1.4 HDi LX 3door

excellent MPG and £30 year road tax but be VERY VERY CAREFUL!

first ever review so here goes...

we bought our 206 1.4hdi in december 2014 (3 months ago at the time of writing this).
bought in part exchange for our old car (peugeot 306 cabriolet 2.0se) 1.4hdi 206 being cheaper to run and tax overall.
it had 97k miles on the clock, nice looking aftermarket wheel fitted - suited the car but wasn't a main feature for me.
looked okay and sounded alright too.

having part exchanged our cabriolet (paid £480 via ebay and covered 12k miles in 6 months without a fault! - just 2 engine services).
the 206 1.4hdi with 97k miles was now ours, a week into ownership while trying to accelerate up a very steep hill i found the clutch began slipping in 3rd gear at 2k rpm. the supplying dealer was contacted about this fault (unable to test this on test drive due to no hills in the area). fault was corrected at garages cost.

2 week later the rear axle collapsed! there was a minor rattle from the drivers side wheel however nothing major, we hit a pothole on the way home from work at 2am and this sent the wheel crashing into the inside of the wheel arch, making the car pull hard to the right! - radius arm bushes are prone to failing after time and if not replaced quickly allow water ingress into the axle tube as wear occurs, so does rust - highlighted by a rattling,banging noise and eventually excess negative camber and excess wheel movement (mot failure eventually).

the clutch was replaced at 97,690 miles - rear axle complete - changed at 99,270 miles all within the first 4 weeks of ownership.

the front suspension began to bang after the clutch was fitted - having checked the cheapest to "buy" part first - i.e drop links these were changed and the knocking stopped - the old ones were very worn! problem sorted.

rust is also a big killer with these cars, outer sills, inner sills, boot floors, inner wings, door bottoms... look anywhere you can!!

the cambelts on the 1.4hdi ideally should be replaced every 36,000 miles as our cambelt had been done at 62k miles and the crankshaft pulley was replaced then. now.. at 99k miles it has begun to rattle. - so needs new cambelt, crankshaft pulley etc.

the exhaust was damaged by the garage who fitted the clutch and bodged up.
the drivers seat had broken the webbing underneath and also had locked itself into place and couldn't be moved. I'm 6ft3 and the owner before quite clearly wasn't anywhere near my size. but a second hand seat in the same colour was bought from a sc***yard for just £20!

however... theres something to be said for the "sloppy jalopy"
£30 year road tax
approx £52 to completely brim the tank which driven like a 1.4hdi should be will provide 650-700 miles from a single tank! my previous 306 cabriolet 2.0 se even driven very carefully could only manage 300 from a single tank at £49 completely brimmed! still respectable for a 2.0 petrol but double the miles for the same cost to fill up near enough?... plus the cheaper tax cost, can't complain.

the LX model doesn't have air-bags inside the seats only on the dash, so having a broken seat is just 4 torx bolts and its out. very easy to make repairs to the floor, or seat.

the rear axle.. may seem a daunting task for a home mechanic but is very easy.
4 e-star mounting bolts
disconnect rear brake backing plates (so not having to disconnect brakes!) :)
drop exhaust out of the way and release the handbrake cables and its out.

the jobs are relatively easy to do, I do all the care on my own cars as i have done for years. its a relaveitly easy and simple car to work on bar the silly placing of the anti roll bar bush securing bolts.

personally.. the car owes me so much now I can't afford to sell and let someone else do the little jobs that are left and have a good reliable car for the next few years to come.

I couldn't recommend a 206 to someone as I wouldn't personally buy one again (wish I never bought this one!).

the foot pedals are too closely and as a result.. inadvertently you all too easily end up standing on your own feet while pressing the clutch etc.
rear view is more of the road than the traffic down the road
seating position isn't the best..

buy one if you want cheap running and can do the jobs yourself by all means but if your not mechanically minded and use a garage of some sort... this car will cost you a small house in repairs!

peugeot customer service is also best avoided too, the 206 is now coming to nearly 10 years old very soon as a result peugeot will stop certain parts being in stock so getting parts could become difficult and expensive from peugeot directly. certain parts could be the 4 e-star mounting bolts for the rear axle (peugeot specific bolts by the way). the customer service is also usually sharp and abrupt. "note to peugeot" - do not tell a customer you no longer make the part for an 11 year old car and cannot help the customer, leaving the customer with a 1,000 pound car needing a £30 part and you cannot help and refuse to help".. excellent customer service there peugeot!!!!
won't be buying another peugeot... thats for sure!

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