Peugeot 306 1.6 Meridian

Owned a Peugeot 306 1.6 Meridian for 4yrs, this year needed new set of wheels and front lamps for MOT. The lamps caught me out, as the mounting plate for the bulb had warped (using standard bulbs) thus the plastic lugs failed to hold the bulb in the lamp!

New lamps easily available at dismantler (bought new) are improvement on original design.

Only other major problem was a leaking heater matrix, costing £300 labor. With a little love, will do just about everything legal.

Last MOT the engineer showed me the underside - these cars don't rust on the underside.

The Peugeot 306 1.6 Meridian family car has unsurpassed grip, steering and body control, it's the car of the 1990's. Great value.

I think that the Peugeot 306 Meridian is a superb car offering a good allround package. The standard Spec is enough to put much larger models to shame, yet is all useful, not pointless gadgets.

The performance is acceptable and it more than keeps up with the flow of normal traffic, although I find the nature of the engine encourages you to keep it reving which does incurr some interior noise. The gearbox is also a little bulky at times although this tends to improve when the car warms up.

As is a common fault with a lot Peugeots the interior trim can rattle a bit although it is by no means a major downside.

But all of this can be put to one side when you actually get to drive it on a good road, the trualy enjoyable handling is enough to put a smile on anyones face.

Another plus side is that the insurance costs are remarkably low.