mmm. great (Peugeot 307)

Name: yeldarb

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Product:	Peugeot 307
Date:	14/04/04 (9787 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks nice, Well specced

Disadvantages: I'm still not convinced of Peugeot Garages, Can you trust mileage on 2nd hand cars?

Reading my reviews, you may think I'm a Peugeot fan. My review of the 206 was pretty positive, and now here I am, the owner of a nice 307.

Let's get the specs out of the way first - I have a black, Peugeot 307 1.6 SE 5 door manual.
5 disc CD, auto lights, auto windscreen wipers, folding door mirrors, dimming rear view mirror are the "techy highlights" of the car. If you want to know more, then go to peugeot.co.uk.

I wanted the 307CC. Really wanted it. Nearly got it too, but the fact that I needed to borrow all the money, and the fact that Peugeots 0% loan didn't include the CC meant that, quiet simply, I couldn't afford it. Well, that's not true, I could afford it, but the combination of the list price and the lack of 0% APR meant that I wasn't prepared to pay the extra...

Those of you who watch Watchdog will no doubt be aware of the recall. Well, my situation was this: The trip computer and the milometer were 10% different, with my milometer reading the higher. In addition, when I left the car overnight my milage often went down two or three miles (not a bad thing...) I often made up those few miles VERY quickly when moving again though.

The car was recalled, and during it's 6000 mile service, it got fixed. And now, it is 100% accurate. In total, I'm guessing my car has overreported by about 600 miles, or possible underreported it, I'm not quite sure...

So, the car. Two things attracted me to it. One, was my like for the 206. I had it for 3years and changed it for an Astrazzzzzz... sorry, fell asleep there, dull car... The 307 kept most of the styling aspects of the 206, but was bigger, and that was important.
The second was that I wanted a car that, when it came round to selling it, was still a current model. Of the alternatives, the Astra was due to be replaced (and did I mention it was dull?), similarly for the Golf (although less dull). The Focus
has been around for ages and will probably be changed in a few years.
The 307 will probably only have had it's mid life update by the time I come to sell it (I'm thinking of 4 years when I finish paying for it)

The car, in black, looks rather nice. I considered siver, but it just didn't do anything for me. The 15" alloys and aluminum trim inside just makes it look sporty enough, but not "boy racery"

The ride position is very good. All the issues I had with the 206- driving position and rear view have been fixed, indeed the 307 is a very high car. It certainly seems higher than others in it's class.

Performance wise it's good but nothing special. The 1.6 16v engine sounds nice - it has a nice sound too it. The Astra (1.6 not 16v) always sounds whinny, but the 307 has a proper engine sound. I tried the automatic at first, but found the performance a bit lacking and the tiptronic gearbox a little bit gimmiky. the 2.0 automatic though quotes similar performance to the 1.6 manual, so may be worth a look.
Motorway driving is a pleasure. There is enough grunt in the engine for overtaking moves, and it's quiet happy on 5th gear to speed up.

Gadgets wise, very nice. The automatic lights are great (when it gets dark the headlights come on). Sadly, the sidelights are ignored with this and the lights are a little keen to come on. There's more than once that I've felt a bit of a tit driving round in bright sunlight with my headlights on because the car hasn't realised I've come out of a tunnel yet. Still, it's nice to see all these swanky BMWs and Jags driving in tunnels with no lights, and seeing mine pop on!
The automatic windscreen wipers are also a bit keen. I'm not sure what the differences are, but the 206's automatic wipers seemed to come on more when I wanted them, but the 307s seem to come on when theres just a couple of spots. Often,
the windscreen is pretty much dry when they come on. To be honest, I think it'd prefer some sort of "sensitivity" option there.
5 Disc CD changer that is very sensitive to scratches and CD-Rs - discs that every other machine will play, the 307 doesn't. The 206 was like that, so perhaps it's some issues with the Blaupunkt?


So, to stop the waffle. I like this car, a lot. I look at the competition - Focus, Golf, Astra, Leon, Octavia, Megane - and wonder if I should have bought one of those. I've never thought "yes", so I must have made the right decision! I highly recommend this car. Ignore the milage issues, a simple fix cures it (or at least, it did for me). It's comfy, pretty well specced, reliable (well, so far) and an all round good buy. Quiet possibly the class leader, although it'll be interesting to see how the new Golf and Astra match up.

Summary: