1999 Peugeot 306 Meridian review from UK and Ireland

After about a week, whilst in a multi-storey car park I discovered the handbrake did not hold on steep slopes. This fault has still not been put right.

Very smokey especially up hills. At about 60k the turbo went - £800 repair!

A few hundred miles later, more smoke. I took it to independent garage, and they charged £130 to change oil and a general service.

Oil and stop lights flickered when changing down gears to slow down. Garage changed the oil sensor, problem recurred.

62,000 had to get a new battery as old one developed an internal fault.

At 63,000 engine overheated and suffered damage. The car is currently getting a replacement engine.

Regardless of the above reliability problems, the car is very nice looking. This model has a sporty look despite it being a 5 door car.

The model is packed full of features. It comes with power steering, electric windows and mirrors, air conditioning (which didn't work on my car), half leather interior, front foglights, automatic wipers (I like that feature).

The car is quite slow off the mark as should be expected with most older model diesel cars. In second gear the turbo takes effect at around 20mph, third and fourth gears see a remarkable boost in power - quite possible to do 40-60 in about 3 seconds in 4th, so excellent for motorways etc.

Fuel economy is great providing you don't have problems with the turbo.

Make sure that you buy a car with a Full Service History - this is essential for diesel cars (mine didn't have a great SH, but lesson learned...)