1991 Peugeot 205 XL review from Finland

- Front wheel bearings at 110000 km.

- Intermittent freak fuel pump problem from about 100,000km. The electric fuel pump would not start to spin when car was left for approximately 15 - 30 minutes. Worked always after an hours rest. Eventually fixed the problem with a jump lead from the fuse box directly to the pump. The pump gave no extra noise and lasted until the bitter end (see later).

- Rear brake cylinders at 160,000km.

- Stuck front brake piston at 165,000km.

- Two sets of shocks.

This car was an extremely positive surprise. I inherited it from a relative when it was three years old and had only a tad over 10,000 km on the clock. I had some prejudice over the 1.1 liter engine and French build quality, but they were wiped away almost immediately.

The car had a really spirited performance for a car with such a small bhp figure and gave an impression of being way faster than it was with its freely revving engine and those marvellously tightly packed gear ratios. Once on a holiday in Ireland I got a speeding ticket. It says 105 mph... (169 km/h). OK, it was a windy day. Anyway, the car felt happy sitting at indicated 130 km/h all day every day.

Reliability was very good with only regular servicing and those very few niggles. I used to change the oil and filter about every 10,000km and still after all those kilometers the level never needed topping up. The engine had single point fuel injection that worked pretty well compared to carbs. Funnily enough the car still appeared almost new all the time I owned it. I read later that Peugeot 205 was the least rusty model (cars registered 1992) of all the cars inspected in the Finnish MOT.

205 rolls a lot in the corners but has probably the best steering feel in the world. Directional stability is excellent even on windy weather. On par with the Ka I owned next, I think. The car seemed to be really sensitive to the condition of the shocks and the front wheel tracking: with bad setup the handling was very wayward.

Heating and ventilation was only adequate.

I would probably still have the car, only I hit i another car that failed to wait at a stop sign. R.I.P. Pug. It would have been interesting to see how long the fun would have lasted.