Peugeot 407 Coupe: Spotted
Being uglier than the car you replace is never a recipe for success. But it does mean you end up being cheap down the road...
Well, will you looky here: an attractive 11-year-old coupe in good nick with a low mileage and a 208hp 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine under the bonnet for a tad over £2k?
Okay straight away some will decry the Peugeot badge, although I'm pretty sure they wouldn't if it were attached to a 205 GTI or a 106 GTI or a 405 Mi16 4x4. Some might even be tempted to note with a sneer that the 407 Coupe was not, like its predecessor the extraordinarily graceful 406 Coupe, designed by Pininfarina. In fact its long, flowing, and from some angles slightly awkward, lines were actually drawn in-house. It's not as pretty as Lily James, admittedly, but it'll give Harry Styles a good run for his money.
In fairness, the 407 Coop definitely doesn't have the panache of the delicate 406 two-door, but in its defence it's aged rather well and is still quite a handsome thing, especially in the dark colour of the car we've found. There are, of course, the three angled and non-functional vents or gills ahead of the front wheels, aping Ferraris of old, and also helping to draw the eye away from that rather long front overhang and gaping grille. On top of that it's two inches wider in the tracks than the 407 saloon on which it's based and longer and lower, and in fact every external panel on the coupe is unique to it.
Even more importantly it's stiffer, too, which in combination with the saloon's neat front double wishbone suspension makes for a fine-handling and sweet-riding GT car. Alas this one is equipped with a manual gearbox, and a rather slow, wide-gated manual gearbox it is too. Blessed is he who specified the automatic option.
A GT, note, not a sports car. It may have a V6 but this is a hefty old nose-heavy Hector and performance is nothing special. Sales were nothing special, either, especially of this haut de gamme and extremely expensive 3.0-litre V6 petrol version, which partly explains the low sticker price on this beauty. Indeed Peugeot dropped all petrol engines from the 407 coupe range in 2009, after slow sales, so think of this as a bit of a collector's car - a rarity, if you will.
Consequently, if you can put up with the manual 'box you've got yourself quite a good buy for a couple of grand. It'll do 150mph, and it's more leathery inside than Alan Sugar's face. Dynamically it's capable, and at a cruise almost refined. It might have seemed a bit pointless new but at this age and price perhaps it finally makes some sense.
Mark Pearson
SPECIFICATION - Peugeot 407 Coupe
Engine: 2946cc V6
Transmission: six-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Power (hp): 208@6,250rpm
Torque (lb ft): 214@4,500rpm
MPG: 27.7
CO2: 242g/km
First registered: 2007
Recorded mileage: 70,000miles
Price new: £26,700
Yours for: £2170
Yes but that was a very long time ago. As you say not many of these registered, but Collectable in any way, that's stretching it a bit. Getting close to Shed territory
d paid what must have been £30k and THEN paid £500 a year for it!I always fancied a 406 V6 coupe as they were such a good looking coupe, sadly never got round to it but when the chance of buying a 407 V6 coupe manual came up from a fellow PH'er I thought I'd give it a go.
These are a bit of an odd ball car due to the 'unusual' looks and the high cost when new hence very few were sold in the UK. I think they are aging well and while they can look good from some angles they do look a bit wrong from other angles (from a side angle is a good looking long and low coupe).
So whats a V6 3.0 manual like to drive?
(At the time I had my one I also had a 130i coupe and an E46 330 sport coupe to compare it against).
The first surprise is how well it handles, very flat cornering even when pushed really hard.
The ride is probably the most impressive thing, being very compliant but not soft or spongey, these make a very good high speed motorway cruiser, also copes well with bumpy B roads, impressive considering its on 18" wheels, BMW could learn a few things from how well this copes with bumps (there is none of the harsh ride you will find in a sporty BMW.)
The next big surprise is how well built it feels, most unlike a Peugeot which tend to feel cheap and rattly once they are a few years old, my one was 10 yrs old / 80k miles and felt more like a solid German car, most impressive no rattles everything felt really well screwed together. Apparently these cars were built on a separate production line which might explain this.
Performance wise the engine is a cracker, it makes a nice deep V6 growl, it needs lots of revs to get it going but once past 4500 revs they really go well.
Spec wise the front seats are very supportive and comfortable, my one had all the toys fitted and the stereo system is really good with JBL speakers.
Things you need to know if buying one:
You need a trusted mechanic, avoid main dealers, try and source any bespoke parts second hand (things like headlights, shocks etc).
Parts from main dealer can be eye-wateringly expensive as many are unique to the V6 coupe
There are a couple of breakers on ebay who seem to have most things in stock.
Can be very expensive to service, the V6 Coupe had a unique electric controlled damper system which means shockers are expensive and if the system needs re=calibrated you need special software which is hard to find (the main Peugeot forum has a listing of independents with this software, main dealers wont know how to do it and SNAP on type devices cant get in deep enough to fix).
I had no problem as my mechanic is happy to find ways to fix things, but if you took one of these to the wrong sort of place you would be facing bills more than the value of the car.
To put all this into context, a 2007 V6 Coupe stacks up well against a 330 BMW coupe to drive, price wise you can get one of these for less than £2k and an equivalent age 330 coupe will be 2 or 3 times that cost.
some photos of mine to show how nice they can look:
240 bhp and £180 VED as opposed to the 2,7 £540.
I currently drive a 406 coupe and love the "Italianness" of it.
I'd replace it with a 3.0 hdi coupe but at last count there were only 44 in the UK.
I had one in a 2004 S-Type diesel and it was utterly pointless; the fuel economy of a three litre petrol, combined with the power of a two litre and the maintenance costs of a six litre V12. Always felt like it needed another 80bhp too, as soon as it started winding up the revs and felt like it was going to start delivering it would run out of revs. Overrated, it ruined the car.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff