RE: Peugeot 308 GT THP | Shed of the Week

[Liamjrhodes]

Looks awesome for the money!
Almost bought the 207 with the 150bhp version of the engine last year but was snapped up before i had chance

[greenarrow]

Turbobanana said:

GTEYE said:

Will these be remembered as fondly as the 205 and 306 in the future?

No chance, it’s just an automotive white good which will be thrown away and forgotten.

Hateful thing.

...says the person who owns a Ford Focus!

Shed needs to be viewed in the here and now: very few of his offerings will be bought for investment potential. This looks like a good buy for the money - I had no idea they existed in anything other than pedestrian spec.

Off topic a bit, but it's interesting to look on US sites like Jalopnik, for their take on what they perceive as a "reliable" car. Generally speaking the all-hailed (in the UK) German stuff gets a beating. Granted they don't get a lot of European stuff like Peugeots and Renaults, but it's Japanese all day long there.

..What, the Ford Focus which has led or been near the top of the family hatch class since launch in 1998? - Nothing wrong with a Ford Focus, something you cant say of this gen of Peugeot 308.

Shed of the Week is always interesting for its eclectic mix of stuff, but I wouldn't risk any cash on one of these. The cam chain snapping engine for a start would put me off. A friend owned a 2008 Peugeot 3008 which was nothing but trouble - now happily a Mazda 3 owner - I think only the very recent generation of Peugeot 308 would tempt me. Apparently the 2014 onwards model is pretty good. Was awarded the Honest John car of the year award recently for best reviewed model.

[Zetec-S]

miken2k8 said:

the_hood said:

Looks ok, but I'd always be worried as older French cars don't have a great reputation for reliability.

Well it's a load of rubbish, it's not an older french car. After 2005 or so french cars are just as reliable as anything else. Thanks to these opinions the rest of us can pick up a bargain.

Coincidentally I was following a 308 on my commute this morning. Brake lights were stuck on the entire journey.

So it's a no from me...

[cheesesliceking]

miken2k8 said:

Well it's a load of rubbish, it's not an older french car. After 2005 or so french cars are just as reliable as anything else. Thanks to these opinions the rest of us can pick up a bargain.

Riiiight... tell that to the 2010 207SW i had that was a constant pain.

[Turbobanana]

greenarrow said:

Turbobanana said:

GTEYE said:

Will these be remembered as fondly as the 205 and 306 in the future?

No chance, it’s just an automotive white good which will be thrown away and forgotten.

Hateful thing.

...says the person who owns a Ford Focus!

Shed needs to be viewed in the here and now: very few of his offerings will be bought for investment potential. This looks like a good buy for the money - I had no idea they existed in anything other than pedestrian spec.

Off topic a bit, but it's interesting to look on US sites like Jalopnik, for their take on what they perceive as a "reliable" car. Generally speaking the all-hailed (in the UK) German stuff gets a beating. Granted they don't get a lot of European stuff like Peugeots and Renaults, but it's Japanese all day long there.

..What, the Ford Focus which has led or been near the top of the family hatch class since launch in 1998? - Nothing wrong with a Ford Focus, something you cant say of this gen of Peugeot 308.

Shed of the Week is always interesting for its eclectic mix of stuff, but I wouldn't risk any cash on one of these. The cam chain snapping engine for a start would put me off. A friend owned a 2008 Peugeot 3008 which was nothing but trouble - now happily a Mazda 3 owner - I think only the very recent generation of Peugeot 308 would tempt me. Apparently the 2014 onwards model is pretty good. Was awarded the Honest John car of the year award recently for best reviewed model.

I wasn't really commenting on the merits or otherwise of the Ford Focus: I was referring to GTEYE's comment about the "white goods" nature of cars like the 308 and Focus. The Focus is a fine car, although it seemed to take a backward step with each facelift until recently, but like this week's Shed, will it be remembered as anything other than a means of transport? I think not. They did sell a lot better of course, and my favourite Focus moment was taking in PX a reasonable-looking 1.6 Estate that leaked like a sieve and accumulated 4 ins of water in the passenger footwell that then froze solid.

[rastapasta]

sounds like junk judging by the comments. I recall having a choice between one of these and a Seat Leon back in 2008 and im glad i chose the Leon to be honest.

Are Peugeot's still as bad?

[thiscocks]

The classic 'French cars are unreliable' gang arriving on topic as predicted. Followed by stories of any fault they have had in a French car, compared to the ZERO issues they have ever had in any other car built in any other country.

[knebworth01]

thiscocks said:

The classic 'French cars are unreliable' gang arriving on topic as predicted. Followed by stories of any fault they have had in a French car, compared to the ZERO issues they have ever had in any other car built in any other country.

Agree with this, I havent really owned many french cars but they seem as reliable as anything else out there.
Wasnt there a case of Porsche 911's setting on fire a while ago, and as for VW/Audi everyone I know who has/had one gets various orange lights on the dash and various things go wrong. Wouldnt touch one of them with a stty stick.
Only Jap cars are truely reliable in the modern world.

[cookington]

My first 2 cars were 306s that were both 10+ years old. They liked £100 or so spent on them every 3-6 months but by actively maintaining them instead of driving them into the ground they were very reliable and enjoyable cars.

I owned 2 fords after the Peugeots that were equally reliable due to me continuing to keep on top of any niggles or noises instead ignorantly waiting for them to fail.

Anybody spot the pattern?

[Crumpet]

thiscocks said:

The classic 'French cars are unreliable' gang arriving on topic as predicted. Followed by stories of any fault they have had in a French car, compared to the ZERO issues they have ever had in any other car built in any other country.

I’ve had three French cars - Laguna, Clio and a 307. Every single one of them left me stranded, multiple times in the case of the 307 and the Clio. They’re st.

On the other hand, none of the seven British cars I’ve had have left me stranded anywhere. Plenty of issues with them, but I’ll take a whiny differential or leaky air conditioning over self-combustion.

Shedding in a French car is very brave!

[AC43]

Crumpet said:

thiscocks said:

The classic 'French cars are unreliable' gang arriving on topic as predicted. Followed by stories of any fault they have had in a French car, compared to the ZERO issues they have ever had in any other car built in any other country.

I’ve had three French cars - Laguna, Clio and a 307. Every single one of them left me stranded, multiple times in the case of the 307 and the Clio. They’re st.

On the other hand, none of the seven British cars I’ve had have left me stranded anywhere. Plenty of issues with them, but I’ll take a whiny differential or leaky air conditioning over self-combustion.

Shedding in a French car is very brave!

My wife's 19 year old Clio still sheds happily around London. The alarm has died but its never going to be stolen. It has the odd issue with a bad earth to one of the rear lamp clusters. The a/c compressor is toast. And it could do with some bushes/droppings.

But other than that it's like a cockroach.

[Mike1990]

Always quite liked the GT & GTi’s but i can totally understand why people didn’t buy them. As said you could get other period hot-hatches for similar money. ST, VXR’s and the 3 MPS just to name a few.

[aaron_2000]

Mike1990 said:

Always quite liked the GT & GTi’s but i can totally understand why people didn’t buy them. As said you could get other period hot-hatches for similar money. ST, VXR’s and the 3 MPS just to name a few.

Because who'd pick this when they could've had the Focus ST with change?

[1974foggy]

Halmyre said:

Has Mrs Shed lost her allure?

Ha - Allure - isnt that a Peugeot trim level name? See what you did there.

[anonymous-user]

thiscocks said:

The classic 'French cars are unreliable' gang arriving on topic as predicted. Followed by stories of any fault they have had in a French car, compared to the ZERO issues they have ever had in any other car built in any other country.

Quite. And it's not a French manufacturer that has hundreds of thousands of engines on the road around the world with issues that render the car near worthless; that is VW. The high oil consumption and timing chain issues in 1st and 2nd gen EA888 engines are in a very high percentage of VAG vehicles from 2008 to 2015 (1.2, 1.4, 1.8, 2.0 TSI). VAG cars are just as bad, if not worse. What issue does a French car have that's as bad as the EA888 issues? It's new engine time with that. £5000-£10000 bills are commonplace. The cars become worthless.

And has everyone forgotten, or chosen to forget, that it was VAG that were the only manufacturer that truly had their cars cheat the diesel emissions tests with specific techniques to identify when a test was being run. It has had an immeasurable effect on the industry, owners of diesel cars (not just VAG ones), people's health, and employees of other manufacturers.

I'd sooner own another French car than one from VAG. I used to own a Yeti, and glad I no longer do.

[Loplop]

miken2k8 said:

Well it's a load of rubbish, it's not an older french car. After 2005 or so french cars are just as reliable as anything else. Thanks to these opinions the rest of us can pick up a bargain.

Used to work for an accident repair firm that went from a fleet of 207s and 307s to a fleet of Puntos and Bravos from the same dealership because they were fed up of downtime due to warranty claims, this was around 2011/2012.

Had several friends with dCi powered Renault's that had numerous turbo and injector issues.

Electrical gremlins throughout the PSA range.

Also the fact that as nice and cheap as Citroen C6s are, I wouldn't touch one with a bargepole because the gearboxes are made out of chocolate and cost almost as much as the car to replace.

I'd say French cars are the way they've always been, great engines (diesel issues aside), poor everything else.

[humphra]

I've had a 106 diesel and a 306 convertible. Both reliable and needing no more than regular servicing and consumables. So no complaints from me from the Peugeot garage!

However, doesn't mean they haven't lost their way in more recent years. But then again, most manufacturers seem to have done so and usually in an expensive way..... Porsche bore scoring, VW/ Audi coking, Ford 3 cylinder turbo issues (can't remember what it is, though!).... you get the drift. The point is, this is shed money. Run it for as long as nothing serious goes wrong and be prepared to scrap it if it does.

[fernando the frog]

a lot of crap spoken about french cars in this thread when PSA engines of this era are in everything from Fords, Volvos to Suzukis and even Land Rover.

Toyota also sell cars that are just rebadged Citroens..

also there are many mega mileage French cars for sale online, can't be that bad!

Edited by fernando the frog on Friday 25th October 11:58

[anonymous-user]

Positivity and nostalgia being made to work really hard here. These cars are fking dreadful. Modern Peugeots are generally like Star Trek films, if they end in an even number they’re ok, if not they’re appalling. This generation 308 is utterly abysmal. The T9 isn’t bad if you can adapt to the user interface and interior space being almost non existent.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 25th October 12:03

[Zetec-S]

thiscocks said:

The classic 'French cars are unreliable' gang arriving on topic as predicted. Followed by stories of any fault they have had in a French car, compared to the ZERO issues they have ever had in any other car built in any other country.

cookington said:

My first 2 cars were 306s that were both 10+ years old. They liked £100 or so spent on them every 3-6 months but by actively maintaining them instead of driving them into the ground they were very reliable and enjoyable cars.

I owned 2 fords after the Peugeots that were equally reliable due to me continuing to keep on top of any niggles or noises instead ignorantly waiting for them to fail.

Anybody spot the pattern?

I think this goes a long way towards explaining the "anti-French car" reaction. Look at who tends to buy these sorts of cars - people who just want something cheap to buy to get them from A to B. They're not bothered by performance, don't care about the badge, or the image it portrays. It's not even their P&J, it's just (and I hate to use the PH cliché) a "white good". They don't need to spend money maintaining their washing machine or fridge, so why should the car be any different. Once it's been through the first 1 or 2 owners, after that the car just limps from one MOT to the next with minimal maintenance.