb '98 for £6000.

Unbelievably cheap to insure, being classified only as an Insurance Group 4 vehicle.

Very nice car to drive. Nippy for a 1.4 and corners superbly - really does stick to the road with surprisingly little body roll.

A nice looking hatchback whose aesthetics, in my opinion, were not improved upon by the 307.

Surprisingly roomy interior for size of car.

That said, after a relatively well behaved first two years of ownership, this car has in the last two and a half years become a constant drain on my finances. One pricey mechanical failure has followed another every couple of months.

Faults:

At 55,000 miles - head gasket / bent con-rod piston and blew the turbo all at the same time - an expensive afternoon

At 80,000 miles, new radiator.

At 100.000, new clutch.

At 120,000, new alternator / battery.

At 125,000 miles - new key fob & transponder broke - £65 from the main dealers to replace!!

General Comments:

Very reliable car - despite the bottom end going - got it fixed by a mate - Peugeot say you need the turbo diesel rods - it's a lie - standard diesel rods and get them balanced and machined - now 80,000 miles since it blew up and still going strong.

Always replace the oil and air filter at 6,000 miles as the 306 TD engine has problems breathing. Never fill the oil to the full line - keep it halfway.

Dealers are useless - find a good independent garage - a set of pads fitted at the dealer is £133 - interim dealer service is £150, major dealer service is £450.

Mines just had a interim service, synthetic oil, filters, new pads - £100.

It's a diesel - so other than oil filters etc - nothing else should need doing other than checks and handbrake adjustments etc, and a bit of greasing.

Faults:

Brake pads have been replaced fairly often.

The suspension required new parts regularly.

Seemed to go through tyres too quick.

General Comments:

Fast acceleration and very good handling make it difficult to believe the car is a diesel, but poor MOT performance marred the pleasure of ownership slightly.

Comfortable to drive both on the motorway and country lanes.

Faults:

Usual French electric problems - alarm going while driving, alarm being activated but central locking not working. Alternator belt tensioner snapped.

General Comments:

Good, reliable engine with dodgy electrics that let the car down. Great on the motorway.

Faults:

Suspension, brakes, steering, alarm, central locking, roll bar, temperature sensor.

General Comments:

Lovely car to drive, handles like a dream in the dry but it has a tendency to kick out at the back in the wet when cornering at speed.

Faults:

Alarm sensor for the bonnet went killing the battery in the process.

General Comments:

Lively, fun car. If I bought another Peugeot it wouldn't be diesel though as the 6000 miles servicing is annoying for a high mileage driver and undoubtably any savings I got from diesel are eaten up by the huge number of services it gets!

Only other problem is I have caught the car bug now and I want something faster - an old Porsche maybe.