Faults:
Test drove the car for over half an hour, picked it up and then drove for 3 hours and idling became increasingly erratic, whilst a noticeable flat spot occurred around 4000rpm. After a week the car began to stall on a regular basis. Took the car to a local Peugeot specialist who replaced the MAP sensor which cured the flat spot, stopped the stalling and improved the idling.
Two months on only the idling is still causing a concern, as it is very lumpy and will frequently drop about 100rpm below the normal idling speed, like the engine is trying to stall (which it has, though only the once). Whilst this doesn't really affect driving it does become annoying when in traffic. Given that that there are no more engine diagnostic problems, I have been led to believe this problem is due to a faulty stepper motor which regulates the idling speed and and/or an air leak to do with the inlet manifold.
Alarm goes off at random. I think I have now traced this to over-sensitive/faulty internal sensors as when these are turned off the alarm doesn't go off of it's own accord.
Knocking noise from rear of car, believed to be the exhaust which may need refitting.
Difficulty selecting reverse gear which is very annoying - did not appear until a few weeks after purchasing the car. Likely to require gear linkage rebuilding or perhaps the synchromesh is worn - poor considering the mileage the car has covered.
General Comments:
Despite it's faults, the most annoying being the erratic idling (hopefully should be easy and not too costly to fix), this car really is a performance bargain.
At just over 11,000 new and in my case 5,600 pounds second hand, you truly are buying an awful lot of 'driver's car' for the money.
It is not hard to see why Jeremy Clarkson voted it the world's second best handling car (behind the Ferrari 550 - this was a few years ago now) in his video with Richard Burns and Tim Harvey.
Extremely rapid progress can be made across country and given a bendy round there is little that can keep up. Even using just fourth and fifth gear on B roads, the car is untouchable. Turn-in is sharp, whatever the speed. Above 70mph this can prove a little scary at times, with the rear of the car going light, though this ultimately only goes to aid the car's agility where most cars would take on an understeer stance.
In the dry the car can be driven very hard with little to worry about, though in the wet backing off or braking mid-bend (on even gentle curves) will often result in instant sideways movement, which is huge fun in most circumstances, but could prove tricky to control in an emergency.
As standard the car comes with Pirelli P700z, which proved very good in the dry though the Goodyear Eagle F1s which I have recently had fitted prove more reassuring in the wet.
The brakes are ultimately very powerful though the pedal feel is quite soft initially which is a littly disconcerting, though this does allow you to modulate braking force quite easily.
As for the engine, driven below 4000rpm it is easily quick enough to keep pace with most other cars, though it does lack low down torque, which means initially the average turbo diesel will seem to pull away. Rev past 4000rpm and serious performance is on offer up until the limiter at 7200rpm, though the engine pulls best between 4500 and 6600 (max power). I've heard an induction kit helps to improve top end breathing quite significantly, so I am considering fitting one soon, especially as it will improve the already engaging engine note.
Inside, the leather/alcantara seats are a welcome addition as is the oil temperature gauge - it is surprising how long it takes for the oil to fully warm up from cold - those people revving their cars hard as soon as the coolant is warmed up be warned.
I believe the car looks great in standard, especially in platinum silver (though annoyingly it does look very similar to the Quiksilver which now has the GTi alloys) and diablo red. I've seen one with 15 inch Peugeot alloys from the 306 GTi which look very nice, though I've heard fitting bigger wheels can spoil turn-in.
Oil consumption seems to be fine, though after 1000 miles of consistent motorway driving over a few days, a little oil was required - I put this down to the oil becoming very hot having to put up with constant 4000 to 5000rpm driving.
20th Dec 2003, 18:49
Just to say that I've also own a Peugeot 106 GTI, and I too have encountered more or less all of the problems that you have. The car would on occasion stall at the lights (getting that seen to ASAP)..Won't go into reverse easily too, it seems as though the gearbox is not going in to gear as well as it did when I first test drove it!
About a week or so ago, I added a Pipercross induction kit.. (I'm a complete sceptic usually), but this really has made a difference, but in terms of the torque at the midrange, which was excellent to begin with, this teamed with the added roar - you can't honestly go wrong.
All in all.. i agree that it is a fantastic car to drive especially on the open and unpoliced/speed-camera-infested/pedestrianised roads!