Faults:

An engine hose corroded away completely after 6 months - was on its way out when I bought the car. Only £30 to fix.

Exhaust blew at about 120,000 miles.

All braking mechanisms went at the same time - front pads and calipers, something was 'missing' from the rear brakes and handbrake way too loose - £300 to fix inc. labour.

Alternator went at 130,000 miles. Battery replaced at the same time.

Gear box finally gave up the ghost last week - too expensive to fix!

General Comments:

This was my first car - bought as a cheap run around until I was confident that I wasn't going to dent my car or crash it! I have now had her for 4 years and am pained to get rid of her. This is the best car I have ever driven in terms of a fun drive. She is great around town, but also surprised me on the motorway. For such a small engine (954cc) she can shift - happily cruses at 80 on 200+mile journeys. Yes there are the usual problems with starting in rain and cold (and the sun come to think of it) and the gear box has always been very loose, but this just adds to the charm of the 205! I even get a light show on the dashboard when I go around corners! Very economical to run - repairs haven't exceeded £500 over 4 years and 2 of the 4 MOT's I have put her through have been passed first time. Fantastic for a car which cost £400. Petrol v. good 43+ mpg.

For a 20 year old car she is fab and I am going to hate taking her to the scrap yard on Monday... but the gearbox has really broken now and even I realise that this is not going to be worth fixing. I would definitely get another one, but am dubious as to whether I would be lucky enough to get such a fantastic one again... I realise how lucky I was with this one! I'm thinking it is time to try the 306!

Faults:

Water cooling pipe to the carb split.

Drive shafts lasted less than 12 months, when modified.

General Comments:

I bought the car from a lady who had it from new for £300 taxed and MOT.

I liked these cars as I used to work for Peugeot main dealer.

It is a cheap to run and insure.

I would get 100 miles to £10 of fuel, driven hard round town and 110+ on the motorway.

It's quite nippy standard, just 1/2 a second slower to 60 than a 1.6Gti. This is due to a lot less weight than the Gti, shorter ratio gearbox and a alloy block engine.

I put a race exhaust on it. Custom modified induction kit and a high lift cam.

This didn't affect the fuel economy of reliability, but it improved the acceleration a lot.

Power was up from 85Bhp to 105Bhp.

The only thing with more power was the driveshafts would go every 6 to 12 months.

Only cost me about £200 each year to get it through it's MOT, due to the driveshafts.

I sold it to a race team.

Faults:

There was a mysterious, minor but annoying electrical problem (misfire) nobody could solve.

General Comments:

This is a real fun car, really chuckeable and nippy.

The engine had good torque from the lower revs, but ultimately slim on power compared to other hot hatches, mainly 16vs, though.

The reliability was amazing. I owned the car for over 12 years and over 100.000km and never had anything really major wrong with it. This was an extreme and welcome contrast to my previous car.

This was my first Peugeot, my next car was a Peugeot and the one after will be another Peugeot.