I've had 3 Peugeots. One 405 and two 406s. I kept them for 3 years.

The 405, the fuel hose fell off and quickly emptied about a gallon of petrol onto the hot engine. I tied it back on with a piece of string, but was seriously worried about the whole thing going up in flames. I think it did about 120,000 and that's the only fault.

The first 406, the aircon compressor was faulty. To start with, I thought it was just very inefficient. Then it completely seized. It actually stalled the engine. It was a wonder the cooling belt didn't snap. This was clearly faulty from new.

The second 406, the cooling fan wouldn't come on. It would overheat and die. It needed a new "black box". Anoyingly, Birmingham weather being what it is I didn't notice until it was over a year old. I'm sure it was faulty from new though.

Both 406s had hideous engine management. The "fly by wire" throttle only seemed to have about 8 settings, so you had no control over the power at low speeds. It was also erratic; it just didn't respond sometimes. Faulty by design.

Other various cars:

I had a Fiesta where all 4 wheel bearings went in the first 10,000 miles. The throttle cable also snapped one time on the motorway, which was fun.

I had a Fiat which broke down almost every day.

I also had a Nissan Primera which I absolutely loved, but had a silly design flaw with the electrics. Namely, the screen wash was on the same fuse as the lights. If your washers froze up, it blew the fuse and plunged you into darkness. The company had about 50 of them, and they all did the same. Other than that, it was great.

I had a Ford Escort 1.6 petrol which did 200,000 miles and nothing went except the usual wear-and-tear stuff like the exhaust.

I had a Mondeo for 3 years. It was extremely boring. It never broke down and it all just worked perfectly. However, one of my mates the turbo went about 70,000 miles. I only did 60,000 in my identical model.

I had a Vectra for about 2 years. I hated it because it was noisy and uncomfortable, but it never went wrong.

I think most new cars are pretty reliable to be honest, unless you buy something a bit silly.

I do quite fancy a 1.6 205 GTi mind you.

Thank you Al

Bally, what are you driving that a 207 GTI isn't quick? sub-7 second 60 time not enough for you?! Not to mention mid range performance.

Turbos do not just "go". People drive turbo cars like they're NA and then the turbo breaks (and/or certain DERV owners decide to clog us all up when overtaking!) Like most things, turbos work well when treated correctly. My last MK3 Golf TDI managed 140k with no turbo problems and I only don't have it now, because somebody wrote it off for me. My current Octy has done 125k and again, the turbo is fine.

You only need turbo timers and such extreme care on large turbo, specialist vehicles. The technology has been perfected in small/medium turbos for both DERVs and sporty petrol cars.

Once you've driven forced induction, (in the majority of cases for everyday driving not involving large HEMI powered yank tanks) you won't wanna go back.

I had a 309 diesel, wouldn't start if there was less than half a tank of fuel in it!

I had a Golf and Passat, I'd swap a VW out before it gets to 200,000 miles...

I had a Renault Laguna, it had more rattles at 30,000 than my Passat had at 120,000...

I've also never seen an "older" Peugeot with a working speedo, the worst were the 4 series, the uses to bounce +/-20mph!

Crickey you can get a good Audi A4 1.9 tdi for that and they aren't properly run in until 100k

Don't get him started. All non racing cars are slow and handle badly. Not that he's old enough to drive them mind you.

I did wonder

John, any news?

Had the same thought!

When I asked the guy at BMW about allowing turbos to cool before turning the engine off, he said you didn't need to. Whether this is down to better oils that don't oxidise or what I don't know. All I do know is that I'll soon have two to "worry" about.

I'd have a Google for 'BMW Turbo problems' before handing any cash over...

I did, and apart from a few that appear to affect the 320d, there doesn't seem to be a problem. Anyway, it's under warranty for 12 months and by the end of that time, if it hasn't broken, it probably won't.

BMW drivers are for the most part ignorant assholes in my experience. They expect the newer turbo cars to "just work" just like their old 525 did. As I said before, take care of your car and it will love you back.

Most magazines are paid to give favourable reviews. Just talk to other owners (obviously you are already asking this), independant review sites, maybe a main dealer Peug mechanic if possible and go on Peugeot forums, see what warranty stuff is going wrong on them.

If you want reliability, buy Korean or Japanese. Hyundai and Honda are I think globally the most reliable cars with Toyota following very closely.

So on Friday I'll change into a partial ignorant asshole?

That'll be quite a change from the kind of driver that buys a Honda Accord..