Welcome the next Golf GTI Beater

[hooba]

The french are good at making bread and wine, cars on the other hand....

[zach]

One of my friends have a 307 and the air con randomly shuts off when it's a hot day so I'm not really convinced Steve...

my brother has a 307 with 60,000kms and hasn't missed a beat. I had a 306 GTi6 and despite elctrical gremlins which Pugs are known for it also didn't miss a beat despite the punishment from me and previous owner. we can all quote family and friend scenarios for all makes and models. I guess that's life. I nearly got a 308 touring which has more charisma but Skoda feels much more solid and had a stronger petrol engine plus benefit of DSG

[jessv3]

im surprised clarkson doesn't like it.. Their faces are uncanny..

[PassatB6]

2. They are not good engineers

The French are brilliant engineers. The 60's and 70's Peugeots such as the 504 (along with Citroen) were way ahead of everything else at the time. The Concorde, Mirage fighter etc were also ahead of the pack. The 504 won rallies everywhere and was one very solid bit of machinery. Sadly,Peugeot began to go downhill in the 1980's as the Japanese competition forced them to change how they did things.

[AdamD]

I learned how to drive properly on a 405 in the early 90s. The car was quirky as a mad hatter, laugh-out-loud fun round corners, and provided plenty of heart-in-mouth moments too, in true French fashion. I loved it.

While the general build quality was good, there were a few appalling quality control and reliability issues during the warranty period that were just unforgivable, and it was replaced by a rock-solid Honda after three years. As much of a fondness as I have for the brand, I could never bring myself to spend serious hard-earned on a Peugeot unless their reputation improves out of sight.

As for the 308 vs a GTI... as far as I'm concerned, the MkVI GTI is one of the very best lifestyle-compromise cars on the market today, at any price. No Peugeot could compare.

[Corey_R]

One of my friends have a 307 and the air con randomly shuts off when it's a hot day so I'm not really convinced Steve...

My mother's 307CC does exactly the same thing. It's very frustrating. What use is aircon if it doesn't work on the hot days?! Stupid french crap. After having my MKV Golf GTI for 4 months and then having it taken away, having to borrow the 307CC was one of the worst driving experiences of my life. I could talk for over an hour with all the stupid-arse design decisions and 'quirks' of that car.

[BBP]

I've never owned a French car. Primarily because three of my friends have - two Peugots and one Citroen. All have been remarkably good breakers. The Pugs especially.

I'll give you the Citroen DS and the Concorde. But even the Concorde was half British.

[cme2c]

My Peugeot 206 GTi hasn't given me any trouble that couldn't be easily fixed. The electrics went a bit weird on starting at one stage, but a new battery fixed that. Service costs are cruel, but that's it. I love driving the thing and the way it feels stuck to the road.

My wife's former 307 however... faulty indicator/lights/wiper/cruise/audio switch (also includes part of the airbag circuitry) replaced TWICE under warranty. Front discs replaced once, machined once. When a coil went bung and all 4 had to be replaced

So we traded it in for not very much on a Honda. That proved to be a bit big after a couple of years, so we traded it in (for plenty) on the Golf.

[alebonau]

Have owned a couple of peugeots, the very lovely 306 and then the 307 which I shoudl have seen as the first signs that peugeot had lost the touch. I dont hold out much hope for the 308gti. I think a big mistake dumping the 207gti for this bloated thing. the 207gti was a hot hatch. the 308 jsut doesnt fit that mould sorry.

to answer the question would you..

my answer NO.

love my golf gti, cant see the 308gti being a touch on it !

[oshuyi]

my friend who has a gti 5 said he will never buy another vw car again b/c it's had so many electrical problems , since he bought it 3 years ago.
windscreen wipers that stop working while he was driving in the rain, it took vw 2 month to figure out what was wrong with it.
interior tacho lights would go on and off and the same with the a/c
passenger headlights bulb had been replaced 6 times now

before this he's beening driving hondas and nissans and he never had any problem with them.

[nau]

my friend who has a gti 5 said he will never buy another vw car again b/c it's had so many electrical problems , since he bought it 3 years ago.

if you were from Vic I would say we know the same guy... friend of mine had similar issues with his VW 5(a lot of them)
personally I think 5th series and their none German build damaged reputation a bit for VW, good thing they realized it quickly and moved it back to Doich land

[alebonau]

my friend who has a gti 5 said he will never buy another vw car again b/c it's had so many electrical problems , since he bought it 3 years ago.
windscreen wipers that stop working while he was driving in the rain, it took vw 2 month to figure out what was wrong with it.
interior tacho lights would go on and off and the same with the a/c
passenger headlights bulb had been replaced 6 times now

before this he's beening driving hondas and nissans and he never had any problem with them.

that is scarry !

the pug 306 I had was faultless over the 7 years I owned it.

the peugeot 307 I had, need firmware and operating system updates all the time. It used to give all sorts of flaky false alarms which was very disconcerting ! the citroen c4 I owned later basically shared the same platform and that was even worse with flaky alarms. Made 4 trips to the workshop with false oil alarms. and then had a screwy temp control sensor meaning it would let the engine overheat !. that took about 4 trips to get fixed including new radiator, new computer, and finally the sensor all under warranty fortunately ! then there was cruise control faults and gear box faulty messages all whcih would magically reset by restarting the car. And then there was the climate that used to get stuck on the heater even though it was a 35 degc day. that took 2 trips to get sorted ! erghh havent seen anything like it with the golf gti thank goodness.

the mk6 has a solid build feel to it. apart from the dribbling rear window washer all else is rock solid and appears to be weel designed and put together. the mk5 was built in south africa wasnt it. probably the cheaper labour there drew them there to manufacture. hopefully the return to german built with the mk6 means leaving back any previous flaws

[alebonau]

Pocket rockets set to touch down

this is a good article re some pocket rockets heading our way. all good competition for the golf gti. the new renault megane and clio cup models are probably in reality the closest competion to the golf and polo gti to come with more power under the hood at the least. I'm happy wiht my golf gti though and will leave these french mistresses for someone else

[irossiter]

Had a 306 GTi6 for 12 months prior to getting the Mk 5 Golf GTI. Pug had a brilliant engine, torque everywhere unlike the Jap twin cams. 125kw from 2 litres was pretty amazing stuff in 1988. 6 speed box as well but being a Frenchie they decided that it was ok to restrict the steering lock to the right to accommodate the wider gearbox compared with the 5 speed! Could only imagine the Italians thinking that would be acceptable for a production car! Turning right at roundabouts was a nightmare! Terrible build quality though, just unacceptable and cost 45 grand at the time. Just got sick of fixing things! Aussie Frogs was a great forum though! Thanks guys! The Golf was a revelation 3 yrs ago. Simply superb. The current crop of Pugs has lost the plot. Bring back the 205 or 306 GTI. Still wouldn't touch a French car again though. German engineering is the best in the world. I just have to be patient and wait the 4 or 5 months for my (almost) fully optioned GTI Mk 6 to arrive!

[alebonau]

hehe must mean 1998, my pug 306 was a 94' nothing a lot more humble than the gti ! but yeah was still the pick between the civic, 323 and even the golf which was rather dowdy and boring and even antiquated at the time. but yeah I'll stay well away from french cars too, was tempted true by the renault, but sense prevailed !

ps the other thing atrocious about french cars is resale. your better off leaving it on the street with the keys in the ignition than to try sell it ! forget about trade in's dealers run a mile so yeah wont be buying a french car for a while.