In 2005, the largest independent car satisfaction survey recorded the views of 76,050 owners of cars built between 2002 and 2004. The questions focused on build quality, craftsmanship, driving experience, customer care and ownership costs. Out of 36 manufacturers, Peugeot came last. In 2006, the largest independent car satisfaction survey recorded the views of 56,000 owners of cars built between 2003 and 2005. The questions focused on build quality, craftsmanship, driving experience, customer care and ownership costs. Out of 35 manufacturers, Peugeot came last. Again. Having first hand experience of owning a brand new Peugeot 307 from May 2004 until April 2006, I can understand why.

If you actually take the time to read this, thank you. I would also assume that a) you've been through a similar situation, b) you're possibly thinking about buying a Peugeot and/or c) you're bored.

The beginning...

I bought my car, brand new, from Rockingham Peugeot in Melton Mowbray in May 2004. It's a 307 XSi 2.0 HDi and cost me £17800, or rather, £241 per month for 48 months and a £6000 deposit. My chosen occupation as a consultant meant that I would be racking up the mileage very quickly and I choose to buy a new car due to the perceived benefits in reliability and even economy.

My first experience with Peugeot's legendary customer service came when I took the car for a 6000 mile check after a few months. I found that I hadn't been provided with a service book. Which was OK, as it only cost about £5 for a new one. However, because I had taken the car to my local garage (not Rockingham), I was told that I would need a dealer stamp in my service book to waive the cost of the check. Having spoke to Rockingham and written a letter, I am still £120 down after being told that they would a) send me the service book in the mail and subsequently, would reimburse me for the cost.

The middle...

December 2004. One day when I came to use the CD player, it just locked up and swallowed my CDs. Given the car was not more than 6 months old, and the fact that I hardly use the changer, I was quite amazed. So, I booked the car into the local dealer (CEM Day, Swansea) and they removed the changer and 'sent it off' to Peugeot for examination/repair. Two weeks later (after driving around with a large hole in my dashboard) it was refitted.

April 2005. I was driving home on the M4 when suddenly I heard this loud banging sound from underneath the car. I slowed fairly quickly, and the sound disappeared, so I pulled on to the hard shoulder to take a look. You can imagine my amazement when I looked underneath and saw the plastic sump protector being held on by only 1 thin piece of metal. The rest was in pieces being held together by something akin to a black plastic bag. So, I got some good old duct tape and taped it back up and drove the mile and a half home. I then called the RAC and got them to take the car to the local dealer. I was already late for a course I was supposed to be attending in Cumbria, so was trying to sort things out over the phone. When I got the call from the dealer, they said that it was £80 plus VAT and labour to change the sump protector.

This annoyed me slightly, since after some heated discussions with the service manager, they admitted that the protector showed no signs of impact (so I hadn't hit anything), yet they still said the part wasn't covered under warranty. So, 1st flag for you potential Peugeot buyers - according to the dealer, the warranty doesn't cover anything which falls off your car! After some more heated discussion, the bloke said that they'd do me a favour and replace the part for free, but only under the assumption that if they didn't, I'd complain to Peugeot customer service.

In June 2005, the car went in for its 24,000 mile service, and another replacement CD changer (after having done the same thing again, only a week before). The car had also developed a loud, low-pitched groaning sound emanating from the front drivers side wheel, which disappeared when braking. They were unable to find any problem and the car was handed back to me.

November 2005...

While driving home, I was in the middle lane of the motorway with middle lane hog in front of me. I indicated to overtake and the car behind flashed me out. Just as I crossed the lane lines, the cars power cut back ( and there was a loud beep) and the bloke behind me nearly parked his car in my boot. After pulling on to the hard shoulder, I noticed the engine management light was on, and the display showed 'ANTIPOLLUTION FAULT'. Consulting the manual, the only information I was able to obtain regarding the fault was that I should take it to my dealer immediately. Being a weekend, that proved difficult, so I drove home (with no power over 2000 rpm) and parked the car on the drive until Monday morning.

I rang the dealer (Dutton Forshaw, Cardiff) and they said that the car is safe to drive and for me to bring it in and they'll take a look. Having to drive everywhere in 4th gear with my foot to the floor to maintain any decent progress was quite annoying. When I eventually got the dealer, they took a look at the car and an hour later, they informed me that the ECU had recorded a fault with the accelerator pedal. The only rectifying action they took was to upgrade the ECU software and reset the fault, while also informing me that if it happened again, they would need to replace the accelerator pedal.

December 2005. 10 days later, the fault appeared again, this time, while slowing down on a slip road off a dual carriageway. So, I took the car back to the dealer the next day and left it with them for the morning. When I went back to collect the car, I was introduced to the so-called 'Master Technician'. He firstly said that the car, when standing still, thinks it's travelling at 14kph. This was caused by me stopping the engine while the car was still moving. Now, I'm sure you'll agree, switching the engine off while decelerating from 70mph is a very bad idea. So, he consulted his print outs some more and said that I run the car with too little diesel. Again, when the fault appeared, there was well over 1/4 tank present. In the end, he just said 'You'll have to book it in so we can take a look at it properly.' So I did. I also took this point to remind them that the last time this fault occurred, I was told that the accelerator pedal would need replacing, so they ordered one.

10 days later, the car went in for 2 days so they could replace the accelerator pedal and investigate the problem further. Upon collecting the car on the Wednesday, I was told that it had been thoroughly road tested, the ECU has been reinitialised numerous times (what good that does I don't know) and the new accelerator pedal was fitted.

4 days later, I was crossing a very busy dual carriageway near to where I live. Now, it's the type of road where you could spend all day waiting for a large gap in the traffic. So I did what I normally do and waited for a good gap then crossed as quickly as possible. Just after I pulled off the car lost power leaving me rolling slowly across the outside lane with a 5 series BMW hurtling towards me. The driver of the BMW then slammed on his brakes and swerved to the inside lane, missing my car by a couple of feet. This time there was no beep or 'ANTIPOLLUTION FAULT', just a severe loss of power.

Back to the dealer I went and the service desk employee showed me a print out of the ECU which showed faults with near enough everything which could have shown a fault. I left the car with them and was contacted later in the day to say that they've identified the problem and will need to replace the entire turbo system. I was also told that they didn't have a courtesy car available until later in the day, and I would need to take a taxi to the garage to pick it up as they couldn't spare anyone to deliver the car to me in work, 3 miles away.

In the meantime, I wrote a letter to Peugeot customer services, and received a response from Jane Hadley. I'll scan the letter in when I can.

On the 28th December, I was called to come and pick up my car as all the work had been carried out. When I arrived, I was told that the technician has thoroughly road tested the car and was happy with it. Upon driving it away, it was plainly and immediately obvious that there was still a severe loss of power, So I turned around and drove back to the garage. On confronting the technician, he said that they'd fixed the problem I'd reported and I'd have to book it in the have a look at anything else. I argued that they hadn't fixed it as the turbo was still quite obviously not functioning (despite their 'thorough' road test). They connected the car to the computer again and found that there was a fault with the Fuel cap (which was there when I first brought the car to them and they hadn't replaced/fixed). So, I left it with them again.

During this time, they replaced the fuel cap and found that the turbo pressure wasn't up to standard. This, they didn't know how to solve so had to contact Peugeot for advice. They explained it was a known problem with the air intake solenoid which meant that under acceleration, enough cold air wasn't being sucked in which was choking the engine. They replaced the solenoid and then 'thoroughly' road tested the car again. I collected the car on January 9th, 21 days after dropping the car off.

I returned to the garage 2 days later as it still seemed like something was holding the car back under hard acceleration. After a test run with the mechanic and in true Little-Britain-Computer-Says-No style, they said there was nothing wrong with the car. The next day, I drove the car to Surrey and for every single mile, the car was sputtering badly and constantly. On the way back, the sputtering suddenly stopped and was replaced with the good old 'ANTIPOLLUTION FAULT' message. When the garage took the car, they found a problem with the Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve. From the brief explanation the technician gave me, this meant that the exhaust gas wasn't being expelled correctly and was choking the engine until enough pressure built up and it was forced out. This cycled every 1-2 seconds. The only reason the technician knew this was that he had seen the same problem with a 407 with the same engine. The car was booked in to have the valve replaced in 1 weeks time.

During the week, the low-pitched groan returned and was now here to stay, happening constantly, at any speed. When I returned to the garage, the technician confirmed the existence of this fault on a test run and would investigate the problem. During this test run, the 'ANTIPOLLUTION FAULT' message appeared again. When I handed over my keys to the service desk, they told me that they didn't have a courtesy car available, so home I went in my own car having to wait another week.

When the car went in to the garage, they said that they replaced the EGR valve, and cleaned the brake assembly and resurfaced the brake pad. By the time I got back on to the M4, the noise was back, this time accompanied by a rattle. So I booked the car in again.

During this time, the car had also developed a problem with the bearing in the rear drivers side wheel, and the clutch also slips when accelerating from low revs in high gears. When I returned to the garage on Friday 17th February, yet again, they told me that a courtesy car wasn't available, so I'm back in my house with my own car, with the clutch now slipping even when changing gear.

I took it to another dealer and explained the history of the car and the specific circumstances in which to faults occurred. Namely, after a 220 mile drive the clutch slips and when driving in a straight line the front right wheel whines. After 2 days they called me and said firstly, that they couldn't get the clutch to slip. I thought this to be very strange, but it turns out they only drove the car for 5 miles and the engine wasn't even hot! Secondly, they said the whining was caused by my front brakes having only a few thousand miles left on them. When I explained (again) that the noise had been there for near on 10 months so it couldn't be caused by that, the technician was left speechless, resorting to the well-used phrase 'Well, we'll have to have a closer look at it'.

At that point, I just said 'no, just give me my car back'.

2 days later, the 'ANTIPOLLUTION FAULT' message came back on. Stayed there for a day, then switched itself off again, luckily, 1 day before going to Lexus for a valuation!

The final straw...

Since November, I have been in contact with Peugeot Customer Service and Rockingham Peugeot. Peugeot accept no liability because under the Sale of Goods Act, the responsibility lies with the vendor, namely Rockingham. Surprisingly, Chris Shepard, the managing director of Rockingham, said that because my car was 18 months old and had covered over 30000 miles, he was well beyond any liability under the Sale of Goods Act. Even after receiving a solicitors letter, nobody will take responsibility for the car and I am left with a lemon costing me £241 every month and has yet to go for 1 full week without developing a new fault or breaking down.

I just want to share with everyone the appalling way that I've been treated by Peugeot and their dealer network. I know that I'm not alone in my experiences, having spoken to many other individuals. You can make up your own mind whether or not you want to ever purchase one. One thing is for sure, I will never buy a Peugeot again and will recount this story to anyone who wants to listen so that they don't make the mistake I made.

It's not over yet...

After numerous calls to the inept phone monkeys at Peugeot Finance, I'm still waiting for a written confirmation of the outstanding balance on the Peugeot. Without it, I can't get the Lexus. 2nd flag for potential Peugeot buyers - even when you try to get rid of the piece of shit car you bought from the most incompetent manufacturer and dealer network in the UK, they don't make it easy! They even said that in order for me to settle my account, Lexus have to give me money and then I have to pay it to them! F#*king muppets...

In also turns out that Peugeots reach goes far beyond their own group. I'm transferring my private plate from the Peugeot on to the Lexus and needed to fill in a form and send it off to the DVLA with a few other bits and pieces. Now, assuming that this isn't out of the ordinary, I assumed that I would have it back within 7 working days (as they state). In all fairness, I did have my application back within 7 working days, but the only problem was that it was rejected! And best of all, it was rejected because my Peugeot didn't have a valid MOT certificate. Slight problem with that - the Peugeot is not even two years old so won't need an MOT for another year and a bit. When I rang the DVLA helpdesk, they confirmed that my car doesn't need a valid MOT and put it down to a DVLA local office monkey not being able to read properly. I was given a reference number and told to resubmit my application (which was now flagged as urgent). When I rang back a few days later, they said that my application wasn't going to be processed until 30th March (10 days away!) and that marking an application as urgent makes no difference!

To top it all off, I went out for a meal with my family on mothers day. Upon exiting the restaurant, I was confronted with a rather large dent/scrape on my bumper where someone had obviously failed to learn to drive properly. However (restoring my faith in humanity somewhat), there was an apology under my windscreen wiper with a phone number on.

The end...

After numerous letters to Peugeot Motor Company, Peugeot Finance and Rockingham, all they do is point fingers at each other and 'stick their heads in the sand'. They know that unless I take them to court (which I cannot afford) then I am left with limited options.

I requested a settlement figure, in writing, from Peugeot Finance back in February. After numerous phone calls, 5 letters eventually turned up 5 weeks later; by which time the settlement figure had changed. However, on the letter was a £0.11 rebate for early settlement...

...had a nice letter from Peugeot Finance a few weeks later saying that £0.11 is still outstanding on my account.

Thanks for reading...

Phil Bouadana

Update 13/02/07...

Over 4000 people have now visited this site and all I can hope is that I've made people think twice about buying a Peugeot. I've recounted this story many times since this site started, and while I freely admit that it is possible for the motor company to make a car that works, you'll still have their dealer network - which, from experience, the 2005 Top Gear survey and the 2006 Top Gear survey, is by far the worst. So, if you do take a leap of faith and buy a Peugeot, I hope for your sake that it doesn't break down otherwise you're in for a similar ride.

One nice thing I noticed the other day is that if you enter 'the mistake of your life' into Google, this site comes out at the top, so thanks for clicking! Oh, and the Lexus has covered almost 18k miles and is due for a service in another 2k and it's just been through an MOT...flawlessly.