Discussion
Hi, I had one as my first car 18 years ago, an 1118 cc OHV XE... with only 55bhp it still managed to be surprisingly nippy below about 50mph, but mostly gave reasonable fuel consumption and had excellent handling... however, when someone drove into the side whilst I was stationary the door pillar separated in a low speed impact, and when vandals stoved the side of the car in I only needed to give the panels a push from inside and they popped out again.
Excellent car but the reason they're so light is because they appear to have been built from metal salvaged from the tops of tin cans... I can't resist looking for a GTi/Goodwood sometimes in the adverts, but they all appear to have been chavved now.
Excellent car but the reason they're so light is because they appear to have been built from metal salvaged from the tops of tin cans... I can't resist looking for a GTi/Goodwood sometimes in the adverts, but they all appear to have been chavved now.
I had a basic GE model while I was at university. Mine hadn't been used for 18 months when I bought it for £150, but it went straight through the MOT. I put new tyres, brake discs/pads and an exhaust on it in the first few months and it ran faultlessly for the 2 years I had it, in which time I put around 20k miles on it. It had done 110k or so when I sold it.
The 1.3 OHV Talbot engine in it wasn't the most powerful or refined thing in the world but was pretty bullet-proof and never had any problems starting, even if it was left unused for a few weeks. Fuel economy was somewhere between 30 and 35mpg from memory.
They don't seem to rust much either - mine had a little bit on the boot lid but other than that was solid.
Definitely a good choice for a cheap fun car and I've always been a bit tempted to try and find a good GTI or Goodwood, but as already mentioned most of them seem to have been abused by now.
The 1.3 OHV Talbot engine in it wasn't the most powerful or refined thing in the world but was pretty bullet-proof and never had any problems starting, even if it was left unused for a few weeks. Fuel economy was somewhere between 30 and 35mpg from memory.
They don't seem to rust much either - mine had a little bit on the boot lid but other than that was solid.
Definitely a good choice for a cheap fun car and I've always been a bit tempted to try and find a good GTI or Goodwood, but as already mentioned most of them seem to have been abused by now.
I too had one as my first car back in 1996.
Mine was A 1987 309 GE in cherry red with the 1118cc OHV Simca engine. It was the very bottom of the range but I loved it to bits.
My dad bought it for me off an old guy who had it from new, it had only done 44,000 miles and cost 500 quid. I kept it for three years, put another 40,000 miles on it and sold it for 500 quid.
It was also pretty immaculate as I kept rebuilding and curing any rust that appeared!
I loved my old Peugeot.
D378 XYJ, where are you now?
scrapped probably...
Mine was A 1987 309 GE in cherry red with the 1118cc OHV Simca engine. It was the very bottom of the range but I loved it to bits.
My dad bought it for me off an old guy who had it from new, it had only done 44,000 miles and cost 500 quid. I kept it for three years, put another 40,000 miles on it and sold it for 500 quid.
It was also pretty immaculate as I kept rebuilding and curing any rust that appeared!
I loved my old Peugeot.
D378 XYJ, where are you now?
scrapped probably...
I had a 1.8 diesel, last year briefly, bought it for £250 I believe, it was tremendous on fuel, got about 500 miles out of the fuel that was in it when I bought it. Fitted it with rear bilsteins and Gti alloys which gave it some comedy handling moments,
Sadly it went pop and ended in smoke in the outside lane of the M1, although in fairness it was on 260,000 miles and I was nailing it!
By nailing it I mean about 70 in that thing as it was slow as anything haha.
Would still like a gti though, maybe for a gti6 conversion.
Sadly it went pop and ended in smoke in the outside lane of the M1, although in fairness it was on 260,000 miles and I was nailing it!
By nailing it I mean about 70 in that thing as it was slow as anything haha.
Would still like a gti though, maybe for a gti6 conversion.
I drive a 309SR as my daily driver, the 1580cc 80bhp single-Weber engine gives around 32mpg - up to 40mpg on a run, down to 20mpg in last winter's snow... They're also part-galvanised so rust develops slowly, but there are a few rust spots like between the petrol tank and the sill that you need to watch. Parts are dead easy, via Peugeot dealers, Euro Car Parts or GSF.
My car has an irritating flat spot unless I boot it all the time, but I can live with that - down to modern petrol I suspect as it's fine when cold with no choke (it's a Weber carb with coolant piped through it). The rear seat bases can be removed from the car without tools (they just lift out) giving a flat floor from the back of the boot right through to the backs of the front seats when the rear seat backs are folded forward, and it will easily carry more than the rear suspension can cope with! Very practical.
I paid £300 to a Trader in April 2009; the car had 35,300 miles, 5 months' MoT (I paid extra for road tax - fair enough!) and 2 lady owners - the first lady owned it 20 years and had it serviced at a Nissan dealer annually - corroborating the 21,000 miles she did, along with computerised MoT records... MoTs corroborated the 7,000 miles a year the second owner did (but no service stamps).
Its pre-1991 petrol engines are all Simca-designed, and the rest of it is pure Talbot. It was meant to be called the Talbot Arizona, but the Talbot name was dropped near launch so it became Peugeot 309 - 309 as it wasn't designed by Peugeot and didn't fit in among the 205s and 305s of the time, nor was it a replacement for any Peugeot model.
As others have said, the early SR Injection, and such as the GRI from the later range (1990-on) are worth a punt, with the 205GTI 1.6 115bhp Injected engine. Could fancy one myself...
I'm an enthusiast of the 309 .
My car has an irritating flat spot unless I boot it all the time, but I can live with that - down to modern petrol I suspect as it's fine when cold with no choke (it's a Weber carb with coolant piped through it). The rear seat bases can be removed from the car without tools (they just lift out) giving a flat floor from the back of the boot right through to the backs of the front seats when the rear seat backs are folded forward, and it will easily carry more than the rear suspension can cope with! Very practical.
I paid £300 to a Trader in April 2009; the car had 35,300 miles, 5 months' MoT (I paid extra for road tax - fair enough!) and 2 lady owners - the first lady owned it 20 years and had it serviced at a Nissan dealer annually - corroborating the 21,000 miles she did, along with computerised MoT records... MoTs corroborated the 7,000 miles a year the second owner did (but no service stamps).
Its pre-1991 petrol engines are all Simca-designed, and the rest of it is pure Talbot. It was meant to be called the Talbot Arizona, but the Talbot name was dropped near launch so it became Peugeot 309 - 309 as it wasn't designed by Peugeot and didn't fit in among the 205s and 305s of the time, nor was it a replacement for any Peugeot model.
As others have said, the early SR Injection, and such as the GRI from the later range (1990-on) are worth a punt, with the 205GTI 1.6 115bhp Injected engine. Could fancy one myself...
I'm an enthusiast of the 309
.A picture speaks a 1000 words so may I present my old 309 GTi Goodwood 
Only sold earlier this year to be replaced with a Renault 21 Turbo.
As with most old cars so long as they are used regularly they will be more reliable. I was very lucky and even a year or two ago when I bought it it only had 26k on the clock!! When I sold it, it still only had mid 30k on it!! Easily got the mid 30's in terms of mpg (the benefits of a light car with a good engine). Awesome fun to drive as well.
I used to have a 309 SRi many years ago as my second car, as others have said it had the 205 1.6 GTi running gear and was much cheaper to insure.
There is still a good following for them and you can still get parts without too much difficulty. If it werent for me finding my perfect spec 21 Turbo I probably wouldnt have sold my Goodwood.
Here is a pic of my old SRi
Only sold earlier this year to be replaced with a Renault 21 Turbo. As with most old cars so long as they are used regularly they will be more reliable. I was very lucky and even a year or two ago when I bought it it only had 26k on the clock!! When I sold it, it still only had mid 30k on it!! Easily got the mid 30's in terms of mpg (the benefits of a light car with a good engine). Awesome fun to drive as well.
I used to have a 309 SRi many years ago as my second car, as others have said it had the 205 1.6 GTi running gear and was much cheaper to insure.
There is still a good following for them and you can still get parts without too much difficulty. If it werent for me finding my perfect spec 21 Turbo I probably wouldnt have sold my Goodwood.
Here is a pic of my old SRi
bob1179 said:
I too had one as my first car back in 1996.
Mine was A 1987 309 GE in cherry red with the 1118cc OHV Simca engine. It was the very bottom of the range but I loved it to bits.
My dad bought it for me off an old guy who had it from new, it had only done 44,000 miles and cost 500 quid. I kept it for three years, put another 40,000 miles on it and sold it for 500 quid.
It was also pretty immaculate as I kept rebuilding and curing any rust that appeared!
I loved my old Peugeot.
D378 XYJ, where are you now?
scrapped probably...
Thanks mate Mine was A 1987 309 GE in cherry red with the 1118cc OHV Simca engine. It was the very bottom of the range but I loved it to bits.
My dad bought it for me off an old guy who had it from new, it had only done 44,000 miles and cost 500 quid. I kept it for three years, put another 40,000 miles on it and sold it for 500 quid.
It was also pretty immaculate as I kept rebuilding and curing any rust that appeared!
I loved my old Peugeot.
D378 XYJ, where are you now?
scrapped probably...
and regarding your car, if you go onto moneysupermarket for car insurance you can type in the registration number of your car and it will come up when it matches it to a car on the road (to save time with car details). I done it with my mums Clio which is on the road, and it worked first time. I done it with your number plate and unfortunately nothing registered and it said it was wrong. So your old 309 is now off the road I guess RobM77 said:
Good cars I'm a big fan of this era of French cars. Even the non GTis drove better than most modern cars. We had a 1993 1.3 in the family for a few years and it was totally reliable and dependable.
I had a 1985 (84?) 205 1.4 - 5 door. Utterly horrible engine, wallowy chassis, but it was huge fun all the same. My sister *gave* it to me when I wrote off my AE82 Corolla GT. If I'd had the space to keep both cars, the Toyota 1.6 16 valve engine would have been pretty darned awesome in that uber lightweight Peugeot body. Had a few mechanic mates who would have helped. I'm a big fan of this era of French cars. Even the non GTis drove better than most modern cars. We had a 1993 1.3 in the family for a few years and it was totally reliable and dependable.fun cars, some say better than the 205 as the boot makes it better balanced and more practical. Plus in 3door form i think they look better than a 205.
I recently found out that one of my colleagues has a immaculate 3door black GTI which is quite a late one being a H plate 91 that he has owned since new and done barely 30k in. No one else in the office was the slightest bit impressed asking why id care about such a old car.....
One know weakpoint is the boot seal, back ligts and sunroofs letting gallons of water in.
dave
I recently found out that one of my colleagues has a immaculate 3door black GTI which is quite a late one being a H plate 91 that he has owned since new and done barely 30k in. No one else in the office was the slightest bit impressed asking why id care about such a old car.....
One know weakpoint is the boot seal, back ligts and sunroofs letting gallons of water in.
dave
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