PEUGEOT 206- Any Good!

shabani

My wife has decided she wants a car. She has had a licence for 7 yrs but this would be her first car. As for myself i do not have licence and do not know anything about cars.
She has decided that she wants the PEUGEOT 206 5Door Hatcback. We have a budget of £4200(excluding insurance & other costs) and looking for a car not more than 4yrs old and live in London- not sure if this affects prices.
Just wondering if this is a good car as have seen lots of bad reviews. It seems the car has some reliability problems.
Would appriciate if you can as well recommend any other suitable small cars (under very strict instructions that it has to be small) which would be affordable to us.

quietheart

I love the 206, I've had one since they first came out. I'd recommend one with aircon for resale value and I haven't had any reliability problems. I've driven other small cars and find the 206 a really easy drive.

SnowyOwl_2

I've heard nothing but good reports about the Toyota Yaris - anybody I've known with one has always been v.pleased.

Try shopping around and doing as many test drives as you can - better to decide which car you want after having driven a few, not before. If you're going to buy privately definitely go for HPi check (to ensure it has been paid for by the person selling it, otherwise your wife could end up liable for someone else's debt), and also one of those history checks to ensure it hasn't been in a big accident or such like. Sorry, don't know the in's and out's but a publication like AutoTrader should give some phone numbers. Another worthwhile purchase would be a Glass's guide to car prices - it's a little book which lists 2nd hand car prices for good, bad and middling condition of most vehicles. Usually available in decent newsagents.

Have a look at https://www.honestjohn.co.uk, in the Backroom section, there are lots of knowledgable people in there who have lots of advice on all things motoring.

calossos

use https://www.parkers.co.uk u cant go wrong with a japanese car my friend in the terms of reliability id recommend a civic myself, but if ur after something fuel economincal 106 is good as is a saxo diesal, but for £4000 u possibly could get a golf high mileage though GT TDI that is the dogs !!!!!! my friend

jjames_3

With French cars it's a bit of a lottery, a good one will give good service but there are a lot of Friday afternoon efforts about and if you get one like that they can be complete money pits.

Japanese is the way to go for reliability, it is completely normal for a Jap car to run for 10 years without anything major going wrong with it at all, and even the "bad" ones tend to just have one or two issues.

I would disagree with calossos about the 106/Saxo though, this is a worse car than the 206 (which is one of Pug's better efforts, much better than the 307/407). If you want a Peugeot think about the 107, although this will be out of your price range (the 107 is essentially a Toyota).

My advice would be one of the following: Ford Fiesta, Toyota Yaris, Honda Jazz, Nissan Micra, Seat Ibiza, Skoda Fabia, Hyundai Getz. All of these cars have a good reputation for mechanical reliability and are reasonably priced (the Honda, Toyota, Seat or Skoda would be the best choices, and I've listed the Getz because it is a very decent car for a pocket-money price). As for which ones look or feel the part, that's up to you.

I personally would stay away from the VWs though (Polo, Golf etc), not because they are bad cars but because they hold their value too well. That's great when you're buying new but second-hand it's not so good. You'll be getting a car 2-3, sometimes up to 4 or 5 years older than some others, and no-one is going to tell me that that is a good idea, especially as VW reliability is only a little above average (on a par with Ford, and behind Hyundai and the Japanese makes) and Seat/Skoda are putting out cars based on the same components and build quality which are much cheaper second-hand.

balsingh

In terms of my opinion on the 206, my sister has had hers for 2 years and its been 100% reliable. She bought it used with 9000 on the clock and has done 30000 miles in it over the 2 years. It doesnt stand out in way compared to its rivals in terms of the way it drives/handles but it's no worse. In the GLX spec, it has everything you could ever want right down to rain sensitive wipers and fingertip contolled stereo. Her 1.6 is perfect for town/motorway driving and returns almost 40mpg average. My only moan about the car is that being a Pug, it feels like a tin can and doesnt really feel very solid.

jjames mentioned how VWs hold their value well. As it happens, the 206 also does too. Its one of those popular cars which is always sought after and this keeps its value up compared to most rivals BUT .... something I would be wary about is that the 206 been around now for almost 7 years - thats when most manufacturers replace them. All Peugeots except the 206 are now on '07' (307, 407 etc) so the 207 cant be far off. If the replacement is likely to be as popular as the current car, the 206 values will take a bit of a hit. something to consider for resale purposes!!!

jaffa

balsingh wrote:

BUT .... something I would be wary about is that the 206 been around now for almost 7 years - thats when most manufacturers replace them. All Peugeots except the 206 are now on '07' (307, 407 etc) so the 207 cant be far off. If the replacement is likely to be as popular as the current car, the 206 values will take a bit of a hit. something to consider for resale purposes!!!

Does anyone know when this (206 being replaced by 207) is likely to happen???

balsingh

jaffa - i wouldn't take that as gospel. MOST manufacturers update the cars approx. every 7 years. I was just stating the obvious in terms of the 206 being the only '06' car remaining.

CrazyChemist_2

There is an issue with the windscreen wipers swishing the wrong way and hence splashing water onto the drivers side during wet weather, posing a hazard. This is because the cars are adapted from left-hand drives but they're too lazy to move the wipers around too. Beware the clutch cable as this is stretched due to the left to right conversion and is more likely to snap.

I'd also recommend visiting https://www.honestjohn.co.uk You could try emailing him letters@honestjohn.co.uk and put those points to him. He replies very quickly and you may get it printed in the Telegraph's Saturday Motoring supplement.

jaffa

balsingh wrote:

jaffa - i wouldn't take that as gospel. MOST manufacturers update the cars approx. every 7 years. I was just stating the obvious in terms of the 206 being the only '06' car remaining.

Thanks - I've had a peugeot for over 4 years and am just thinking of changing.
Asked the garage if the 206 was being replaced soon and they were very non-committal.

Might have a complete change as I have a better offer for my car from another dealer..........

Garf

The 206 HDi is a brilliant engine. One thing the French can do is build a decent Diesel engine.