RE: Shed Of The Week: Peugeot 406 V6

RE: Shed Of The Week: Peugeot 406 V6

Friday 22nd May 2015

Shed Of The Week: Peugeot 406 V6

It's a beautifully presented six-cylinder saloon car that isn't German - tres bien!



We know from previous V6-powered 406 Sheds, most of them Coupes, that the Peugeot six-cylinder is not so much a lean-flanked, fast-reacting whippet of an engine as a comfort-loving, fireplace-hogging Labrador type of unit.

Photos can only say so much but looks lovely
Photos can only say so much but looks lovely
Set against that, the double-cam 2.9 was nice and smooth and bolted into one of the best examples of the 'comfort chassis' you'll find anywhere. Before a lot of funny men with no imagination or respect for heritage barged their uncouth way into France's automotive industry, the concept of confort was as important to the French as shrugging, default rudeness to foreigners and slurping 'cafe' from big cups with no handles.

Look on the internet and you'll have no bother finding positive comments from 406 V6 owners refering to 'marvellous engines', 'very good leather seats' and best of all 'horrific depreciation'. For the skinflinty Shedman this is all manna from heaven (other transcendent firmaments are of course available).

The current owner was presumably, and quite reasonably, unable to resist the allure of this car's lustrous paint, squishy leather and mouthwateringly comprehensive service history. There's a picture of the paperwork in the ad. Even with a wide-angle lens he couldn't get it all in. Servicing intervals for S-reg and later 406s were lengthened to 20,000 miles, but this one was spoilt rotten with its very own 3000-mile annual schedule. Either nobody at the dealership bothered to mention the correct intervals to the owner or he was just one of those super-fastidious types who treated his car better than most other things in his life. A sentiment with which Shed can easily associate. Judging by the spotless state of the car and the metronomic 'book it in Dano' frequency of its September visits to Wilsons, we're going with option two.

Thirsty petrol V6? Check! Squishy leather? Check!
Thirsty petrol V6? Check! Squishy leather? Check!
Part of Shed's remit is to play devil's advocate, so what sort of things might crop up to besmirch this pampered Peugeot's record? Apart from the obvious ongoing one of fairly heavy fuel consumption which (you suspect) might be occasioning the car's sale now.

Well, for reliability reasons the auto is not as well liked as the manual, but with a service folder as thick as this one you'd like to think that there's a fair bit of mechanical goodwill there just waiting to be frittered away by the next owner. Surprisingly perhaps the 2.1 diesel has a worse reliability reputation than the petrol V6, compounded in the diesel's case by rank underbonnet accessibility. Nor does the big six have the 2.1's reputation for chewing through speedometers, replacements for which are now rare and expensive.

At least part of the reason why the 406 rode so well and with such suppleness was the ease with which Peugeot's engineers were able to match spring and damper rates to what was a relatively lightweight construction. Nowadays of course light weight has to be accompanied by a significant percentage of extra strength, but that pattern hadn't really been fully established in the 406's day. Lightness back then still came with a certain tradeoff in crash resistance. The 406 started off a two-star NCAP performer, only reluctantly hoisting itself up to a still barely adequate three stars by 2001.

Probably not a fleet buy with this engine...
Probably not a fleet buy with this engine...
It's always worth checking the coolant system on older cars to sidestep the perils of radiator blockage, but again you should be well covered by the paperwork. Fuel pumps and ABS components fail, thin brake discs warp, and the combined rear discs/parking drums give bother after a while. There's some evidence of front coil springs breaking on early cars too.

A raft of recalls might make you think badly about a car, but if so you're probably not really in the Shed demographic. Here, we think of recalls as free improvements, and the 406 had more than its share of those in the first few years of its life. Engine management software upgrades, ignition switch and brake servo mods, new rear suspension pivot arm bolts, boot locks and more, all provided for free. There's a silver lining in every cloud, you see.

It's a lovely alternative barge, this. In such sparkling condition it's probably the nearest thing you'll get to a new executive car for under a grand.


Here's the ad.

1998 Peugeot 406 V6 A/T
Only 38600 miles
FULL PEUGEOT SERVICE HISTORY
1 Previous Owner
Cambelt done
MoT until 30th Sept

Specification:
Full black leather
Cruise Control
Climate Control
ABS
Airbags
6 CD Changer
Electric Seats with memory on driver's side (which includes the mirror position as well)
Automatic Wipers
Headlamp Washers
Alloy Wheels
Electric Windows x 4
Electric Sunroof
Electric and heated mirrors
Driver and Passenger fold-down arm rests
Rear window blind
Fog lights
Optional extra: Protection pack - mats, headlamp covers and mud flaps.

Driving:
Suspension. This car is fabulous to drive - it was developed back when Peugeot made their own dampers in house and knew how to tune them. To have such a low mileage example means everything still feels as tight as you would expect. The cabin is such a calm place to be - with a relaxing ride, yet control if you need to take a B-road at speed.

The engine pulls well and the adaptive gearbox is smooth and adapts well to your driving, always selecting the right gear (It's far better than my current E-class, which is totally dumb in comparison). It shifts down under braking, holds gears round corners + you have the option of sport mode, which shifts down more aggresively and genuinely does make the car feel a lot quicker. I have been genuinely surprised with the gearbox thinking everyone was still in the habit of making slush boxes back in the late 90's, but Peugeot were ahead of the game

The interior shows barely any signs of wear - you can see from the photos the condition it's in. From new, the genuine Peugeot carpet mats have been covered by genuine Peugeot rubber mats! The seats strike an excellent balance between comfort and support. It's just a nice place to be.

All electrics work without fault. The climate control is very cold

Exterior wise, the car has been garaged it's entire life until I bought it earlier this year - unfortunately, my garage is already occupied with a 2CV and a little 106 Rallye, which aren't fully galvanised like this. There are a few marks here and there, which have mostly been touched in, but the overall appearance is excellent.

The brakes are quite recent. Tyres are 4 x Michelin, which are about half worn. I also have the original wheels (again, in excellent condition fitted with Pirelli P6000s all round - the rears are pretty new and the fronts about 4mm). Choice is yours which set you want or both would be available subject to negotiation.

Service History:
A incredible service history file with fully stamped book - in fact the car has been over-serviced against the specified schedule for the most part - the Peugeot recommendation is every 20k miles/2 years and the vast majoirty are every year.
As well as routine servicing, there are invoices for the cambelt, radiator and a couple of sets of brakes (amongst many other items). Every single invoice bar 2 for tyres is from the Peugeot Main Dealer and the car has had 1000s spent on it in just routine servicing. I also have the original sales invoice + correspondence back and forth from the garage and the owner.

I've listed the service dates and mileage below (it would take me several evenings to transpose the details of every invoice, so if you have any specific questions, please ask, or come and view the car/history:
02/11/98 1158m Wilsons Peugeot
19/04/99 4860m Wilsons Peugeot
12/04/00 10712m Wilsons Peugeot
17/09/01 15969m Wilsons Peugeot
09/09/02 18958m Wilsons Peugeot
18/09/03 21621m Wilsons Peugeot
07/09/04 22548m Wilsons Peugeot
09/09/05 25464m Wilsons Peugeot
08/09/06 28368m Wilsons Peugeot
06/09/07 29881m Wilsons Peugeot
04/09/08 32161m Wilsons Peugeot
06/09/10 34355m Wilsons Peugeot
09/09/11 35379m Wilsons Peugeot
07/09/12 36828m Wilsons Peugeot
15/09/14 37909m Wilsons Peugeot
The next service will be due in September 2016

I've been looking for 406 V6s for ages, so when this popped up, I bought it immediately. I absolutely love the car and find it a really enjoyable drive, but I do need an estate (well I did when I bought this, but I still do now). If I could find the exact same condition car as an estate, it would be perfect for me... perhaps I should buy an estate shell and swap everything into it!

Viewing welcome. Car is located just North of Milton Keynes (about 10 mins from J15 of the M1). Test drive possible with proof of insurance, otherwise I'm happy to take you out and demonstrate the car to you.

No canvassers, African princes, agents at Southampton docks, offshore workers, Western Union etc etc - just genuine buyers thanks.

Thanks for looking,
Simon



 


 

Author
Discussion

cybersimon

Original Poster:

199 posts

168 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
Spectacular.

No one does a luxo-shed so well as the French.

Iamnotkloot

1,395 posts

146 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
A handsome car and extremely well kept for shed money.

IanCress

4,409 posts

165 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
Sub £1k cars don't get any better than that. Likely to be any issues due to lack of use, or only doing short journeys?

Rammy76

1,050 posts

182 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
Lovely car, I'd happily buy it!

tezzer

983 posts

185 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
a splendid piece of hardware !

StarmistBlue400

3,028 posts

217 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
Fugly but love those seats, interior looks in great condition.

Dog Star

16,079 posts

167 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
Top sheddage; good call!

SrMoreno

546 posts

145 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
StarmistBlue400 said:
Fugly but love those seats, interior looks in great condition.
Still a good looking car to me, and considerably better than any of its period competition.

ShadyDuck

100 posts

106 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
What a great find. Yes it will be worth a third of that once a few more miles go on the clock, but think about it. 4 years of comfy V) motoring for £250 a year, it's cheaper than a bicycle and far more comfy.

I think the old days of comfy old French barges were great. The old Laguna, Safrane, 25, XM, BX, 406 etc all were wonderful motors to glide down the road in.

It's a shame that is consumers don't realise that we push manufactures to making cars in one shoe fits all style.

I run two cars ( Honda S2000 and Volvo V70 D5), both 10 years old but serve different purposes and adore their respective designs for what they are. Horses for courses.

Superb shed.


daytona365

1,773 posts

163 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
They'll never be another shed as good as this. Almost unbelievable.

Podie

46,630 posts

274 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
If you need a motorway shed - this looks like a great contender.

hornetrider

63,161 posts

204 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
Magnificent!

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
If it didn't have a French badge on the front it'd be worth a lot more than this!

exgtt

2,067 posts

211 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
The ride on these is superb. Peugeot really knew their onions back in the day when it came to damping. Tempting.

court

1,485 posts

215 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
Love that, I picked up a same year same colour 2.0T Executive 10 years ago for a friend with over 100k on it. It never missed a beat in the 3 years he had it till it was written off. Lovely place to spend some miles.

Dion20vt

252 posts

161 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
Excellent shedding!!! Did it mention in the article how much it actually weighs? A good comparison to a modern family saloon with a V6 under the bonnet would be good!

Edit: Obviously newer cars are much heavier because they're much safer etc... But it's not like this is a 1960's 4 door saloon is it??

Edited by Dion20vt on Friday 22 May 09:28

hman

7,487 posts

193 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
drove one of these a few times - seemed nice, the indicator stalk was broken most of the time though.

LotusEspritTurbo

745 posts

254 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
Great looking car, a time when Peugeot used Pininfarina to design their cars. Then Peugeot stopped giving a st and designed cars that looked like monk fish.

SuperHangOn

3,486 posts

152 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
GravelMachineGun said:
If it didn't have a French badge on the front it'd be worth a lot more than this!
Not necessarily. I have bought similar vintage, low mileage BMW's and Mercs for under a grand. Big old petrol barges are a hard sell unless they are especially desirable models.


Looks a good honest car that.

Strawman

6,463 posts

206 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
Good shed, if it was a manual I'd be tempted.