I'd owned my Peugeot 406 Exec Turbo for close to 10 years. I loved that car. It was reliable, fun to drive, had good performance and all the executive extras you get for that model.
Some people avoid Peugeot and other French makes because they think they are badly built and brake down all the time. This hasn't been my experience at all.
Sadly the car was now over 12 years old (April 1998 R reg) and had reached 154K on the clock. The MOT was coming up in August and I knew the rear brake discs would need replacing, plus some other bits from the advisory from the year before, and the clutch biting point had got a bit low so that might have needed doing shortly. So best to part exchange it now than have to spend more than the car was worth to get it through an MOT.
I like the 406 a lot so first thought of just getting a newer one. An end of model 53 plate, and I'd always wanted to own the 3.0 V6 so was on the search for one of those. A couple of Estate versions appeared but I really wanted the rarer saloon. Then one appeared about a week ago. I popped along to have a look as the images online looked like it was OK. But on getting to the garage they had the engine running and a guy quickly trying to valet it (I had rung in the morning to check it was still available). Any car already running rings alarm bells. Was it hard to start from cold? Flat battery? Smoky? etc.. and on looking around the car it had a lot of bashes and dents. One of the front fog lights was smashed and the passenger wing mirror missing its coloured cover. The engine also sounded not quite right. I then noticed a large scrap all the way down the driver's side under the detail strip on the doors, and was quite a bad dent, ending at the rear wheel arch. My own 406 was in near perfect condition, and this one I was looking at was knackered to say the least. Amazing how bad condition it was when you consider mine had done 154K and this one supposedly 62K and 5 years newer.
So off home I went...
On the way home I had to pop into somewhere and remembered a little independent car sales place a friend had bought his cars from over the years. I popped in there and asked if they had any 406's, to which he said no as they were hard to get hold of a good one as people tended to hang on to them. But he then mentioned they had just taken delivery of a 407 Exec 2.0 HDi 136 Auto.
I wasn't really looking for an HDi or an automatic. Instead out to find a manual, and either a 2.2 or 3.0 V6 petrol, but thought I would take a look anyway when it arrived the following day.
The next day I went to look at the car and it was in perfect condition, full PSH, and drove very nicely. And for a diesel it had enough power, especially as I mainly do motorway driving anyway, so I was convinced and decided to go for it.
So I'm now the owner of a 55 plate Peugeot 407 Executive 2.0 HDi 136 Auto in black with black leather interior. And it has the top spec with the RT3 9" display and the JBL sound system with sub and 6 disc auto changer. The previous own had also had a Bury Bluetooth system fitted into the car's system and that works very nicely too.
I collected the car last Friday and did have one issue. On leaving work the battery was dead. I had to ring the AA who came quickly and tested the battery and found it at the end of its life, so I had to get that replaced. Luckily the AA had sent a battery recovery truck and he had one for my car on board and it included a 3 year warranty. I probably would had replaced the battery soon anyway so it wasn't too much bother and I do now know it is good.
It is taking a bit to get used to driving an automatic, as I still prefer manuals, but for what I need it is great and I'm so far very pleased. The garage did a new MOT and full service on it before collection too, so that's another expense not needed for another year, for the MOT, and another 20K until the next service.
Some people avoid Peugeot and other French makes because they think they are badly built and brake down all the time. This hasn't been my experience at all.
Sadly the car was now over 12 years old (April 1998 R reg) and had reached 154K on the clock. The MOT was coming up in August and I knew the rear brake discs would need replacing, plus some other bits from the advisory from the year before, and the clutch biting point had got a bit low so that might have needed doing shortly. So best to part exchange it now than have to spend more than the car was worth to get it through an MOT.
I like the 406 a lot so first thought of just getting a newer one. An end of model 53 plate, and I'd always wanted to own the 3.0 V6 so was on the search for one of those. A couple of Estate versions appeared but I really wanted the rarer saloon. Then one appeared about a week ago. I popped along to have a look as the images online looked like it was OK. But on getting to the garage they had the engine running and a guy quickly trying to valet it (I had rung in the morning to check it was still available). Any car already running rings alarm bells. Was it hard to start from cold? Flat battery? Smoky? etc.. and on looking around the car it had a lot of bashes and dents. One of the front fog lights was smashed and the passenger wing mirror missing its coloured cover. The engine also sounded not quite right. I then noticed a large scrap all the way down the driver's side under the detail strip on the doors, and was quite a bad dent, ending at the rear wheel arch. My own 406 was in near perfect condition, and this one I was looking at was knackered to say the least. Amazing how bad condition it was when you consider mine had done 154K and this one supposedly 62K and 5 years newer.
So off home I went...
On the way home I had to pop into somewhere and remembered a little independent car sales place a friend had bought his cars from over the years. I popped in there and asked if they had any 406's, to which he said no as they were hard to get hold of a good one as people tended to hang on to them. But he then mentioned they had just taken delivery of a 407 Exec 2.0 HDi 136 Auto.
I wasn't really looking for an HDi or an automatic. Instead out to find a manual, and either a 2.2 or 3.0 V6 petrol, but thought I would take a look anyway when it arrived the following day.
The next day I went to look at the car and it was in perfect condition, full PSH, and drove very nicely. And for a diesel it had enough power, especially as I mainly do motorway driving anyway, so I was convinced and decided to go for it.
So I'm now the owner of a 55 plate Peugeot 407 Executive 2.0 HDi 136 Auto in black with black leather interior. And it has the top spec with the RT3 9" display and the JBL sound system with sub and 6 disc auto changer. The previous own had also had a Bury Bluetooth system fitted into the car's system and that works very nicely too.
I collected the car last Friday and did have one issue. On leaving work the battery was dead. I had to ring the AA who came quickly and tested the battery and found it at the end of its life, so I had to get that replaced. Luckily the AA had sent a battery recovery truck and he had one for my car on board and it included a 3 year warranty. I probably would had replaced the battery soon anyway so it wasn't too much bother and I do now know it is good.
It is taking a bit to get used to driving an automatic, as I still prefer manuals, but for what I need it is great and I'm so far very pleased. The garage did a new MOT and full service on it before collection too, so that's another expense not needed for another year, for the MOT, and another 20K until the next service.
