Peugeot 205 1.9 GTi
Discussion
Forgive the length of this story, it's been a long time coming...
When I passed my test in 2001, the GTi had already passed safely into legend, and was starting to be a relatively affordable small car -- as long as you didn't pay for insurance. As a result, I was confined to the joys and frustrations of bangernomics. I eventually gave up, and resorted to motorbikes. I even blew up an RG125 in Pepsi colours (ring ding-a-ding-BANG). I always kept my eye on the market for the 205 GTi, though.
Then I moved to France. There are many things to love in this glorious country. Secondhand car prices are not among them. A moderately rusty, high-mileage 205 GTi will set you back about 6k€, but most chancers are now asking the thick end of 10k€.
And then, one day, browsing the classifieds, I see those magic words: "left-hand drive". A UK-registered 205 1.9 GTi, with left-hand drive, for £2,000. I figured none of you lot would want it, so I made an offer. After some back and forth, I went for it.
Yesterday, I took the first Eurostar from Paris, and went to see it. I was a little nervous because I only had a one-way ticket, and I was planning to drive it back to Paris.
I needn't have worried. The seller bought it new in 1988, and has maintained it perfectly since then. It was bought from Denmark when he was on what sounds like the ultimate multi-year Euro trip with his wife. As tourists, they were able to buy it on Andorran plates, so without tax. GTis that went to cold climate markets had no sunroof, and heated seats. Bonus. After ten years or so, they came back to the UK. There was service history for everything important over the whole life of the car, from Denmark, Spain, and then the UK. The logbook had some stamps missing, and there was a cross-reference to the service file for the invoice for the work that wasn't stamped up.
The car was resprayed about ten years ago, and still looks amazing. There are a couple of bits that I'd have wet-and-dried properly but it's impressive stuff. The seller was only selling because their new place has no garage. I assured him that there were no subs, neons or other such nonsense in this car's future! I parted with the folding stuff, and did the paperwork. He was visibly upset to see me leaving. I can only imagine what I would feel if I had owned that car from new, for 25 years and 100,000 miles...so, thanks for taking such good care of it Cliff, and here's to hoping I manage the same over the next 25 years:
Report of drive home and more photos to come.
When I passed my test in 2001, the GTi had already passed safely into legend, and was starting to be a relatively affordable small car -- as long as you didn't pay for insurance. As a result, I was confined to the joys and frustrations of bangernomics. I eventually gave up, and resorted to motorbikes. I even blew up an RG125 in Pepsi colours (ring ding-a-ding-BANG). I always kept my eye on the market for the 205 GTi, though.
Then I moved to France. There are many things to love in this glorious country. Secondhand car prices are not among them. A moderately rusty, high-mileage 205 GTi will set you back about 6k€, but most chancers are now asking the thick end of 10k€.
And then, one day, browsing the classifieds, I see those magic words: "left-hand drive". A UK-registered 205 1.9 GTi, with left-hand drive, for £2,000. I figured none of you lot would want it, so I made an offer. After some back and forth, I went for it.
Yesterday, I took the first Eurostar from Paris, and went to see it. I was a little nervous because I only had a one-way ticket, and I was planning to drive it back to Paris.
I needn't have worried. The seller bought it new in 1988, and has maintained it perfectly since then. It was bought from Denmark when he was on what sounds like the ultimate multi-year Euro trip with his wife. As tourists, they were able to buy it on Andorran plates, so without tax. GTis that went to cold climate markets had no sunroof, and heated seats. Bonus. After ten years or so, they came back to the UK. There was service history for everything important over the whole life of the car, from Denmark, Spain, and then the UK. The logbook had some stamps missing, and there was a cross-reference to the service file for the invoice for the work that wasn't stamped up.
The car was resprayed about ten years ago, and still looks amazing. There are a couple of bits that I'd have wet-and-dried properly but it's impressive stuff. The seller was only selling because their new place has no garage. I assured him that there were no subs, neons or other such nonsense in this car's future! I parted with the folding stuff, and did the paperwork. He was visibly upset to see me leaving. I can only imagine what I would feel if I had owned that car from new, for 25 years and 100,000 miles...so, thanks for taking such good care of it Cliff, and here's to hoping I manage the same over the next 25 years:
Report of drive home and more photos to come.
Edited by A common lawyer on Thursday 26th September 12:52
Richair said:
A really nice looking car and a metaphoric finger in the air to our cousins across le channel in one go, good on you sir!
Not quite sure how it's a finger in the air, but thanks! (Will be doing battle with the French administration to get it on French plates though, so I'm sure there'll be plenty of fingers in the air soon.)
A common lawyer said:
ot quite sure how it's a finger in the air, but thanks!
(Will be doing battle with the French administration to get it on French plates though, so I'm sure there'll be plenty of fingers in the air soon.)
Just in that it looks like you've bought a very nice example far cheaper than you can buy one in the Peugeot motherland...(Will be doing battle with the French administration to get it on French plates though, so I'm sure there'll be plenty of fingers in the air soon.)
Richair said:
A common lawyer said:
ot quite sure how it's a finger in the air, but thanks!
(Will be doing battle with the French administration to get it on French plates though, so I'm sure there'll be plenty of fingers in the air soon.)
Just in that it looks like you've bought a very nice example far cheaper than you can buy one in the Peugeot motherland...(Will be doing battle with the French administration to get it on French plates though, so I'm sure there'll be plenty of fingers in the air soon.)
French market is full of shockers. This is the best looking one I've seen in a while, and a more typical example, asking 5,600€ with "all the trim and many other parts in the boot" (!!), the immobiliser reset hanging out of the dash, inside used as a storage unit, etc. etc.
If you want an as-new example of the 1.6 GTi, fully rebuilt and restored, there's one here, it's a cool 12,000€...
Roll on the weekend!!
Richair said:
Ouch! They really are pricey over there; ours look like a bargain in comparison. I have the general impression that maybe the French don't look after their cars as well as we do either...
Hope you enjoy it!
Yeah, the French do much more "appliance" driving, it's all about MPG and practicality. Very little of what I would call "car culture". In Paris you do see a few nice cars, but it's mainly hypercars parked up outside hotels... Outside Paris, it's about 85% Peugeot / Citroen / Renault / Dacia, the rest is German and assorted. Second-hand market is borked for everything, though, not just tasty 80s hatches Hope you enjoy it!
petrolsniffer said:
Those are insane prices wonder if there would be an export market from the uk along as the buyer didn't mind rhd
You can buy a pretty mint example for 5k here.
Yeah people are paying lots! Not just for things like this, either. There is an official price guide and depreciation just stops after a while. For example, a Renault Megane 1.6 petrol Dynamique, basic family car, can be had in the UK for about 3k: see this example on autotrader. In France, they reckon on 7,300€. See here for the "official" guide. Most come in a smidge under that, but it's still a shock to pay 6k for a 3k car! Apparently the Dutch have it worse, so I'm not gonna moan too much.You can buy a pretty mint example for 5k here.
If you think that difference is bad, look at V6 clios! A nice in the UK is about 12, 13 grand? In France? 31,000€.
On this evening, I finally got a break in the weekend weather, and took my new toy out for a spin. If you drive half an hour from my part of Paris, there are some lovely country roads with no traffic at all. In fact, lots of them have just been resurfaced
The trip out involves a short bit of city driving, a very hilly two lane dual carriageway, which is also quite bendy, some roundabout-straight-roundabout stuff, a small town and then some glorious country roads. Smooth, wide, good visibility, great bends, no traffic. SWMBO even tagged along with the little one, so it was all three of us. That meant I had to take it easy, but that was fine, because it soon became apparent that the manifold was blowing somewhere it shouldn't.
It's also been off the road for ten years or so, and hasn't so much as turned a wheel in the last five years, so I'm keeping an eye on hoses and so on.
It was absolutely glorious. There is grunt enough for fun without licence endangerment, the grip on modern tyres is amazing, and the feel is just unbelievable.
Gratuitous picture in car park...
The only non-standard bit, a slightly flashier boot lid than the normal dark grey washboard thing, along with a small white spoiler just above it (which you can just see sticking out on the front 3/4 photo):
I'm undecided about this bit, however. Standard = washboard boot lid and no spoiler, but this is growing on me, and it's a lot of work to remove... There's also a small black bit of trim at the top of the rear window, anyone know if that's standard?
However, list of jobs now topped by "source, purchase and fit new gearknob":
Damn thing fell apart in my hand just as we got home. Will superglue back round the gearlever for now. Also shown; heated seats button, nasty floor mats to be replaced with something nice, and the original cassette radio! While it's still in perfect working order, I will probably try to open it up, ditch the radio bit, and bodge in some sort of bluetooth module so that I can run phone calls and music through the car.
Father-in-law is looking at nice A-Class this week, so I'm spending tomorrow calling round to find a parking space.
Tick list for garage:
Rear wiper not working (washer is).
Passenger side window switch intermittent.
Remove crappy Sparkrite alarm.
Get French MoT (emissions are different, apparently).
Tick list for me:
Find parking space.
Battle French administration for registration papers.
Source an original gearknob.
Buy new mats.
Continue to drive it as much as possible.
The trip out involves a short bit of city driving, a very hilly two lane dual carriageway, which is also quite bendy, some roundabout-straight-roundabout stuff, a small town and then some glorious country roads. Smooth, wide, good visibility, great bends, no traffic. SWMBO even tagged along with the little one, so it was all three of us. That meant I had to take it easy, but that was fine, because it soon became apparent that the manifold was blowing somewhere it shouldn't.
It's also been off the road for ten years or so, and hasn't so much as turned a wheel in the last five years, so I'm keeping an eye on hoses and so on.
It was absolutely glorious. There is grunt enough for fun without licence endangerment, the grip on modern tyres is amazing, and the feel is just unbelievable.
Gratuitous picture in car park...
The only non-standard bit, a slightly flashier boot lid than the normal dark grey washboard thing, along with a small white spoiler just above it (which you can just see sticking out on the front 3/4 photo):
I'm undecided about this bit, however. Standard = washboard boot lid and no spoiler, but this is growing on me, and it's a lot of work to remove... There's also a small black bit of trim at the top of the rear window, anyone know if that's standard?
However, list of jobs now topped by "source, purchase and fit new gearknob":
Damn thing fell apart in my hand just as we got home. Will superglue back round the gearlever for now. Also shown; heated seats button, nasty floor mats to be replaced with something nice, and the original cassette radio! While it's still in perfect working order, I will probably try to open it up, ditch the radio bit, and bodge in some sort of bluetooth module so that I can run phone calls and music through the car.
Father-in-law is looking at nice A-Class this week, so I'm spending tomorrow calling round to find a parking space.
Tick list for garage:
Rear wiper not working (washer is).
Passenger side window switch intermittent.
Remove crappy Sparkrite alarm.
Get French MoT (emissions are different, apparently).
Tick list for me:
Find parking space.
Battle French administration for registration papers.
Source an original gearknob.
Buy new mats.
Continue to drive it as much as possible.
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