After three months of owning this brand new car, the engine was rebuilt (under warranty).
I have had the transmission worked on numerous times.
Both axles were replaced.
The backlit instrument panel shorted out.
Interior door panels disconnected from the door, making it impossible to lock.
The alternator failed, and for a while I had a problem with the rear left blinker shorting out, which I usually fixed myself - not a great idea.
I actually love the car; it handles very well for an 11-year-old automobile. Although I have an automatic transmission, I can leave new sports cars in my dust. The handling is top-notch, especially since I had the axles replaced. The car grips the road like no other I have ever driven. I would say that the 405 has been the most expensive vehicle I've ever maintained; I wish it were a bit more reliable, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons.
I too have a 405 S 1.9 1989 Peugeot, I live in Chicago and have driven this model for nearly one year. Yes, I had to take the car in for the following repairs or replacements starting with the fact that the second owner who "gave" me the 405 had no real interest in maintaining it. The woman had it for only four months, but managed to mess it up without an oil change and the transmission fluid was burnt up.
Has anyone interested in 405's surfed the web to locate all the resources they can and keep a number of items handy in the car or home-base. Items such as oil filters, (Mann, Bosch, Peugeot, are best), new "O" ring washers for the oil changes and a new air filter for those annual changes. The people in California who service Peugeot parts, etc are very sharp and customer-oriented. They are on 800 numbers so reach out! If anyone wants my list of improvements contact me at ccool68@hotmail.com otherwise wear those seatbelts and watch out when the door closes!
The 405 is a great long drive car.
Mr. C.
I'm the writer of this review from back in July of 2000. It's now about 15 months later and I love this car more than ever.
Remember those transmission problems I mentioned? They caught up with the car at about 95000 miles and I had to get a new auto transmission. Then THAT transmission dropped about 4000 miles later. I ripped my hair out and lost much sleep, but I finally decided to replace it again (at that point I had just spent $1200 on new paint and was in the process of making other upgrades).
About $5000 later, I don't regret fixing this car. It looks and performs better than ever, and it's such a rare automobile that I always get looks from it.
In addition to the paint, it now has hyper-white lights and new side markers, and I've put almost $2000 into a Sony/Pioneer stereo (it comes in handy on long country drives). This car is great - if you ever find a low mileage 405 that's in somewhat decent shape, BUY IT! You won't regret having this car.
Jon (incredibly_white@hotmail.com)
Ah ha! The 405s had lots of problems with their automatics. Mine failed at 104,000 miles and my Peugeot mechanic told me that they all had problems and recommended I swap it out for a 5 speed. That was the best $1800 I spent on the car. It brought the little 1.9 to life and made it even MORE fun to drive. I bought 205 GTI wheels for it and put some high performance Kumhos on them and I could out perform almost everything else on mountain passes and twisty roads. A blast to drive and designed by Pininfarina, you know, Alfa, Maserati, etc.
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