Ok, any body want to advise me - good, bad, which model/engine/spec 307 to buy or not buy, any advice re age etc. Looking to spend between £5k and £7k at most, needs are: Reliability, good MPG, must be nippy in town but comfy on motorway.
If you really must have reliability, a 307 is not the car for you. Have you not seen any of the customer satisfaction surveys? In the most recent AutoExpress survey, the 307 came last for reliability. No other car was worse. It came 104th out of 124 in the JD Power survey, and that was an improvement on the year before.
But if you must have one, and you want nippy and economical, the 2.0 diesel models may be for you. Rapier or later 'S' models are cheapish and come as standard with aircon, alloys, CD player and all the safety kit you could want. A 1.6 diesel came later but may be out of your price range. The 1.4 diesel is pretty slow.
The 307 has a pretty good, spacious interior, when it's not falling apart, and very good brakes.
The 307 is quite good on the motorway too, but kicks up a lot of wind and road noise. You'll have to shout to rear seat passengers. Around town, the ride isn't nearly as good as rivals like the Astra and Golf, and the suspension makes a lot of crashing noises. I recently tested the new Astra over three days and its quietness and ride comfort were a revelation after the 307.
Beware of Peugeot dealers who are usually useless.
Ok i have had 2 307 2.0 HDi's bits falling off interior etc,carpet too short crashing noises from suspension and my latest 307 needed a complete new fuel system cause the lift pump in the tank broke away and caused all sorts of stalling and stuttering problems,Needless to say i've since done with 307's and am now the proud owner of a honda civic 1.7 ctdi diesel and covered almost 4k pleasureable miles of silence smootheness and reliability.
Often the ones you think are boring are a surprise. Try an Astra or a Corolla for instance. The Astra is cheap, refined, reliable, but has a boring interior. The Corolla has a bad image but a nice interior and is extremely reliable. Both have diesel options but the Toyota's diesel is probably better than the Astra's.
How about a Seat Leon? Or a Skoda Octavia? Both have very good, if noisy, diesel engines and are good value.
OTHR ... a nice 405 turbo d will run and run and run ... so long as you know how to fix: the leaky heater matrix, the remote door solenoids, the security (who bothers?), the aircon controls and electric windows and the rear suspension arms, and never forget the radio code ... looks nice but unattractive to thieves, very comfortable, carries masses of people and gear, handles very well and eats motorway miles - London to Cornwall on half a tank ... that's why some of us are still here, and still not buying 406s ........yet. :/ ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
I think it's a sad indictment about the current Peugeots that no-one in a Peugeot newsgroup will defend them. The older ones (205 to 405 era) were great, the new ones are simply an embarrassment.
Are the current multiplexed Citroens any better, from a reliability point of view? Citroen UK can only be better than Peugeot UK at resolving problems...
Matt (currently suffering with an 807, the last Peugeot, and probably the last French car I'll ever own)
In defence of the new ones, my bro has a 206 1.4 GLX and has had over two years happy driving. Except for having to get the ?tracking? done the other month nothing has gone wrong. He even gets about 45mpg out of it, which rivals my 205D when I flog it.
It?s also a comfier car than my 205, especially on the motorway.
bigjon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@40tude.net:
G'day,
Looks like I'm the odd man out. I have a 5+ year old 1.6 petrol manual 206 XT with 125k km. I've had no trouble with it, get 5.5 - 6.5 l/100km (brisk country - small city driving) and am very pleased with it. The driving position suits me well; please don't laugh, perhaps I am a funny shape . I don't know where these Aussie Peugeots are built though but haven't heard complaints about the 307 here; years ago Peugeots were assembled here but that's back in 404, 504 days (no trouble with those either).
Cheers, Julian Disclaimer: I may be "slightly" biased as I've very happily also owned 203, 403, 404 & 504 over the past 40+ years
I don't know yet, but I had a xantia that I finally disposed of a couple of years ago with 270K on the clock (I used it as a Taxi). It had to have one gearbox and a Turbo, and I had the drivers door hinges welded back on once. Other than that, 4 years great value....
I now run a Volvo 940 auto for domestic use, but am forced into down sizing due to finances... I thought that a nice little Peugeot would do the job, being slightly cheaper but equitable to the Citroen... Now thinking I was wrong !!
I'm from South Africa and own a 307 1.6 with 30000km on the clock.
I've had no problems thus far and having driven many different cars, this is one of the more driver friendly with regards comfort, road view, controls etc.
Fuel consumption is normal, I get about 13.5-14km to the liter
Matt p.s. I previously owned a 206 for 55000km and had no problems with that either!
I drive a 2003 307Hdi Dturbo (110BHP) and unlike many on this NG, I'm very happy with the car. It's comfortable, quiet, handles well, rattle free and generally feels solid and well put together. I haven't had anything break or fall off! Motorway cruising is a delight, wind and road noise are low. MPG varies between 34 round town in stop-start conditions and 50 on motorway journeys. Depite all the negative comments and low rankings in surveys, there are a lot of 307's about (at least where I live), so my advice would be to take a test drive if you can, and judge the car for yourself.
Hope I am not tempting fate but I am well pleased with my 2 year old
406 2.2 HDI estate in which I have done 55,000 miles. Good economy, performance, tows my caravan well and even a good Main Dealer (Halls Warrington). My son runs a 206 HDI which is also reliable.
Had two other Pugs in the past 5.5 2.5GTD Turbo (150,000 miles) and a 605 2.1 TD (178,000 miles) great cars
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