Faults:

Blew out a lot of blue smoke on a cold start when first purchased. Given a good service, new glowplugs (well, 3 anyway - it is humanly possible to get at the 4th one behind the fuel pump?!) and fuel system cleaner, which seemed to help a lot - passed the emissions element of the MOT, anyway!

Central locking no longer worked.

Syncromesh weak on 2nd gear.

General Comments:

Bought very cheaply (£140 with 4 months' MOT remaining), with the following faults:

- Blue smoke on cold start, which took up to 5 minutes to clear - resolved as noted above;

- Rough idle - believed clogged injector, resolved itself after good servicing and resetting the idle speed;

- Badly worn front tyres - both had huge dents in the rim, not worth fixing so two secondhand wheels with good tyres taken from a scrapped 406, and the tracking reset (11mm out!);

- Various missing bits of trim - again resolved by liberating the various pieces from the scrap car.

I had ideas of replacing my 405 TD saloon with this car, but the 1.9TD engine just isn't up to the greater bulk of the 406. Acceleration was flaccid, with a corresponding hit on economy, and the handling not as precise.

I also found the seats less comfortable than the 405, and there was some serious rust beginning around the sunroof, no doubt due to blocked drainage pipes. I've never had any rust on the upper bodywork of the 405s I have owned, so this was a surprise...

On the plus side, it's undoubtedly a safer car (twin airbags for a start), the ride is superb and the interior build quality much better - makes you wonder why it took Peugeot so long to sack Airfix from making their interiors! Also, despite the mega mileage and lack of history, the head gasket was A1, which was a relief as these engines have something of a history regarding their frailty, if the coolant is not regularly changed. I changed it - plus the thermostat - as a matter of course.

The specification of the "L" model is really quite spartan; OK, you get an electric sunroof, front windows, central locking and the aforementioned twin airbags, but there's no revcounter which is an essential to get the best out of the XUD 1.9TD, in my opinion.

So the car was sold on, covering it's costs, after a new MOT was obtained. I will keep my 405s going as long as possible - very few expensive electronics in one of those to cause problems - but will consider an early 406 2.1TD when the 405s finally die.

Faults:

Head gasket went around 130,000 miles (coolant in oil), compression O.K. tried various sealants.

Top radiator pipe blew off around this time.

Recon head done around 146,000 miles and replaced radiator and coolant hoses. £1,500 total for major service, including the head.

Hole in drivers foot-well carpet - with getting out of the car, my heel made the hole over 7 years - foam sponge in carpet (a bit soft) can't take the repeated localized pressure.

Air-con pump leaks slightly, but just recharge air-con every two years.

Had injectors done once, glow-plugs twice (I do a lot of stop-start short journeys).

Stabilizer link and suspension bushes @ 153,000 miles.

Handbrake lever boot broke - 10 years not bad for a bit of plastic to survive.

Most annoying thing was the rear-view mirror - I kept hitting it somehow and the glued joint to windscreen glass comes apart too easily - changed it to a Ford mirror, with sticky pad - never had any more problems.

Rear exhaust section replaced twice, first time shortly after I got the car - every 4 years ish.

Radio-cassette on/off button broke - got nice CD-radio replacement.

White paint has lost its shine a bit, but getting it professionally polished & hard waxed this year to make sure rust doesn't get a chance.

Turbo oil seals starting to bleed a bit of oil - smokes only briefly on start up.

The clutch has never been touched in 170,000 miles.

Servicing = £7,000 over 5 years doing everything for reliability, including regular oil+filter, tyres, brakes, battery, cam-belts, tensioners and MOTs.

Only take my cars to main dealers for specialist work - trim components. They did spot that the cam-belt tensioners needed replacing @ 168,000 miles before something serious happened.

General Comments:

Bought for £4,800 @ about 120,000 miles.

Now worth, I guess, £1,000 @ about 170,000 miles.

When I got the car it averaged 41 mpg now it is 38 mpg only because of the shorter journeys I do. It'll still do over 40 mpg on long holiday runs, fully loaded with a roofbox at motorway speeds all day long.

It's never used any oil, and I now run it on 5W-40 fully synthetic, changed once a year at whatever the mileage.

Still no rust after 10 years.

Seats are infinitely more comfortable than FORD seats, e.g. Fiesta or Focus - Peugeot got the lumbar support right.

Handling - It's an estate, which are good and taut when empty and can get under-steer in first gear in wet, but easily controlled, Avon ZV3 tyres work well.

Power - it shifts at a reasonable rate if you use 3,000 to 4,000 rpm, which it still takes without complaint. It is not a performance car, it's a workhorse. 30 to 50 mph speed limits for most of my driving, so performance is adequate.

As there is no depreciation to talk of now, I'll only get rid of it if someone hits me and writes it off, or the engine blows up or starts burning oil. If the turbo goes I'll probably get a recon unit - £250 I think.

Looking forward to getting well over 200,000 miles now that it is over the mid-life crisis (extra maintenance period for any car).