Engine OK, but . . . (Peugeot 405)

Name: cpipe

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Product:	Peugeot 405
Date:	27/01/01 (651 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fuel economy (diesel version); comfort (passengers)

Disadvantages: Poor build quality; lack of room for belongings; severe lack of headroom for driver

As a taxi driver, I have driven two 405 saloons and one estate version, over a period of nearly three years.

They are popular in the trade - especially the diesel version, which can do anything up to 60mpg even doing cabbing round the city. Parts are readily available & cheap enough, but tend not to last as long as one would hope (e.g. drive shafts seem to manage only about 70,000 miles). Handling can be really good, except for the characteristic Peugeot suspension's rolling effect when going round bends or corners - you really have to concentrate on using the accelerator pedal at exactly the right moment to try & reduce this effect on winding roads.

There is reasonably good leg room in the back, and passengers find the seats very comfortable, but not all drivers find the seat so satisfactory, and there is very little room in lots of places one would like to have it - no headroom at all if you like an upright driving position, not enough room to get your foot off the clutch pedal, not enough toe room above the pedals, not enough room between door and seat for passengers to put walking sticks &c, no room to put anything (fire extinguisher, books, road atlases, newspapers, whatever - the glove box is really only big enough for gloves and the door pockets are neither wide enough nor deep enough). The only exception is that the boot is big enough to get several suitcases in.

Bodywork is dreadfully poor: front door stays come adrift all too easily, and with a strong gust of wind you soon get a big crease in the door panel.

Summary: