2000 Peugeot 306 GTi-6 from UK and Ireland - Comments

Engine failure at 19,000 miles due to faulty piston shells.

Rear wiper motor failure.

Great perfomance!

To the uninformed, getting into a Gti-6 and driving it like a normal car it will appear just like that - Normal.

start to push It a little and you can feel it is willing to play, push it further, up around the 4000rpm right up to the 7200rpm limit and you have a different car altogether!

The torque is unbelievable, but in a controlled manner ( Not like any performance ford! ).

handling is typical peugeot,very precise and goes where you point it. On B-Roads this model comes into its own. Push it as hard as you dare and It keeps coming back for more! When you get it on the limit it is very predictable as to what it is going to do, very progressive for example in an understeer situation, which is easily corrected by the driver.

The gearbox is a joy to use. Its more of another "Gear in the middle" than a sixth gear as you may imagine. When your driving the car hard the revs only drop roughly 700rpm between gears, making it so smooth to drive hard with no sudden surges of power (Its just there all the time!!).

As detailed, Engine failure occured at around 19000 Miles. This was down to piston shells failing and allowing the con rod to move on the crank, with some light scoring of the valves.

Top marks for my main Dealer ( Abercromby Peugoet, Dunfermline ) who had no hesitation on supplying a complete new Engine under warranty ( And gace me a nice 206cc to run about in whilst mine was being fixed! ).

Fuel Economy is as you might expect with a Gti, Drive it "Normally" and you will easily get 40 - 42 to the gallon, drive it really hard and you might be lucky with 20!

As for service costs, I have found my main dealer excellent for cost and customer service.

Sounds like all Plus points so far eh? Heres the one major problems---Tyres!!

It Eats them!!!

195 x 55 x 15 Pirelli P6000 fitted as standard and they are so soft. Front ones last approx. 8 to 10 Thousand miles and no more!

I Have recently fitted a full set of 195 x 50 x 15 Toyo Proxes (Fitted standard on all new TVR / Porsche etc ) whihc so far are just the business! the roadholding is excellent, dry, wet and even in the snow. This may be helped by the fact that I have went down a size in tyre wall (Profile) but so far, so good!

My next problem is what to get next! With a car that looks so good, handles brilliantly, performs like cars with loads more power struggle to keep up with, what do you replace it with???

307 Gti-6 with 230bhp as standard springs to mind.........

Engine failure at 19,000 miles. First oil change at 20,000 miles. Hmmm...

Peugeot service intervals are too long. No engine should be run for 20k on the same oil, let alone a high performance one like this. I would bet this caused your engine failure, although proving it would be hard.

If you want to keep the new engine in good nick, have the oil changed at 10,000 as a maximum with 6,000 preferable. Lots of 306's on the latest 20k service schedules are running into engine problems between 20,000 and 60,000 miles. My 60,000 mile XSi sounds like a diesel on cold starts now. The top end is shot!

Totally agree with your comments on Service intervals, I Drop the oil every 6000 at the most and Its only Fully Synthetic that is used every time.

Got a good deal going with my Pug Dealer, I Supply the oil and they do a filter and labour for £15, saves me getting dirty and then wondering where to put the old oil!!

I Get the feeling that this wasn't the first engine to let go for this fault, There was absolutely no problem with a 4 Grand warranty claim so I suspect there was more behind it!!

Thanks for responding though, proves people are still alive and reading!!!

Ally.

I have just bought a 1997 (p) GTI 6 with 73k, I am very impressed with it.. It is the first pug I have owned.

I am a little concerned with the engine trouble that other readers have mentioned though...

I will be definatly be changing my oil with fully synthetic every 6000 miles now...

Cheap INSURANCE / Cheap TO BYE /sexy looks/ Cheap TO RUN / OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE... Why bye anything else!!!

I have had my s reg GTI - 6 for a little under a month and have just completed a 60000 mile service.

The service carried out by a main dealer did give me cause for concern as it did not appear that they had checked the car over properly.

They did not check the battery, air filter or more importantly the fan belt which was in a very poor condition and could have snapped at any time.

However on returning to the dealer, I found them apologetic and they quickly changed the fan belt with no labor charge in about 20 minutes.

Apart from the service problems and the very heavy clutch (£655 to replace at the dealer) I love this car. The power always brings a smile to my face and the car handles amazingly well.

I love the gearbox and general driving experience. This car will keep me smiling for many years to come as long as the reliability is good.

I cannot think of any other hot hatch that gives so much for so little. Even the Insurance is reasonable especially if you look on line.

I haven't even picked mine up yet and after reading these comments now I'm worried. I've bought a 1999 V reg with a brand new engine just under 1000 miles ago, but after all your comments with the service intervals the oil is definitely getting changed every 5000 miles just to be safe.

Any other advice? & what about the clutch, how much was that? I hope these cars don't eat into them like my golf GTi. Oh well the majority of the comments were pretty complementary on behalf of the Pug, I'm glad now I didn't buy a later XSi!!!

My 306 gti 6 is absolutely gorgeous. I used to have a ford fiesta xr2i with a lot of racing extras which I thought was fast until I sat in my gti-6. the lines on the body work make it look really classy the interior of the car is so comfortable and smart the complete car is a wonderful piece of work.

I decided to buy one for the performance, style, looks and reputation and I used to spend loads on my ford just to improve it and by the end it was still no-where near the gti-6.

I have experienced a few problems recently though my callipers needed replacing and front seats frame work at just 33000.00 miles. I also have e really hard clutch, very noisy injectors when first starting the car and very load rotational noises which I have been told by the dealers is a common fault and faults which they are unable to pin point. i am looking into these problems though and hopefully will get them sorted. other than that I can say that the 306 gti-6's are a car to buy if like performance, cheap parts and racing extras and good looks. these problems do not stand in my way of loving the car as you will find hat they are many more common faults with most of the cars sold in Britian.

Overall: if you are thinking of buying one do not hesitate just make sure its got a good history I paid extra to get on from the dealers just for the peugeot warranty which I have found cost effective.

Excellent looks and good performance - and much more.

I own a 98 GTI-6. I have had a new drivers side window motor, and that's it... Apart from having a new engine fitted because I blew mine to Mars. I had a valve inbed itself into the top of a piston. My local garage even cleaned and mounted the piston for me.. £2500 for another engine and a new clutch, while they where there...

Did I sell it after this... No chance, I just get the oil changed every 6000 miles, and watch most other cars vanish in my rear view mirror...

Brilliant Car!!!

But was just told they have bad residual values (by a dealer I was trying to p/x with...) I bought my 97 car in Feb 2003 for £5995 - it is now worth apparently less than £4000...

+ points:- Handling & performance are fantastic, especially B-roads...Go buy one, they are FAB!!

Well that's another year since I started this thread, Still got my Gti-6, nudging up on the 55000 miles mark now, absolutely no concerns in the last year! regular oil changes now (every 6K) so hopefully any future engine problems will be avoided...

As for the toyo tyres I recommended, everyone should fit these!! They lasted for 15 months and close on 18000 miles on the front, roughly double what the pirellis done...

Well I pick up my GTI-6 tomorrow, P Reg with 53k on the clock. I'll report back with my comments, but it drove like a dream on the test drive. The heavy clutch comments are concerning me though. Has anyone experienced any other clutch related problems?

Well after my initial offering on this thread I have another update...

The heating started blowing hot and cold, temp gauge rocketing in traffic...

Yip, there it was, blown head gasket...

So it went of peugeot to get fixed, are you mad I hear a few cry, but lets be honest, would you trust a dodgy back street garage with it??? At least I know all the right bits were replaced, head skimmed and pressure tested, new stretch bolts, water pump, timing belt, alternator drive belt, full gasket kit - the price? just under £500, from a main dealer!!

Yeah it was a pain, but with the head skimmed it is a different car to drive now, its so much smoother and pulls from a lot lower revs, the only car I might consider changing it for is a seat cupra leon type r... but it has such a long drawn out name!!!

I bought a p reg gti6 6 months ago and I think most of you are very unlucky. I bought it cheap (£1000), beautiful condition, lovely colour, no rust, sweet as a nut, but with 100,000 miles on the clock.

I have covered 15 thousand miles since then and they have ALL been completely trouble free. I still have the same set of tyres (just!). I'm a trader so I get to drive a lot of cars and this is one of the sweetest handling vehicles on the road and it goes well too. I wish everyones gti6's to be as reliable as mine!