Friday 15th November 2013

Shed Of The Week: Peugeot 306 GTI6

Shed's been here before but a fast Peugeot rebirth has him reconsidering a GTI6

---

According to legend, you cut down a tree and count the rings to find out how old it is. Or was, because it's dead now.

The same principle applies to Shed. After slicing through one layer of thick skin and another much thicker one of fat, you would discover rather too many rings for Mrs Shed's liking.

Found: Peugeot's lost mojo, yours for £995

One good thing age brings, though, apart from a free bus pass, selective hearing and the ability to complain about everything and everybody, is experience. It means that Shed and others of similar antiquity can remember the days when Peugeot was a byword for supple, sharp-handling cars with real character. In footballing terms, Peugeot was a solid outfit in the top quarter of the Premiership.

Then it all went wrong. An influx of beer-swilling, fag-smoking Sunday league players dropped Peugeot from the status of FA Cup semi-finalist banker to the bleak tumbleweed netherworld of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy qualifying stages. A management rethink may have stopped the rot: we'll have a better idea about that when Matt files his copy from the promising sounding RCZ R's launch event.

In the meantime, we can cling on to the fact that great cars from Peugeot's golden years are still available for the next best thing to a free transfer. Like this 306 GTI6.

Getting a good GTI6 into your garage is like signing up Dimitar Berbatov for your pub team. It's an artfully understated striker with dancing feet and a wonderful drivetrain. Compared to the pared-down Rallye, it carries the merest amount of love-handle flab in the form of air-con and half-leather trim, but in just about every other respect is every bit as talented as its nippy winger cousin. Seven seconds for the 0-60 via an oily six-speed box, quick S16 steering rack, passive rear steer, and - glory be - simple suspension that actually works. Wonder where all those olde worlde chassis-honing skills went? Probably the same place as all Shed's socks.

Half-leather decadent compared with Rallye

Age also brings forgetfulness (doesn't it?). That, and general curmudgeonliness, allows Shed to ignore the sneaking feeling that he's only recently written about a GTI-6. Just shows you the tricks the mind can play, because it turns out that it wasn't recently at all. Spookily, it was one year ago to the very day, 15 November 2012, that a gold S-reg specimen wandered into the Shedly crosshairs. The price of that (also very nice) one was a non-negotiable £999. This one here is newer and, if memory serves, which it usually doesn't, lower mileage than last year's offering.

Your man says he is downgrading to a family car, which is a bit harsh considering the fact that any 306 is a spacious five-seater all day long, albeit in this case one without five doors. Maybe that's what he wants in a family car. Either that or a more athletic family.

Same 306 stuff to watch out for as always: crappy seat mounts and adjusters, chocolate suspension parts, engine mounts and driveshafts, and brittle electrics (already showing up here). You'd also want to know exactly what 'various service history' means, and whether that includes a cambelt, water pump and such. Purists would want to hunt down a set of original wheels too.

But if you get a clean bill of health from the club physio, snap it up. And then start banging some screamers into the onion bag. [That's enough footballing similes - Ed].

Here's the ad.

 

3 Door Hatchback, Petrol
2 Litre GTI-6,
Manual-6 Speed
Moonstone Blue Half Leather/half suede interior. CD/DVD Player.
MOT April '14. Tax end Feb '14. Various service history, Good condition.

Downgrading to a family car forcing sale. Very nippy.
Low mileage as hardly driven - 49,700 miles
Momo alloy wheels, ABS, Adjustable seats, Air con, Anti theft system, Scorpion Alarm, Driver airbag, Electric mirrors, Electric windows, Foglights.
£995

I have had the car over 5 years and it has always served me well, starts first time every time. Bodywork is in average condition for its age with some natural wear and tear. Only issues are; petrol gauge has decided to stop working, but i'm sure this isn't a hard fix for someone who knows their way around a car and the passenger electric window doesn't currently work, again not a hard fix for an experienced person.

Included in sale is a JVC top of the range in car CD/DVD player with excellent speakers.

Ideal for a project - the engine in this car is very sought after! Or for someone looking for a stylish run around.
First to see will buy!

No time-wasters please

 

[soad]

Not bad at all - these are fun to drive.

[tezzer]

French = non, sorry

[toasty]

Great little car, I did over 70k miles in mine and it was always reliable. Heavy clutch, cabin rattles and crap turning circle were the only downsides.

[r1ch]

With that mileage its a very good price, needs some standard cyclones on it. The drivers seat looks a bit bobbly for the miles but at least it hasn't torn like many have.

Worth noting the cambelt needs doing after only 30k miles. I still think the 306 has aged well styling wise. I had a Rallye for a couple of years but it didn't really excite me so went back to 205's.

[Deutscheblonde]

^ Loved that advert.

Great cars. I had the 306 xsi which was also a hoot.

[AC43]

Great sheddage. Have always loved those both for the styling and oily bits.

[Ved]

Smashing car and quite ahead of its time too. My old flat mate had one and adored it.

Much like Berbatov, though, it only seemed to work properly half of the time.

[Superliminal]

toasty said:

crap turning circle

I had one a couple of years back. I was incapable of remembering just how woeful the turning circle was, and repeatedly cocked up the simplest of parking manoeuvres as a result.

Other than that, it was a fantastic car. More fun than the 330ci that replaced it.

[eybic]

I had one for a while a few years ago, they sound great and handle really well. The only issue was build quality, including crazy electrics.

[seismic22]

Great car and I expect more fun than the latest crop of faster but less involving hot hatches.

Not sure I'd be willing to believe the miles on this without a history check on it first though.......

[LotusEspritTurbo]

A mate of mine had one of these. It was a little rocket. We got it to 130mph on the M4.

[Gorbyrev]

tezzer said:

French = non, sorry

So much we take for granted in modern motoring was developed by the French. 306/ZX were both brilliant cars for their time and, if looked after properly could last. They had the potential to throw the odd big bill in middle age but if they have soldiered on then much of the trouble will have been sorted. 306's have avoided the scrappies for good reasons.

[Limpet]

These are just so good to drive you can forgive them almost anything. Best FWD chassis ever IMHO.

[ch3tman]

The lighter Rallye variant was the one to have ....Limited run of ~500 produced in red/white/black only.

Here is mine, which I sold in 2009:





Fantastic cars , still miss it - the handling was spot on .

[MadDog1962]

Handling on these is very good. This size of Pug always seems to have a very good handling/ride balance.

However, unlike the sturdy old Pugs of the 70s they're not as tough. If it's a really good one maybe a grand is OK. But this example looks as if it should be around 600 quid.

Also looks very dull compared to a lot of other stuff.

[mikeyr]

Had one of the very first 306s (a 1.6 XT no less) which was on a K reg, got it at three years old and it was a lovely steer. Always wanted one of these (or the TD in gold!).

It did sadly meet the 90's French car stereotype - occasionally would cut out completely at 30mph and once the door fell off, in clown car style, when the hinge snapped. Clutch cable snapped at about 30k, fuses would fall out of the fuse board (probably related to the random engine shut downs). And don't get me started on the time it was serviced and I pulled on to the main road to find it had no 2nd or 4th gear.

Still, lots of likeable elements, the drive was good, it was comfortable, plenty of space. If I was after a shed money small family car would def consider this one.

[sjabrown]

Superb shed. Another Peugeot itch I've yet to scratch.

[storminnorman]

Want. Brilliant chassis, indeed it has chocolate for just about every other component but it's not a bad car to work on.

[80quattro]

Limpet said:

These are just so good to drive you can forgive them almost anything. Best FWD chassis ever IMHO.

I agree, and a lot of car for Shed money.

[StarmistBlue400]

mikeyr said:

Had one of the very first 306s (a 1.6 XT no less) which was on a K reg, got it at three years old and it was a lovely steer. Always wanted one of these (or the TD in gold!).

It did sadly meet the 90's French car stereotype - occasionally would cut out completely at 30mph and once the door fell off, in clown car style, when the hinge snapped. Clutch cable snapped at about 30k, fuses would fall out of the fuse board (probably related to the random engine shut downs). And don't get me started on the time it was serviced and I pulled on to the main road to find it had no 2nd or 4th gear.

Still, lots of likeable elements, the drive was good, it was comfortable, plenty of space. If I was after a shed money small family car would def consider this one.

I had a 3 Door DT in Gold as a company car.

Great fun, could get it on 3 wheels with ease. Rattled loads, noisy as fook (by modern diesel standards anyway) but TBH it was reliable considering I used to thrash it to within an inch of its life.

Not sure about the earlier comment about it being well built though. Its french after all.