Oooo you little pugger (Peugeot 205)

Member Name: DrSeuss

Product:	Peugeot 205
Date:	07/04/03 (2099 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, Quick, Cheap

Disadvantages: Old, Not great crash protection, Lots of 'dogs' around.

My trusty (well rather knackered) steed is a 205 1.6GTi. I paid 600 pounds for the car and so far its run fairly well, thats not to say its not had its problems, so far i've had a minor electrical fault, and i've had a cracked exhaust manifold. The car also smokes slightly.

205's are getting on a bit these days, mines an E reg, which has done 94k miles, due to it taking up a most unhealthy habit i'm going to rebuild the cylinder head fairly soon. The cracked exhaust manifold would have cost approximately 150 pounds to do at a garage, since I do all the mechanics myself its cost me about 30 pounds (using a second hand manifold).

Perhaps I should focus on why I bought the car, rather then whats wrong with it? A 205 is one of the first hot-hatches, preceeded (but not superceeded) by the Golf GTi its a superb little car, it handles like a go kart and the powerful little engines hurtle it towards the horizon at a pace that would still put alot of faster cars to shame. It really does love a few B-Road blasts. With all the practicality of a hatchback. Its not a big car, but the loading area with the seats flat accomodates quite surprising ammounts of luggage.

Considering what you get for your money the 205 proves to be a good value proposition, if you do the maintenance yourself it can prove to be a cheap ownership experience, there are a huge number of pattern parts available and fuel consumption is in the mid 30mpg's.

Things to look out for if buying a 205GTi, are smoky exhausts this can indicate either a worn engine or valve stem oil seals on their way out, both are expensive jobs. Other things are a worn rear beam causing the wheels to look crooked / \ or \ / this again is an expensive job.

Though this won't bother alot of the buyers of 205's they aren't the strongest of cars, the words tin foil come to mind, they are quick because they are light, they are light because they crumple to n
othing in big accidents.

And finally the 205 is a good car for tuning and racing, the conversion to a 16v engine is common and various tuning options are inexpensive. Its a fast fun car to learn some basic mechanics on, easy and cheap to work on. Just be sure to get a good one as parts can be expensive.

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