1986 Peugeot 205 GTi from Bulgaria - Comments

Quite a few things are wrong with the car, but I got I this way. Most aren't fixed yet.

- Vacuum regulator (12L/100km grandma-style driving... ouch!)

- Front right wheel bearing is on it's way, makes a sound like a worn out electric fan, more audible on right-handers, when the weight is to the other side of the car.

- First and second gear syncros are almost completely worn out, I'll drive it that way though - double clutching rules ;)

- There is a little play in the right drive-shaft, gotta replace it soon...

First of all, the car handles GREAT! Too bad you have to turn the steering wheel so much to make a tight turn, but overall, I have no complaints - like someone said, this thing is like a go-kart.

The gearbox isn't the smoothest ever, but the car is old, should be better on newer ones.

The clutch cable needs regular adjustment, the point at wich the clutch engages goes down (pedal-wise) with time, so at some point you start hearing grinding sounds when switching gears, and a little later you just can't switch gears! Fixing this is a no-brainer though.

The interior is very noisy on bumpy roads (otherwise it's nice and functional), as is the engine at speeds above 100km/h - the low 5th gear makes the revs go pretty high. This car is not created for highways, but around town it's hard to beat. Humiliate golf GTi drivers? No problem :).

I was amazed by the spacious interior this small car offers, especially in the back. I am pretty tall (almost 2 meters), so without an adjustable steering wheel my right knee almost touches the wheel, so it's a bit hard to twist my foot for a heel-toe. Otherwise the driving position is very comfortable, and the seats are great.

My car is quite old, and obviously driven enthusiastically in the past, but it's almost impossible to find a decent GTi around here. If you're looking for a reliable car, just get a non-GTi VW Golf or something along that line. This thing is quite fragile, although the bodywork is great, mine is completely rust-free (although it might get rusty after a while if it has been crashed and poorly fixed), and as I hear the engines last for quite a while. All in all, don't buy one in a rush, I got mine like that, and discovered there are much more problems than those that were found before the purchase. Still, I'm satisfied, I got a pretty good car for cheap.

I haven't rated dealer service cause I have no experience with them, except I hear some frightening stories about service bills - here they charge a sack of money for something that can be done for half (or less) the price in an independent garage.

One more thing, I have had the car for just over a month, so if more problems appear (and they will) further down the road (pun intended) I'll just come back and post a comment.

Hi, it's me again. I'm done with hot-hatches. And with french cars. During the short two months I had to live with it, the car was a pain in the ass to maintain (expensive parts and labor).

But at least I am alive. Why you ask? I'll tell you why. A nice sunny morning about two weeks ago, me and a friend were riding around in this thing. Then all of a sudden, we see a friend in his car. We stop alongside each other at a traffic light, it goes green, and the other guy launches his Citroen ZX forward, wheels spinning and engine revving like mad. It takes little time for me to decide to chase him - a little adrenaline in the morning couldn't hurt I thought. The road is wide and nice, there's little traffic, so we chase each other for a short distance, speeds climbing into the 120km/h zone. Then two things happen - a bump, and a fraction of a second later, a concrete wall. How me and my mate in the passenger seat got out alive - I don't know. Thank God we both are alive and apart from some bruises here and there nothing that bad has happened (well, I had a broken facial bone, don't know what it's called in english, but the doctors fixed it). The wounds will heal, the scars will disappear. But I learned three things which I will never forget. First, no more french cars. Second, hot hatches are a disaster waiting to happen - if you own one do whatever you can to put more weight on the rear wheels (like put a big spoiler on the back of the car). The road where the crash happened was not straight, it was more like a a big, smooth curve, which goes for about a kilometer. It's not much, enough to put some sideways g-force on the car. If you go over a bump at such a road at high speed, you're toast (with the 205 anyway).

On several occasions I've felt the tail let go for a very short moment before on bumps like this one, but that bump wasn't clearly visible so I could not avoid it or slow down... The rear just bounced off it, the car started to spin towards the opposite lane, then I don't remember exactly what I did, I must have tried to correct the oversteer whith the steering wheel, and because the front tires had grip (as the front of the car is much heavier) and the rears did not, the car immediately swung to the other side, going off the road and crashing into the concrete fence (ironical or not, the fence was just about 10 meters long..., large grassy fields before and after it...).

But there's one good thing I have to say about this car - either we were extremely lucky, or it is very safe. Even without wearing seatbelts we had surprisingly few injuries. But then again we may have just been lucky, cause the car was a wreck...

The third thing I learned - don't put others' lives in danger! Although it's most tempting to show off your fast car when you have a friend riding with you, DON'T DO IT! I can't describe what I felt when I woke up (just moments after the crash) and saw my mate sitting unconscious next to me, blood starting to drip from his head and I didn't know whether he was alive or not... Sometimes you have to look death in the eyes to realize these things, but public roads aren't racing tracks! Other people's lives depend on you, so be smart - protect yourself, your passengers and the other people on, and alongside the road. Maybe it's good that I'm having my driving philosophy changed so early, but it's a fact - I'm through with sporty cars and sporty driving.