Welcome the next Golf GTI Beater

[BBP]

One problem with Peugeots ... they are unbelievably consistent breakers.

6 Golden Rules re France:

1. The cannot fight
2. They are not good engineers
3. They do frocks and handbags better than anyone
4. Their women are the pretty, great in the sack, but usually mad
5. They can make wine
6. Their food is without question the greatest in the world

Re cars - one should only ever buy German, English, or Italian cars.

German cars are for when you are in a "head rules heart phase" of life and English or Italian are for when you are in a "heart rules head phase".

As you can see, life choices are really not that hard.

As Omar from The Wire would say "A man's gotta have a code".

[iBoost]

Haha I agree with some of those points. The women and food are great in France. The cars not so much...

What about Japanese cars?

[STV4SYT]

One problem with Peugeots ... they are unbelievably consistent breakers.

Thats a myth in aus, I have had 3x 306 Dturbos and as long as you keep them serviced they go on forever.

1 example was a company car, 97 vintage i believe. I was a 21 year old field engineer who thought it was a rally car and drove it as such.

Most days my commute to work involved at least 100mph and 2 or 3 spots where i got airborne (country backwater roads thru Ireland).

This particular car was 3 years old with 140,000 miles on it. yes MILES... of which i was responsible for about 110,000 in 2 years of rallying.

The thing never missed a beat apart from very regular brake changes and even more regular fuel refills it just kept going.

I believe the problem the French cars have here is that are marketed as a "Premium" brand when they are not.

In Europe they are a run of the mill car that Joe average buys.

VW's in Europe are what the intelligent Joe Average buys and in Aus are marked similarly with similar pricing. (ie my GTI cost the same as my dad could have bought the identical car in the UK) Not so the froggies...


Because of the "Premium" tag they have here, and the relatively low numbers sold in comparison to VW. parts are harder to get a hold of, so cars are off the road for longer when they break down which increases the negative image they have.

Just did some investigation into cost of servicing...

Golf TDI Manual - 4 years/60,000 Km servicing between $1412 & $1865 - 4 Services
Peugeot 308 HDI Man 3 Years/60,000km $1234 -$ 1628 - 3 Services

Similar pricing with the Pug having larger service intervals, better if u do more km in the long run.

[MkVIGTI]

One of my friends have a 307 and the air con randomly shuts off when it's a hot day so I'm not really convinced Steve...

[STV4SYT]

One of my friends have a 307 and the air con randomly shuts off when it's a hot day so I'm not really convinced Steve...

MKV GTI's had air con problems too.

Every brand has lemons.

[hooba]

The french are good at making bread and wine, cars on the other hand....

[zach]

One of my friends have a 307 and the air con randomly shuts off when it's a hot day so I'm not really convinced Steve...

my brother has a 307 with 60,000kms and hasn't missed a beat. I had a 306 GTi6 and despite elctrical gremlins which Pugs are known for it also didn't miss a beat despite the punishment from me and previous owner. we can all quote family and friend scenarios for all makes and models. I guess that's life. I nearly got a 308 touring which has more charisma but Skoda feels much more solid and had a stronger petrol engine plus benefit of DSG

[jessv3]

im surprised clarkson doesn't like it.. Their faces are uncanny..

[PassatB6]

2. They are not good engineers

The French are brilliant engineers. The 60's and 70's Peugeots such as the 504 (along with Citroen) were way ahead of everything else at the time. The Concorde, Mirage fighter etc were also ahead of the pack. The 504 won rallies everywhere and was one very solid bit of machinery. Sadly,Peugeot began to go downhill in the 1980's as the Japanese competition forced them to change how they did things.

[AdamD]

I learned how to drive properly on a 405 in the early 90s. The car was quirky as a mad hatter, laugh-out-loud fun round corners, and provided plenty of heart-in-mouth moments too, in true French fashion. I loved it.

While the general build quality was good, there were a few appalling quality control and reliability issues during the warranty period that were just unforgivable, and it was replaced by a rock-solid Honda after three years. As much of a fondness as I have for the brand, I could never bring myself to spend serious hard-earned on a Peugeot unless their reputation improves out of sight.

As for the 308 vs a GTI... as far as I'm concerned, the MkVI GTI is one of the very best lifestyle-compromise cars on the market today, at any price. No Peugeot could compare.