Peugeot 206 1.4 > Reviews > Peugeot 206 Sport 1.4 55Reg

Author's product rating:   

Safety	Satisfactory
Comfort	Good
Road Handling	Satisfactory
Looks	Excellent
Features	Good

Advantages:	Stylish looks, stylish interior, nice alloys
Disadvantages:	Instrument panel a bit too plastic

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I was forced into a purchase of another car as I had wrote off my previous one (Peugeot 106). As I had liked my old car I decided to get another Peugeot. Originally, I had wanted a second hand 307 but was lured by the free insurance and looks of the new 206 Sport.

I really like the look of the 206 Sport. The interior is very nice also, with the red and black trim. The one damper though, is the istrument panel with the stereo and air conditioning controls. It just looks out of place against the rest of the interior. It's as if they did a great job with the rest of the car and then suddenly they only had half an hour left to design the instrument panel!

It's also pretty cramped inside (I have the three door model) and I'm a short person. It is especially the case for the rear passengers where leg room is minimal. But as I am fairly short, I can have a nice comfortable driving position. I would seriously not recommend this car to anyone who is more than six foot.

Fuel comsumption wise, I'm not really sure. I do about just under 180 miles travelling to and from work over five days and then on average maybe about 20 miles on the weekend. The 180 miles is done mostly on national speed limits and the 20 on local roads. A full tank would usually last me around ten days, thirteen max. I don't know if this is good fuel consumption, so you will have to form your own opinion on this. Sorry.

Also, the car itself is not very fast. I think it's definitely faster than my old 106 but it's still slow, especially acceleration wise. Or maybe I've just got used to it and I just want it to go faster. So although it's called Sport, it's certainly not Sport in performance but purely Sport in looks. If you want a fast car (and by that I mean affordable and not cars such as the Ferraris!) then do not go for the Sport - well not the 1.4 version anyway, definitely go for a bigger engine.

However, overall, I am really unhappy about the car. I have had numerous faults already and I've only had it for eight months.

First lets talk about my buying experience. I needed a car desparately as I travel to the next town for work and car rental and train tickets were getting expensive. The sales guy at a official Peugeot dealer was very friendly and very helpful. However they didn't have any Sport models for me to test drive so I had to test drive an older but similar specification 206. First moral of the story - YOU MUST BE PATIENT AND TEST DRIVE THE EXACT CAR YOU'RE GOING TO BUY.

I pick up my new car a week later (one week before they said it was going to be ready, which was great) and the sales guy went through all the instrument controls and generally being very helpful.

So, I drive a 206 Sport for the very first time - and I love it. The car looks great in terms of style and the handling is good (compared to my non-power steering old car). It has air conditioning, great for the summer, and electric windows. It has to be noted about the air conditioning though, when you turn it on, the engine continuosly makes a clicking sound and when the car is stationary, it sort of shudders at intervals. As this is the first car that I have had that has air conditioning I don't know if this is a common problem?

Now, to the problems I've been getting. As I said earlier I have to travel to the next town for my job and this requires me to travel on dual carriage ways five times a week. I start to notice that the bonnet has chip marks in the paintwork and you can see the bare underneath. Now that's not good, surely paintwork should be a bit more durable.

However, that was just a minor problem. Six months after my purchase, the first real fault arose. After a long journey (about two hours drive) I stopped off for something to eat. Tried to start the car but the it wouldn't start for about 30 seconds. When the engine finally started, a beeping noise can be heard to indicate a fault is present and a warning sign comes on the dashboard - ANTI-POLLUTION FAULT. I thought okay, I'll get it checked the next day as it's not actually affecting the running of the car. So, there I am driving my car for about ten minutes when suddenly there's problem with the gearstick or clutch. The gearstick becomes stuck after putting it into neutral and I cannot put it into gear. I struggle for about another ten minutes and then it's okay.

I take it to the garage and they found that it was a problem with the sensor but they couldn't find anything wrong with the gears or clutch. I thought nothing of it then or maybe that the problem was somehow connected to the sensor problem.

So another two months go by and the next real fault arises. I had been driving for literally two minutes and the beeping sound can be heard with the warning sign - COOLANT TEMP TOO HIGH. So I have to stop the car and the fan can be heard going into overdrive. This time I had to call Peugeot assistance (partnered with RAC - a cover you're forced to pay for in the purchase price when you buy a new peugeot). Spoke to Peugeot and they said it was a problem with some sort of sensor - again!

So there's the major problems - so far. You may think that it's only the two but for a brand new car you shouldn't really expect it to have these manufacturing faults within eight months.

To summarise, the only thing that pleases me now is the look of the 206 Sport. I can't deny that the car is really good looking and is one of the most popular cars in Britain. But I no longer feel safe in my car which is a worry as I drive it everyday doing national speed limits on dual carriage-ways to work. One thing I will say about Peugeot though is that the customer service is top class, from sales to service. Very polite people and very helpful.

So that's my review. Well it may not be so much of a review but I just wanted to tell people of the problems I have encountered with the 206 Sport so that you are aware fo the problems - apparantly when I spoke to the sevices guy at Peugeot about my most recent problem he said that it had been quite a common problem with this model. I am by no means saying that all 206's have problems, maybe I've just been the unlucky one!