Faults:

Bought Car used with 35K miles. In three weeks Ignition Coil #3 went out. Discovered that 2 years to the week that all 6 coils were replaced with around 25K miles. Just had #6 Coil go this week at 37K miles. Consistent Issue on Coils going and Labor is huge to repair while parts are ~£20.

General Comments:

Car drives well otherwise, but afraid to drive outside of home area as it can die at any time.

Faults:

"Brake Fluid Level Low" message (with beep) came up on centre console every time I applied the handbrake. It was intermittent at first, but then it persisted.

The boot lock got stuck (locked), which couldn't be opened with either key or remote.

The driver door would stick occasionally, the problem went away, but later resurfaced.

The brake discs were replaced during a recent service.

The tyres were also replaced (I'd done 14000 miles on them).

General Comments:

Just sailed through its NCT; that's Irish for MOT ;) - never came close to failing.

Spent under €800 (<£550) in over 18 months of ownership.

Great to drive. Lovely on motorways and dual-carriageways. Handles very well on the back roads too. Good road holding.

Fairly economical for a big car - I get 36mpg on average, although it's rated at 34mpg on Parkers.co.uk. An Accord 1.8 only gets 31mpg.

Big, big boot (although I did have a problem with the lock getting stuck shut - cheap to fix).

Passengers comment on the room and comfort in the back.

My mechanic says it's the only decent French car he's driven / worked on! :o.

I didn't service the car for over a year, but it didn't seem to do it any harm, as far as I can tell. Won't be leaving it as long next time though.

One complaint I have about my trim is that I'd like air con (initially steered away from it because of extra servicing costs and fuel consumption / loss of acceleration). Also, it has a boot changer 6 CD system. I wish it had a CD player in the centre console instead - so I could change it for a MP3 / CD player!

Honest John (honestjohn.co.uk) was right! The 1.8 doesn't have a lot of oomph. My advice: get the 2L at least - or go for the 2.0 / 2.2 HDI. I gaze enviously across at the HDIs as I tear past them on the way to work (for some reason, people seem to drive them slow, even though they have better performance than most petrol versions! If I had one I'd put it through it's paces...).

Steer away from the 406 Coupe - it was lovely in its day, but I think it's aged more than the saloon. Considering it's a 3L engine, you'd expect better performance too.

I like the look of the car. I like the look of the 407 too, but it divides opinion, whereas everyone I know seems to like the 406's shape. That Pininfarina styling <sigh> has aged well.

Perhaps I got lucky, but I think that the general opinion that the 406 is unreliable is unjustified. Mechanically it's very sound. The electrics are, shall we say, a little buggy. The trim is nice, but a little flimsy. Apart from that, I think it's a lovely, reliable car... so far. Parkers gave it 4 ****'s (that's 4 STARS, by the way) for pretty much everything - including reliability.