RE: Shed of the Week: Peugeot 406 Coupe

[Limpet]

Lovely. Shape has aged beautifully, like most other Pugs of this era.

[Rumblestripe]

What a classically elegant shape and lovely dead cow seats.

Top shed (and not even German)

[Drive Blind]

such a shame the coupe is a shape we don't see much these days.

Everything is big fat bloated suv's

[J4CKO]

They arent a bad looking old thing, but lets not over state it.

Probably a nice way to get around, the normal 406 was always super comfy.

[Midgster]

Test drove one of these 20 years ago as a possible company car, loved it in every way except wishing it had a little more poke, only didn't get it as was told I couldn't have a Coupe for some reason. Always looked at them wishing I'd got one, still do.

[Frimley111R]

Iamnotkloot said:

Lovely looking things but would you likely tire of the lack of dynamic prowess?
.

I felt it was always more of a GT than an out and out sports car.

[s m]

J4CKO said:

They arent a bad looking old thing, but lets not over state it.

Perhaps even more beautiful than the Alfa Giulia Ti from last week....

[D-Angle]

There are very few cars that good looking for that money. Lovely.

[dunnoreally]

I can't be the only one noticing that bottom end prices seem to have calmed down quite a lot lately. There are a few pretty presentable Celicas, Fiesta STs and straight six manual E46s knocking about AT for about a grand, for example. I swear there were none of those last year.

[Jon_S_Rally]

Is the engine that bad? Don't really know much about them, but the numbers seem about bang on for the era. The 328i was similar output, the Ford/Vauxhall 2.5s were more like 170bhp, so surely this is about bob-on?

Can't imagine it's the most dynamically pleasing car out there, but it was very pretty for the era. A shame the coupe has fallen out of fashion. Those that we do have appear pretty tall and ungainly by comparison to those made 20 years ago.

[AC43]

Trophy Husband said:

Had a cruise in a new one back in 2000 ish. It was a nice place to sit and it just 'worked' for what it was. A pal of mine has just bought a beautiful 2 litre 306 cab (another lovely Pininfarina design) for £450 with 50k on the clock.

I've always liked the look of the 406 Coupe and the idea of a V6 version even more.

But you're not wrong about the 306 Cab. A lot of cabs look a bit odd/compromised compared to the base car but the 306 cab looked just right.

[Paddy78]

I lusted after one of these for years, but when I was finally in a position to buy another car, I ended up with a 350Z instead. I don't have any regrets about my choice, but I still think the 406 coupe is stunning and has aged like not many other cars. Well done Pininfarina and well done shed!

[Escort Si-130]

I wanted one back in the 90's in that blue colour.

[aaron_2000]

Silver with red leather and a manual box, a set of 206 GTI alloys on it and it'd be perfect.

[Mark-C]

Frimley111R said:

Iamnotkloot said:

Lovely looking things but would you likely tire of the lack of dynamic prowess?
.

I felt it was always more of a GT than an out and out sports car.

This exactly! It's a wafter that will eat up the miles comfortably at legal speeds. If you want dynamic prowess then this is not the car.

And, as stated above, so much better looking than anything more modern.

[gonzales_turbo]

Ryvita said:

Vive le Shed!

Or possibly according to Google, le hangar, les abri, les cabanon, la étable, l'atelier, las resserre... Any linguists want to have a stab at a suitable translation?

The only word that could be used for both the car and an actual shed would be "roulotte" (horse-drawn gipsy caravan), but it's dated for a car.

Otherwise, "tacot de la semaine" or "rougne de la semaine"

[JMF894]

These have always left me cold, never understood the waxing lyrical over the styling. Pleasant yes but i've never bust my spuds over them.

[southerndriver]

The article above says about the engine "...It under-performs for its size and number of valves.". No, not the case at all. You're judging it by engines in 2018. By the standards of 1998 it performed well. The update that came in 2000 upped the max horsepower to 210 which is respectable for a normally aspirated engine of the time. It's also a reliable engine, apart from the coil packs. Got almost 170k miles on mine with all original components apart from consumables.

[Mr-B]

Always thought these were a well resolved design. Squint a bit and at first glance it's not a million miles away from a Ferrari 456 (Yeah I know where Specsavers is I'm on my way)

[Jex]

Mr-B said:

Always thought these were a well resolved design. Squint a bit and at first glance it's not a million miles away from a Ferrari 456 (Yeah I know where Specsavers is I'm on my way)

Both designed by Pinifarina. 456 not underpowered (in its day - about 440 bhp)