1991 Peugeot 405 SRi Estate review from Germany

Cooling system needed a little care. Nothing else besides the usual wear, until to The End. The 5th gear ceased his further cooperation without any noise nor reason entirely; 5.000 km later the cooling system failed (at a constant 160 km/h @ 5.500 rpm or so), leading to an instantaneous heat death.

The 405 estate is old-fashioned in the sense of relative window surface (bigger than actual models), weight (2/3rd of his mates nowadays) and absence of some rather negligible features (air bag, rear head rests and stuff). It's handy in the exterior and roomy in the interior, the least giving a light and pleasant situation (comfy chairs!); I could not spot a comparable solution at any present model. Also noticeable is it's unaggressive styling by today's measures; the car has a social statement of moderate, saying something like: "It's not so f...... important."

Build quality is trad. french, but no complaints. The mechanics is sort of OK, not necessarily a 250.000 miles/motor runner, but reliable enough, as opposed to the 307 obviously. Possible top speed is 200 km/h (130ish in miles), fuel consumption varied surprisingly little between 9 and 11 l/100 km (31,5 - 25,7 mpg). The engine is not a miracle in torque nor in speeding up (the rpm, that is). It is silent enough however and the speedometer wanders steadily upwards, if you want. It likes a sip of oil her and there though (1l/1000 km).

Despite the "bigger, better"-habit I also tend to fall into I would have bought it again, but they're all now being puzzled together in Africa probably. I was tempted to order a new one out of Ahmadinedschad's country (Iran Khodro bought the design) but the reasons to drop such plans were technical rather than political..

The strong points here are the - I find - very smooth design and the exceptional room layout for the footprint (4.40m length). It's but a bloody car, but I found myself liking it. The rest is ok to live with.

If you find a good one, buy it.