Peugeot 206 1.6

...My second car was a Peugeot 106 (once the drive of my life), which started off well but came out of its shell within a couple of years. Having numerous problems with this car I was left with two options; pay £800 for a new ECU (which was faulty) when the car was worth under £700, or invest in a new car. Gladly I chose the later option and part-exchanged my 106 for a silver W registration 1.6L 206 GLX.

The Look & Price
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...dipping front end and shiney Peugeot lion badge. From the side you could probably say the car looks very sporty, especially if you buy it in 3door. From the back the car looks like a typical family car, so you could say it has many personalities. My preferred colour was moonstone (which is like a cross between silver and sky blue), although I eventually chose the cheaper option and went for silver. The price of this car in moonstone was about £750-£1000 ... more

"3rd time lucky" is the phrase I'm going to use to describe the way my car purchases have gone over the years since I've been driving.
My first car was a complete 'banger', a Volkswagen Polo 1.1, which lasted me the best part of 13 months before it was towed into a car sale's garage to be part-exchanged. My second car was a Peugeot 106 (once the drive of my life), which started off well but came out of its shell within a couple of years. Having numerous problems with this car I was left with two options; pay £800 for a new ECU (which was faulty) when the car was worth under £700, or invest in a new car. Gladly I chose the later option and part-exchanged my 106 for a silver W registration 1.6L 206 GLX.

I think this car really looks amazing from any angle you look at it, which is one of the reasons I always wanted one, but was unable to afford it. From the front, the headlights and fog lights are well designed and make the car look very attractive. The grill also makes the car look unique with a dipping front end and shiney Peugeot lion badge. From the side you could probably say the car looks very sporty, especially if you buy it in 3door. From the back the car looks like a typical family car, so you could say it has many personalities. My preferred colour was moonstone (which is like a cross between silver and sky blue), although I eventually chose the cheaper option and went for silver. The price of this car in moonstone was about £750-£1000 more than you would be paying for any other colour. As my car was a 'W' registration it was only a few years old and was priced at around £6695. As it was coming to the end of the month, the Peugeot garage I went to had a sale and this car was available for £5695. After you take away the amount I was offered for my car for part-exchange (after some haggling), this worked out as £4895. I had a choice to pay for this monthly but as the interest was quite expensive, I decided to pay £2000 up front from my savings and borrow the rest from my parents (as you do!). If you were buying this car brand new you could expect to pay around £11475, which is money well spent in my view. This car is under insurance group 5, so insurance won't be too expensive either.

The car comes complete with Power Steering and when in action this makes driving even more light, easy and comfortable. I have noticed that the car grips the road well, making turning corners and overtaking easier at slightly faster speeds and noticeably better than that of my old 106.
Accelerating away from a static position is very fast and powerful being a 1600 Litre engine and I certainly can't believe what I was missing having had a 1400 previously. There are no problems with this car struggling when doing in excess of 50mph when accelerating onto dual carriageways or motorways. As soon as you put your foot down, you're away! The performance obviously dips slightly with more passengers in the car, but this is hardly noticeable.
Changing gears in this car is like running a knife through butter, as moving between gears is very slick and easy. The clutch pedal on the car is not stiff in any way, which helps towards the smooth gear changing and the speed in which this is done.
The seats in the car make your driving very comfortable, as there's a 'tilt' feature on the driver's seat to enable the seat to not only go backwards and forwards in position, but tilt up so that you are more laid back, or tilt down so that you can be closer to the steering wheel. This offers great support for your back, as I sometimes use to get aches in my back if I wasn't comfortable in my seat and I've yet to experience this in my 206. In addition, all seats have adjustable headrests to match your size and comfort in the car.

The first thing you will notice when sitting in the driver's seat is the long dashboard which seems to go on forever and distances yourself from the windscreen. This may feel like a turn off if you are use to a small dashboard and being positioned more close to the road in front. Having said that, if you take the car for a test drive you will find that it is quick to get use to and you will feel comfortable driving it in no time at all.
One of the unnecessary features of this car is the size of the hazard warning light button. This is one of the buttons you can't really miss when you look inside the car, as it is a huge red button with a picture of a triangle that sits on its own right in the middle of the dashboard.
The dashboard incidentally, has a digital mileage display which lights up in an orange colour when the lights are on for night driving.
One of the features I like is the radio control lever on the right-hand-side of the steering wheel. This is handy for adjusting the volume, changing radio bands and changing frequency, but it does not have buttons for the presets for your favourite channels, as you still have to do this on the radio itself.
The interior of the car will much depend on the model you buy, as a GLX will look different to that of a 'Look' or GTI. My seat interior is a shiney light blue colour (not sure of the material but it is has a kind of suede feel to it) with matching headrests and door panels.
When you look at the rear of the car, the size of the boot may look misleading, as there does not seem to be much more room in the boot of this car to that of a 106. You can still do your weekly shopping and manage to fit most, if not all, of your shopping in the boot.

On the digital radio display you can see the current time and underneath this, you can also see the current temperature in degrees centigrade. Unfortunately, the car does not come fitted with a CD player as this is a radio/cassette player, but if you buy the car brand new you could have it fitted as an extra at an additional cost.
When I bought the car I was given 2 sets of keys. One of these was a manual key and another with a button for remote central locking. When you press the button on the key, the lights on the car flash vigorously and the immobiliser is disabled. Once you leave your car you can press the button again, which turns the lights on and off and locks the car at the same time as enabling the immobiliser. The car does not come fitted with an alarm as standard, but these days an immobiliser is much better, as alarms still don't deter criminals from breaking into your car (unless it does physical damage to them of course!).
If you have not shut any doors correctly, the central locking will unlock immediately to notify you of this. If you happen to be inside the car and you or a passenger does not correctly shut a door, you will hear a beeping sound and the inside light will flash.
The car also comes with air conditioning, which is a big bonus during the summer months. However, I have noticed that this increases fuel consumption slightly and can affect the power steering and engine power if used to the maximum.
As there is air conditioning, the car does not come fitted with a sunroof.
For extra room in the back, you can remove the boot cover board and push the back seats down if you ever need space to carry something large.
Another feature I like about this car is the automatic windscreen wipers. If you click the windscreen wiper lever forward one notch, this triggers the automatic windscreen wipers. Once this has been done, they will automatically clear your screen based on the amount of raindrops detected.
There are airbags situated on the driver's side and passenger's side of the car with a switch just below the driver's indicator lever to disable the passenger airbag. This can be done with the key and would most likely be done if you were carrying a baby in a baby chair in the passenger seat (for safety reasons).
Last but not least, the car has electric windows in the front and back, which can be operated from the controls in the centre of the car behind the handbrake. These are separated so that you can reach the front controls from the front and the back controls from the back (makes sense!).

Cubic Capacity - 1587cc
Number of Valves - 16
Max Power - 110bhp @ 5800rpm
Maximum Torque - 110 @ 4100rpm
Maximum Speed - 123 mph
0-62mph - 9.6 sec
0-1000m - 31 sec
Fuel Tank - 50 Litres
Urban Cycle - 32.5mpg
Extra Urban - 55.4mpg
Combined - 44.1mpg
NCAP Rating - 4/2 Overall/Pedestrian
CO2 Emissions - 153 g/km

All in all, this car has so far made a great driving experience for myself and I cannot compare it to previous cars I've owned. I've owned the car for nearlly 6 months now and it has been very reliable (no problems yet). If you're looking for something that is fast, sporty and simply looks great then this is the car for you. If you don't quite have the budget for this model, then you should be able to pick up a 1.1 or 1.4 for under £4495 (even less in sales) and this will be considerably cheaper on insurance. If you are looking to buy a 206 I would recommend getting it from a Peugeot dealer, as you know you will be getting quality, but shop around for a loan as their finance deals may not be the cheapest. Getting your MOT or service done at Peugeot dealers will guarantee that only genuine like for like parts are used, which is always an advantage and cause less problems in the future. You also get a 3year warrantee with brand new models and a 1 or 2year repairs warrantee with 2nd hand models. On average there are about 2 or 3 Peugeot dealers in most major cities across the UK so I'm sure you'll find something that takes your fancy and is within your budget.

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