General Comments:
Bought this V reg diesel for 700 at an auction, thinking bargain! How wrong was I.
Every single morning, I had to suffer with the multiple times of trying to start it. When it decided to work, there was a massive plume of black smoke.
It gave a rattly noisy unpleasant ride.
I hated every second of being in its miserable existence. I swear to God it was made to especially wind me up. It's like it was possessed; should have christened it Damien.
Performance, if you would even class the movement of this object as 'performance'; trying to overtake was as stressful as it was scary. I would no longer try to keep up with cars, the only thing I could race were wagons. I was screwed though if they weren't towing a trailer. 5000rpms, chewing precious diesel like no tomorrow, and giving an unbearable din; painful was the only word.
Handling, turn the wheel and the car would say b****cks and carry on in a straight line, into whatever; it's up to you to decide what you want to hit, go for soft things, for instance hedges. If you're in the wet, you had no hope; if you managed to get the front to grip, the ass end would fly out in an attempt to murder you.
Brakes, ahh yes, the absence of ABS, even though it did have it, the front would happily lock up, leaving you enough time to remember your insurance details as you plow into the poor sod in front of you. Brake on a corner? You have just signed your death certificate.
Interior and comfort, well the interior didn't work, so the sponge on the seats was only thing that didn't go wrong, amazingly.
Exterior, further inspection of the 'vehicle'; I thought it had been in a massive accident at one time, and never put back together properly. Not even Peugeot themselves could have messed this one up as-well as the repair job on this. Just gets better.
Central locking, the creme de la creme. The Peugeot's party trick was to lock every single door, then open it again; you must them decide which door to lock the other doors with, however if you went through the wrong door, you were back to square 1. The rear driver's door was the usually the one you could get away with, but sometimes it would like to play a little game and choose the other side. This was always amusing, especially at places like petrol stations, posh restaurants, Tescos, and when you're in a rush. Oh it loves to challenge you when you're in a hurry.
In November 2009, I bought a Rover 400, the best decision I have ever made; older, more miles, but hey it works.
I have never come across a car like the Peugeot; how could the manufacturer get away with making a car so unsafe and rubbish?
I worked on this car a lot; peel back the sturdy looking exterior and covers; you may as-well use paper mache; the metal is so thin and so poor quality. God help anyone who crashes one of these things.
Eventually fixed the central locking by unplugging it all, and sold it for 900 quid. Many painful man hours went into it, countless times the interior was stripped out trying to find wires. It was just a constant chore.
Do yourself a favour, think twice about buying anything french, even croissants.
1st Mar 2013, 08:48
We were contemplating buying a 306 diesel - but after wiping away the tears of laughter reading this hilarious report, we have decided to look elsewhere. The writer would do very well either on a stage or writing comedy - incredibly funny man - good luck with your new car :)