My parents have a 306 estate, just over a year old, but the automatic gearbox has never been right.
The problem is intermittent, only occurs when travelling down a steep hill and feels like the gearbox selects a completely inappropriate gear. This produces a loud bang and forces the driver to pull over, turn the engine off and start again.
The garage have actually changed the gearbox, but the problem persists.
It has only happened about 8 times in a year and a half. So it is often enough to be a problem, but not so often that you can take a mechanic out in the car and be sure to be able to demonstrate the problem.
The garage did claim that some problems came up on the diagnostics with the old gearbox, which is why they changed it. But they say the new one is fine, however the problem has occurred three or four times with the new gearbox.
My worry for them is that although they might be able to live with the occasional fright. This must be damaging the gearbox each time it happens, and they'll end up with a costly gearbox replacement soon after the warranty runs out.
In any case this is pretty poor for such a new car.
I just wondered if anyone on this newsgroup had heard of a similar problem with peugeots and would be able to pass on any information.
Many thanks, Phil