Marc Amsterdam wrote:

It is about managing customer expectations - Skoda do well because an
average Skoda owner doesn't expect too much, so when the car is pretty
good they are happy. Audi do badly, because their owners expect
perfection so a few problems become more of an issue.
Peugeot are appalling because the cars are rubbish and they don't give a
damn.

This seems typical of the 807 ownership "experience", but Peugeot will
not accept that there is anything fundamentally wrong with the car,
despite my more than 20 repairs and close to 40 faults.

I've been assured that mine is being dealt with by the Master Tech - but
having spoken to him, he has admitted that he ended up getting another
807 alongside mine to compare how the cars work rather than knowing what
he was doing.

But it goes beyond the dealerships - Peugeot UK's customer care is
non-existent. When they eventually get around to talking to you (it took
over a month in my case), they refuse point blank to do anything other
than send the car back to the dealers who you are complaining about.
Ethical behaviour is not something they have heard of, looking after a
customer appears to be positively frowned upon. Did you know that in the
UK, once you get a "manager" assigned, you can't actually call and speak
to them? You have to request a call back, which they say will happen
within two working days (by which they mean that if you call on Monday
morning you cannot expect a call before the end of Wednesday - two
working days _after_ Monday). In my experience it can take a week to get
the call; if you try to complain that it hasn't arrived you are told by
front-line staff that they will place another request. If you sak to
escalate, you are told smugly to write a letter and someone may get
around to dealing with it in five days (which is also a hopelessly
optimistic target). They are rotten to the core, with apparently no
oversight from upper management and no way of escalating complaints. If
you try, you eventually get a condescending form letter from the person
you were complaining about, and nothing changes.

They have my £23K, now nobody at Peugeot gives a damn that in almost
three years I haven't had a fully working car. Yes, I'm bitter. Yes, I
feel ripped off. I've driven over 1,000 miles just taking the car
backwards and forwards to the dealer. I've spent over a full working
week doing so, when you add up the time taken to go each way and waiting
at the service desk. I hate to think how much time I've spent on the
phone to the ironically-named customer care team at Peugeot UK.

The problem is that most of the trouble has been intermittent faults -
if I get an independent engineer in to do a report and they don't occur
in the hour or so he spends on the car, I'm down a couple of hundred
pounds and still have nothing to prove the case.

I used to love my Pugs, the 106, 205, 306, 405 and 605s we've had (more
than one of many of these) were all excellent cars, bullet-proof
reliability and a lot of fun. I'd still heartily recommend any of these,
but the current crop of cars are best avoided at all costs.

Matt

Hi Marc,

I tend to agree with you. I haven't seen the ranking yet, but these
"reliability" rankings just seem pointless to me. OK there are Pugs with
problems, like the 1st 307s, but you can't compare a BMW or a Merc's
reliability once you compare the servicing they have.
I won't explain the "Mercedes recall" here, I guess we all know how it
works. Where it seems to be robbery is when you compare the price of a
Mercedes to the equivalent Pug for example : with the gap there is on the
bill, you shouldn't find any default... Seen the lastest MB Coupe test (CLR
?), there are problems with it (trimming, adjustings for example) which
shouldn't be there for the price. The 407 Coupé V6HDI is almost perfect for
almost the same price, and far less options on the list.

That was my opinion on these reliability surveys, and although not working
for PSA or any of their affiliate companies, I'm just fed up with listening
they're crap.

Regards,
G.T
205 Diesel & turbo-Diesel : www.205d.com

I remember trying to vote in that survey and I couldn't, my car was
too new.  You also coundn't vote if your car was too old, and IIRC tha
maximum was something like 3 years.

So how long the engine lasts doesn't figure.  And the information is
probably at least a year out of date since they don't take data about
new cars (less than a year old IIRC).

Martin

Touch wood, my experiences have also been excellent. In the last few years,
I can think of nine Peugeots that have lived in my immediate family - they
range from my old '89 405 1.9i GTX, to my Grandad's brand new 306 1.6 Auto.
The only major fault we've had on any of them, was the headgasket popping on
my parent's 405 1.9D NA. And even that wasn't exactly major - the gasket was
replaced, and all was well.
I have no brand loyalty whatsoever - if Peugeot made crap cars, then I
wouldn't be buying them !