1988 Peugeot 205 Open from UK and Ireland - Comments

I have not had any problems yet. The car was previously owned by a family member, and in all its life only broke down once, which was due to a flat battery. Unlike many 205's after 134000 miles, the interior is still perfect.

For a young driver, the series of 1.4 Peugeot 205's are about as fast as it gets.

It's also got fairly good fuel economy (on long motorway trips 40+ to the gallon).

Handling is fantastic. It lets you know exactly what's going on, so it's not a difficult car to play with, although it is incredibly rewarding.

A very apt review I feel!

I too have a 205 Open with 91000 miles on the clock, having covered 17k in the last 18 months. It is without a doubt a true bargain, both out-performing and out-handling the 1.3 Mk4 Fiesta I also drive.

I agree with your comments about 40+ mpg during motorway driving, though with hard town and country use which makes up the majority of my day-to-day use I have seen this fall to around 25mpg!

I have found the choice of tyres to greatly affect the handling, especially in the wet. I am currently running Firestone F580 which have (surprisingly) proved a massive improvement on the Goodyear Clubs I was running before.

The car is standard at the moment, but I have a free flow air filter on order to provide the necessary sound effects!

Mark (markharwood@hotmail.com)

Update.

Well the cars just passed 140K, but it's still running sweet. At present It's running a performance back box, and has some fairly standard exterior mods such as clear indicators, 1.6 gti alloys and a gti front valance. It's also had a new interior out of a Sorento green gti, which go's well with the green seat belts and carpets, but also is a lot more supportive, and look a lot better than the standard tarten monstosities. Possibly the worst trim on a peugeot, and that's saying some thing! A Carb transplat is next, it's a 32-34 solex, to replace the standard solex 34 PISBA 17. To cut short the jargon short it's an extra 10 bhp, so it'll go up from 70 to 80. It's also an easier carb to mod, as better air filters and jets give substantual rises. I'd like to see 90 BHP out of it by the end of the year, much more than this and I would have to sacrifice torque, and to be honest for Day to day use, I use the torque a lot more than the peak power.

It's also got a couple of Subs in the boot now, which I can easily take out if I want to, but most of the time I can just sit back and enjoy the beats. It also drowns out the super loud exhaust. I expect you probably think I'm a rude boy racer, but I just enjoy having a car which can go a bit, and because it's a day to day car some music is important. I'll update again soon at next major point in the modding scope.

Did you have any problems with idling revs surging? I liked your review and it seems you know what you're talking about. I just bought an '88 205 CTi 1.6 & it's giving me a bit of hassle with the engine revs. After about 10 minutes driving it doesn't suddenly stall. Any ideas?

Hi

i just would like to say that the 205 open has a 1,6L engine and not a 1.4L :)

No, the UK version of the 205 Open is the 1.4 TU3 engine with a single choke solex carb (the european version of our 205 open is called a 205 green)

There was a 205 Open in europe which had the 1.6 but that was launched in 1986 and that was the phase 1 not the phase 1.5. but that model never came to the uk