Monday Motoring Classic: Peugeot 406 Coupe
How you feel about Peugeot is almost immaterial when people are too busy gawping at your stunning motor to notice.
That's what you get with the Peugeot 406 Coupe, styled by the team at Pininfarina who created stunners like the Ferrari F40, 360 Modena and 458. If you squint it even looks a bit like the Ferrari 456...
It's also worth noting that the Peugeot 406 Coupe comes from the era when every Peugeot had a sprinkling of fairy dust over the chassis, so it drove with more panache than you'd expect from something based on a humble saloon.
Even better, there's a healthy engine choice to suit your budget. The V6 is the most desirable, but also the thirstiest and the one attracting the top money. We found a couple for close to £4000, which is a bit much for us.
There's a 2.2-litre diesel, which is a good motor if it's looked after and offers plenty of torque as well as over 40mpg if you're careful.
The 2.0-litre petrol versions are the cheapest, but 137bhp is enough to be getting you along. It's also nigh-on impossible to tell them apart by sight, so no one will know you've gone down the penny-pinching route.
And how much are we talking about? Well, we found a part-exed diesel with 150,000 miles for a tidy £999, a fresh MoT and one previous owner, which is about as stylish as it gets for the price of a European city break.
You can expect to pay about the same for 2.0-litre petrol versions, but given that ads are already suggesting this is a future classic, prices are only going to go one way.
Fit 17-inch wheels and it will look sharper still without ruining the driving experience, and with proven mechanicals you'll find it easy and inexpensive to fix, even if reliability might not be 100%. Find a Peugeot 406 Coupe for sale