Right then, lets do this properly.

Jul 25, 2004 60 Replies

  1. 1990 Ford Fiesta 1.4 Ghia CVT. Amusing at first then you realise what a pile of crap it is. Only car i've had to breakdown on me and not be driveable home/roadside repairable.
  2. 2000 Vauxhall Vectra Auto. Uncomfortable, dodgy handling, dodgy interior horrible 'box. Never again.
  3. LDV Van (transit sized one). For one reason - the steering. All over the place at anything over 40mph.
  4. Citroen AX 1.0. Never drove this on the road but was a passenger many time so i'm putting it in anyway. The cheapness showed everywhere! Crap overly soft seats gave you back ache, interior fell off, frightened of having a crash and everytime you went round a corner you fell out of the seat due to horrendous amounts of body roll.
  5. Pug 106. Simply because of the s**te pedal layout (in fact add that fault to the AX too). If you have large feet its a pain in the arse to drive!

The PSA group have always been good at diesels ;-)

I have to say, if I was enough of a cheapskate wallet-hugging miser to actually want a small new diseasel [1], instead of a car with a proper petrol engine, I'd consider a TDCi Fiesta. They go quite well as long as you don't expect to have fun, nice and torquey when on boost, and they sound - rather comically in my view - like a quieter version of a slightly cammy, turboed Mk1 Fiesta 1.1.

[1] although I'm half tempted to get a Xantia turbodiesel for the jaunt to work. [2] [2] mainly because they can be had in decent condition for £300 [3] [3] and you can run 'em on chip fat [4] [4] and I couldn't give a f*ck if I kill it, it's only a diseasel.

I'd prefer my PSA diesel engine in a PSA car, to be honest ;-)

Good choice, IMHO. But I like quirky cars.

Best place for them, means I stay away from them.

Stick to your rebadged Fords, then ;-)

I really rate a lot of PSA stuff.

The Pug 405 always appealed to me - especially the hot ones, always wanted a 205 GTi or a 309 Goodwood, too.

Not convinced about some of the later stuff, mind, but most of their

70s/80s stuff rocked.

Visa GTi anyone?

OMG!!!

Not content with liking cars that are so unreliable he buys a japanese car for commuting, he now declares a liking for the ultimate in shoddy build quality - the 405...

The 75 is doing nicely, thank you very much.

I made a mistake with the Primera - they got decent reviews and seemed to be the answer to needing a car quickly as I didn't have one on the road at the time. Unfortunately, the car buying public and motoring journalists seem to base their opinions entirely on 'safe and predictable' - whereas I prefer something a little more edgy and fun.

405s aren't that bad, especially in MkII form. Mechanically they're pretty bulletproof, it's just little bits of trim falling off that's annoying.

Heh, says the man who can pull parts of his roof out :) I'm still waiting for random parts of the 405 to drop off....

The last 405 I was in had one speaker trim missing, part of the dash, trippy wipers, knocking suspension, 2 of four door locks working, spots of rust, a non-functioning radio, missing interior door pulls, one missing door handle, three window winders.

Pretty typical!

...for cars on the road in Gambia, yea, that probly is pretty typical.

Lol! that bit is meant to be removeable.

Sure it is :) And my speedo is more accurate that yours ;)

Yup, but recent examples of their chassis and suspension set ups have been substandard.

So now with a Ford chassis, Ford suspension and PSA diesel, it's the best of all worlds.

But mine goes significantly further around, and gets to the top in less time. And without any panels falling off.

Huh ?

I've got size 11 feet, and I drive a P-Plate 106 1.1 every so often, with no problems whatsoever ! What's wrong with the pedal layout ?

Far too cramped for my liking! I suppose its something you'd get used to.

you wern't driving it proplery then :) they are tons of fun in the right hands :)

ok, they are crap, but they were good fun :) my cousin had one :) and made £1100 from it when it was written off

3 times in a year :)

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required