What's the general consensus on......

Actually, one of our mates picked up a 406 V6 with just over 100k on for a grand of eBay. He's had it a few months and it hasn't died yet. I'd forgotton about that till just reading about Depression's 'biza (the guy also has a 1.8T Ibiza).

I hope for his sake it was as he's been running it on diesel for the last four weeks...

It'll have one of those annoying keypad immobilisers...

Look beyond the specification, though. They are nice enough but they can and do go wrong.

As I said on MSN... the 2.1 is better than the 1.9 from a driving perspective but it's not especially economical. Book says something just under 40 as I recall, just over for the 1.9. One of our drivers returned low 30s from the 406 1.9, most returned high 30s / low 40s. On the fleet our only 2.1 (the Executive) was babied by the finance manager but what he saved in the fuel it cost in the service... some service items are a real pain in the 2.1 to change. Have a kid so that you can use their small fingers to change the glowplugs too.

If you're getting mid 20s from your Marea then you'll possibly get low 30s / high 20s from the XUD 2.1 406... Find the HDI if you want decent fuel consumption. It's worth having for consumption reasons. The 2.1 XUD is a great engine, I prefer it over the HDI, but it's just not that economical in the 406 (or the 306 for that matter).

So I gather. They can be disabled, though........

Can they go any more wrong than an Alfa / Fiat, though ;-)

Heh.

I'm kind of leaning towards a phase II Xantia 1.9TD at the moment - spotted a 96k mile SX spec. estate from a local dealer for £1195. It's got decent history and has just had the cambelt done. Ideal.

Of course, this is all hypothetical at the moment, as I'm *still* waiting for a well-known chain of off licences to get back to me with the result of an interview I had for Area Manager.

I keep reading all this and wondering how much practicality you need; my Golf GTI Mk II returned 45mpg average in all sorts of driving conditions...

Richard

I'd do it myself, only try finding one with aircon, which is absolutely essential if I'm replacing the Marea.

You must drive like a right pussy :-)

If you want to get from Edinburgh Little France petrol station to Hawick centre in under 50 minutes without breaking any urban speed limits in a

And yes, I drove the GTi like that too; not below 70, usually close to

Driving gently, I got 52.1mpg.

Driving in average motorway traffic from Jedburgh to Southend - 388 miles - maintaining normal motorway speeds (around 80), with windows/sunroof open a lot of the time, I got 44.1mpg; it cost £30 in fuel (brimmed in Jedburgh, brimmed in Southend, Optimax, showing 1/2 tank remaining but the usual 'sits on full' thing applies - needle probably didn't budge for 80 miles).

I will say it until I die - the Mk II Golf GTi 8v makes a complete mockery of 'economy cars'.

Richard