Partridge

Where's the fun in that?

Thanks for clearing that up! "405s are shit". I didn't know that my car was shit before I read that, but now I know that my car is shit. "spending large-ish sums of money on 405s is retarded" I didn't know if that was retarded or not, but now I know that it's retarded. I was considering having the sills cleaned up on mine and getting the cambelt changed, but now I'm thinking that could make me retarded, so perhaps I should just cut my 405 up into little bits and set fire to it or something? Let me know what you think is best. Cheers, Sam

I really shouldn't work, but it does. Jesus, I wasn't aware 205 Gtis were going for that much.

It's not a proper French car unless it's made badly Mind you, they can't be anywhere near as bad as the 307 and first gen 308. Even a Peugeot PR woman admitted to me that they were poorly made. The 405 seems to be something a pinnacle for Peugeot, in many ways.

Mine is a late one, and it's a weird mish mash of cheap rubbish and nice materials. The door handles feel more delicate than Rover 800 ones (which are more delicate than Donald Trump's ego) and the indicator stalks feel like you could pull them off with your bare hands if you tried hard enough. On the other hand the dash is as nice as anything the Germans would come up with in the 80s/90s and nothing rattles.

This forum is the only place where you'd struggle to know if that comment was sarcasm or not.

I've not tried a 406, but from what people have said I'm expecting them to feel like baby 605s?

I was selling my old Accord for £250. What I can only describe as Desi Tweedledum and Tweedledee came to look at it, said it had a cheap aftermarket catalytic so offered me £80. It took several attempts to get them off of my driveway. They then sat in their other Accord that was parked over the road, and phoned me, offering £90. For god's sake, just pay the asking price, it's hardly silly money! I was glad I held out, as next week a bloke rang me offering £200, which I accepted. He came with the cash the next day and drove it off, pleased as punch with it.* None so queer as folk! *Just wait until the cambelt snaps.

I'm no mouth frothing fanboy, but that's a little unfair. The trim, with the exception of the nasty door handles is very well made IMO - and I'm comparing it to my V70 and my W124. The steering gets lighter once you get to proper speeds, and as for comparing it to Mondeo, remember that it came out about six years after the 405! You could buy them at the same time, but the 405 must have been a revelation back in it's day.

Oh, I agree completely. Mine is a weekends only thing, and we maintain it to the point of obsession. To drive it into the ground would be a crime, especially with it being so rare. To be honest, I'm quite pleased they're appreciating - they deserve their time in the sun.

For something still in "worthless old French car" territory that's an insane amount of money. But if he's spent that kind of cash on it, he's going to look after it!

"Due to time waster" possibly?

OK, I was watching this on Ebay out of interest. Because being an STdT it's essentially the same spec as mine, basically being an STI with an oil burner and three pedals, so I was curious to see what it went for. (picture stolen from ebay.) After creeping up every day that it has been listed for, it's sold for £3,500! This has baffled me. Yes it's a nice car, yes it's a nice colour but how can it be almost four grand's worth of shite? It hasn't been relisted, making me think the sale is genuine. Most non Mi16 405s still seem to be neigh on worthless. I'm genuinly interested to see what we all think made this one sell for so much. Part of me is wondering if this will nudge up values for all 405s and start to put the nice ones out of A.S territory Should we be stockpiling them...?

Most Chinese tyres seem to have daft names. It seems to be common practice to to use one prefix or suffix from established, good brands and then attach it a random word, giving us crackers like "Uniglory" which were on my Laguna, and "Roadstone". On the subject of Barum, the 405 came with them. It still has them, and I'm a big tyre snob. They seem perfectly fine, even in the wet. That's going in my signature.

Volvo: One of the rear doors sometimes won't shut properly, announcing it's state of non-closedness by the interior lights staying on, and the little red light in the door wheel glowing over the rear seats. Slam it to close it, and it makes a very ugly rattle. Nothing seems to fix it. Peugeot: The backlight for the gear selector has gone. Probably easy enough to fix, but there's been more pressing things to do on it. Merc: Noisy indicator relay. Again, probably easy to fix but I'm quite apathetic about these things so it will stay noisy.

Cheers! To be honest, it's probably not even "worthless". With the 30th anniversary coming up this year, I think they will start to rise in value soon - and rightly so. But that's not the point.

It wasn't that rusty. But it ended up living outside my parents and being injected in by the local junkies, so yes. Somebody did a wee in it, as well.

Probably about time I did a thread about this. In about September time I was looking for another 605, as I'd really been missing mine. One really clean looking one with sub-100k miles was located in Kent by my other half, and I made an appointment to see it. I phoned the chap up to ask if we were still on and the reply was: "No, I've changed my mind, I've scrapped it." There was this really nice 405 for sale (also in Kent) that I'd had my eye on as well. Out of spite more than anything else, I drove down in the V70 to look at it. Here's what I found: It had the nicest story ever. It was being sold by an elderly lady, who only went in it once a week by her daughter when she driven to the shops. Prior to that it was her husband's car, who owned it from 1996 up until his death in 2008. Before the husband, it was owned by his friend who worked as some sort of manager at Peugeot Talbot UK. A Peugeot dealership showed it off as part of a display when the 407 came out, which is a nice bit of history to have. Their son, who was selling it for him Mother had a tear in his eye when he told me all this. They'd be keeping it if she could still get in and out of. Some people had phoned up wanting it for the rare STI seats and door cards, so he was thrilled when a genuine car person came to view it. The only faults they were aware of was a heater that sometimes went on strike and a sticky rear window. I didn't even haggle and said yes before the test drive was finished... The next week we went to collect it, and the drive home went smoothly. Once I got it home, I couldn't resist a little photoshoot. But enough sentimental crap - it was time to get down to business. The non working heater was quickly traced to a thermostat that n'march pas. Since then, we have a new problem. The heater has two modes: off, or "extremely on". Leave it on too long and you'll get a waft of boiling vanilla scented air freshener in one of those nasty little bottles that I can't be arsed to unclip from the air vents. My other half thinks it's "part of the car", and seem as we have shared ownership of it, I dare not mess with her vial of vanilla Carplan shit. The front brakes also had a habit of binding (to the extend one had to rev the car in drive before it went anywhere). I could see it flying down the drive and ending up in the lounge if I wasn't careful, so this went on the to do list. They also made a nasty clunky feeling under the pedal at low speeds. Not nice. The rear end caps on the sills are needing attention as well. We've also started to fill the house with 405 trinkets and general bollocks. More on that later. Last week it went in for a service and a new aux belt. I also instructed the garage to look into the sticky brakes. A lot of swearing happened from Stefan, the mechanic I use, as the bottom pully was bollocksed and didn't want to move. That's arrived so I'll see how it goes when it spoils his day again next week. Taking the front brakes apart and rebuilding them has worked, they don't stick or clunk! Hurruh! But what's that nasty looking brown stuff? Fuck you, rust. It's been undersealed since this photo and will be done properly in the better weather. This should get it through winter - or what's left of it. Anyway, this is what it looks like now after some TLC. And this is what it looked like two hours ago after I took it out to stretch its legs. Yes, that is an original dealer sticker! I love it, and so does my girlfriend. It drives really, really, really well. It feels like a new car to drive, and is far more quiet and modern feeling than I was expecting it to be. So what's next? Mechanically, it's sound, so I'm free to sort the body work and make it shiny and nice. Once the small amount of grot has been done, we're replacing the front wing. We have one from old new stock in the downstairs loo, unpainted. That will going to a bodyshop in the Fens which has a spectrometer. I feel a little bit mad sinking money into a 405, in a quest to make it "perfect" - but I guess that's what Autoshite is all about?

CALL YOURSELF AN ENTHUSIAST???????

I scrapped one last year. Should I kill myself?

Luxo barge. Check. Rough paint. Check. Money pit potentiality. Check. Is probably actually a bit broken (slightly). Check. I'm tempted. This has "Partridge" written allover it.

I was after a T5 to replace this, but somehow I bought a Mercedes instead....

Selling this has been interesting so far. So far I've had two sellers who offered to come round the next day and take it away for the asking price, then vanished without a trace after I gave them my postcode (one of which was from this forum). Somebody on Autotrader ask me if I'd accept 150 quid an a Fiesta MK2 with no MOT. Somebody else on Autotrader offer me sexual favors in return for the V70 (I'm not joking). If this is anywhere near as teeth-grinding as my last experience of selling a car, this may end up like my Laguna and get baled before the end of the month.

I'm half considering sorting the starting issue, tarting it up and chancing my arm for double what I'm asking here.