406 HDi...Awful Drive!!!!

[ThePrisoner]

Last night at work I drove a Peugeot 406 53 reg HDi. I couldn't tell you what engine was in it, ie 90 0r 110 as I dont know much about diesel engines.

However although it was a 406 it was horrid to drive, possibly the one of the worst cars i've driven. It was slow, un responsive and the engine was rattling away.

However in the vehicles defence, it had covered 167,000 miles (of which all will be hard driven miles, as its a police car)

What are new HDi diesels like to drive with low mileage?

Pris.

[trem1]

what can i say but lush i have a 2004, 407 with 2.0 hdi 136bhp engine its done 35,000 miles and its awesome,its smooth,responsive,good on fuel

[406 express]

what reg was it? just got rid of hdi that had 167k on it and was driven like a police car!!!, sliver estate?

[DaiRees]

Last night at work I drove a Peugeot 406 53 reg HDi.

what reg was it?

[Blue406]

what can i say but lush i have a 2004, 407 with 2.0 hdi 136bhp engine its done 35,000 miles and its awesome,its smooth,responsive,good on fuel

Bastard

[jameslxdt]

Last night at work I drove a Peugeot 406 53 reg HDi. I couldn't tell you what engine was in it, ie 90 0r 110 as I dont know much about diesel engines.

However although it was a 406 it was horrid to drive, possibly the one of the worst cars i've driven. It was slow, un responsive and the engine was rattling away.

However in the vehicles defence, it had covered 167,000 miles (of which all will be hard driven miles, as its a police car)

it sounds like an bosch EDC HDi 90, they were a really bad choice in the 406, the siemens HDi 90 is sooo much more torquey and very responsive

[STALLED]

Thats a FARRRRRK load of miles for a car that age!!!

Haven't driven a diesel 406 yet

[neildavies]

First I've heard to say bad about the HDi. But I think a lot of that must be to do with it's life as a police car. It must have had a battering, similar to a taxi.

As for mileage, my last non HDi 2.1TD had well over 170,000 miles on it when I p/x'd it for the coupe and it still felt stunning. That was because the majority of the mileage was done on the motorway, unlike a panda car.

[Welly]

Forgive me if I'm wrong here prissy, I think you weren't driving it properly

Hear me out........You can't 'try to hard' in a Diesel (especially the HDi) you have to be sensitive to the power band and change up EARLY to get the best performance.

You'd be surprised at the level of pace you will get out of these Diesel's but it's not a race.

I NEVER rev my car, and allways change gear at around 2800 to 3000 RPM for optimum torque. Anything over 3000 and it just goes as flat as a pancake.

1st gear in my 110 is terrible, then 2nd and 3rd really pull well.

Oh, and the 'rattling' is characteristic, mine does a lovely rattle of it's own

[ThePrisoner]

Forgive me if I'm wrong here prissy, I think you weren't driving it properly

Hear me out........You can't 'try to hard' in a Diesel (especially the HDi) you have to be sensitive to the power band and change up EARLY to get the best performance.

You'd be surprised at the level of pace you will get out of these Diesel's but it's not a race.

I NEVER rev my car, and allways change gear at around 2800 to 3000 RPM for optimum torque. Anything over 3000 and it just goes as flat as a pancake.

1st gear in my 110 is terrible, then 2nd and 3rd really pull well.

Oh, and the 'rattling' is characteristic, mine does a lovely rattle of it's own

Could be why then, I was driving hard most of the night and putting in lots of revs. This is why I would never buy an ex-police car or taxi.

Our 55 reg Skoda Octavia vRS vehicle has done 170,000+ miles!!!!!!
In just over a year!

Pris.

[Welly]

Strangely, I would by an ex-police car, and nearly did. Remember the old Cavalier SRi 130 ? there was a place near Northampton selling off loads of them back in 1994 - ish. The police used them alot back then.

I understood the cars were meticulously maintained, even over-maintained.

I would pass on a 170,000 mile VRs though TBH

We have one or two police ''ossifers'' on here, Turbolag and one other (can't remember name).

[ThePrisoner]

Strangely, I would by an ex-police car, and nearly did. Remember the old Cavalier SRi 130 ? there was a place near Northampton selling off loads of them back in 1994 - ish. The police used them alot back then.

I understood the cars were meticulously maintained, even over-maintained.

I would pass on a 170,000 mile VRs though TBH

We have one or two police ''ossifers'' on here, Turbolag and one other (can't remember name).

Yeah the cars are maintained by our own workshop department regardless of cost. However the cars themselves are never run in properly! We took delivery of our 55 reg Octavia and it was being red lined to 8000 revs in first gear whilst driving to emergency calls since day one, bearing in mind this car only had delivery miles on the clock when it arrived...

Then there is the interior, never cleaned or washed. Prisoners spitting at you, blood, urine and other bodily fluids stained into the seats, (even had someone sh*t themselves once!)

Even though they are regularly serviced engine wise, police cars are genuinely not looked after by the police officers that use them, not topped up with oil until it goes into workshops, always running low on fuel, never checking coolant level etc. (unless thye are traffic vehicles).

From experiance this is the reason I would not buy an ex-police car, however if you are on a budget some bargains can be had! For example remember the old Sierra Cosworths? Most of them are shaggers now, but the ex-police ones were the best examples around, because they hadn't been on their roofs, engines were well maintained and lease companies did not want them back so the police sold them at auction at a profit and therefore they went for really bargain prices.

So there are pros and cons, my advice if buying an ex-police car is to do the research on the car you ae buying and find out what role it used to play in the force. Best buys are previously unmarked cars like ex CID cars etc that havn't been ragged about.

Pris.

[jameslxdt]

Strangely, I would by an ex-police car, and nearly did. Remember the old Cavalier SRi 130 ? there was a place near Northampton selling off loads of them back in 1994 - ish. The police used them alot back then.

I understood the cars were meticulously maintained, even over-maintained.

I would pass on a 170,000 mile VRs though TBH

We have one or two police ''ossifers'' on here, Turbolag and one other (can't remember name).

you should see the state some of the Volvo ex-police cars i have seen at work, they get propper mullerd, and the police sell them in such a state, you would think they have been very well maintained, and they have, but you drive a police T5 V70 and a regular T5 V70 with the same mileage, from the moment you turn the key its obvious

[406HDI]

It sounds like you drove a the 90bhp HDI, which to honest is a bad match in a 406 (the older XUD engine is arguably better!). The 110bhp engine is better. However both of these engines are very strong and are capable of very high mileages. Unlike the new HDI engines (in the 307 and 407s), which are quicker but not as reliable. This is mainly due to the complexity of the electronics and the FAP. Failures of the latter are common and expensive. I'm driven many 407s as hire cars, but would never buy one. The driving position is flawed (406 is much more comfortable to drive), and there are too many reports of problems.

[turbolag]

[quote="jameslxdt] it sounds like an bosch EDC HDi 90, they were a really bad choice in the 406, the siemens HDi 90 is sooo much more torquey and very responsive[/quote]Except the 'official' UK ones were all Bosch. Certainly on the 306 brethren, where the Bosch ECU'd models are in the minority, the Spunkie unit is less reliable and less tunable, and considerably less economical than the Bosch.

My '90, albeit rather fiddled with, is now approaching 80k miles in the hand's of t'other half is still smooth, reliable, responsive and unbelieveably economocal. And unlike the Mondeo ST-Ds (I love that abbreviation!) at work, doesn't ride like a church pew on castors.

Having driven 8 HDi's in the hunt for mine in the space of 3 days (3 x 110s, 5 x 90s) I can confirm there is very little in it performance or flexibility wise. The performance 'benefits' of a 110 are marginal, and i'd wager many bog standard Joe public drivers wouldn't notice the difference, unelss you pointed it out to them.

Overall, considering the 406 HDi is an 11 year old chassis with one of the first generation high pressure common rail units, it still compares very favourably indeed with many modern cars.