1997 Peugeot 106 GTi review from UK and Ireland

For the 1st two years of ownership, nothing really went wrong other than general wear and tear of the car. This year though I had an exhaust bracket snap, that lead to me driving home carefully with the middle section of the pipe hanging down. Now I have an electrical fault that has paralysed my car.

Symptoms are that I have charged my battery overnight and within 20-30 minutes of driving, the stereo will switch off and then eventually no power steering and then the last part of being stranded on the side of the road! Not nice!!

Having purchased this car a couple of years ago for the sum of 4,000 GBP, I can honestly say in my opinion that this car has been well worth the money spent!

I'm not a Boy-Racer, but have always loved Peugeot's small hot-hatches with me owning two 205 GTi's which sadly both got written off due 1 drunk driver and a white van man running a red light! Surprisingly they both stood up well!

After the 205's I needed a change and picked up the 106 GTi, after a few viewings picked out 1 in Blaze Yellow (Gold to me and you).

Performance wise this car is spot-on with a 0-60 time in the region of 8.5 seconds, but for what it lacks in straight line speed (128 mph top-end) it makes for in chuckability!

I drive through some cracking B-roads and this is what the car is made for, its so agile and nimble and the steering gives so much feedback that you know when the car is on the limit. This is what driving is for!

The good thing about the 106 is it has a great suspension set-up and just enough power in the cracking little 1.6 engine to make it a cracking drive!

The interior is abit plain for me, but I don't care (i know some do) and with me being 6'2 it can be cramped for any passenger in the back! They have to be the size of mini-me if they want any legroom!

The pedals are very close together, but it took no time at all to get used to this even though I can't drive the car confidently if I have my work boots on (I always have a pair of trainers in the boot in-case).

Even though the car is not the most practical of things to own eg high insurance premiums and sometimes high fuel cost's, this just adds to the character of the car for me.

There are faster hot-hatches to 60 and also top-end, but for my personal opinion this maybe 1 of the last True hot-hatch's as with every passing model, these newer cars are putting on more weight and maybe some how are losing their sparkle.

I'm going to keep this car for as long as possible as this car best reminds me of my days in my 205's!

The closest thing Peugeot have came to replacing the Classic 205 GTi in spirit and fun is the 106 Gti!

I just hope they don't go the same way as the 205 and end up as boy-racer cars with silly body-kits and naff sounding exhausts!

But I'm afarid they will! Shame really.