1997 Peugeot 406 L review from UK and Ireland

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.

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.