RE: Diesel Economy

My 307 SW HDI 2000 does around 35mpg round town and about 45 on the
motorway. Mixed motoring returns anything from 34 to 39. This is according
to the display of course!!

happy new year

Iain

Hi Keith,
I was attracted by the sales pitch that the 307HDI has exceptional fuel
economy.  Looked at 407HDI and must say that I love it, but it's just
too big to justify.  307 looks good, a bit roomier than my Corolla and,
hopefully, a lot better fuel economy.

Paul.

HI Everyone,

I have put together a response to some questions and also my own review
to the P307.  Please read if you can be bothered.  I would like that
most of the comments I have made here are of my own opinion.  If you
would like to add or disagree or inform me otherwise, please feel free
to.  I'd like to learn as much as possible.

I have 2003 307 Xsi 3 door hatch with 4 speed tip tronic auto and 2.0lt
petrol engine.  It has 85,000kms on the clock and I have owned it since
September 2005.  These are some things I have found.   I had some
knocking in the front when I pulled up at lights and took off again,
PUG dealer found it was loose engine mounts - not a known problem.  I
had a buzzing in the exhaust when I accelerated; exhaust needed welding
- known problem.  This was also fixed.  In hot weather, the display
screen used for your radio/trip comp/outside temp fades to almost
unreadable.  Any 307 owner who lives in a hot climate will tell you
about this.  This is a known problem and according to Peugeot, nothing
can be done about it whatsoever.  The display clears itself after about
15 mins of driving with AC switched on - give or take 10 minutes
depending on how extreme the heat is.  On cold mornings, my engine was
shaking severely until it warmed up slightly, was found to be damaged
lifters.  Luckily the car was still covered by the 5 year factory
warranty and these parts were changed and now all is working well
again.  Would have cost me over AU$1000 to pay for this repair myself.
I have a Clarion single disc CD player with the Blaupunkt 5 disc in
dash stacker.  This constantly loses its radio stations.  It programs
101.9FM as it's favourite on preset 1.  I have had PUG look at it.
They fiddled around with it and gave me a far fetched excuse as to why
this keeps happening.  They told me because I had all the same stations
programmed into all the 6 presets (107.5FM), this is why the radio
keeps going back to 101.9FM. Makes no sense to me why this would
happen.  They adjusted it for me only to find the next day it did
exactly the same thing.  My radio seems to really like FOX FM -
it's a really pity that I don't.  One more thing I had done was
replaced the cam belt.  This needs to be done every 80,000kms.  With
the 80K service, this cost me AU$1400.  Definitely not a cheap repair.

Apart from these problems and expenses, I have really enjoyed owning
the 307 and I WOULD buy another Peugeot again.  I am fussy, so any
little noise or abnormality in the car needs to be checked.  After
owning an Australian built 1998 Ford Fairmont Ghia, I can honestly say
that European built cars far exceed the quality levels of American,
Australian and Asian built cars.  As for what Sargasso said...you
really can't compare the Corolla.  They are cheap unenjoyable cars to
drive.  Yes, they are very reliable...but that's where they stop.

Recently my Peugeot dealer gave me a new 407 SW to drive for the day
while my 307 was in for some work...what a difference.  This car was
clearly a bigger, better performer.  It felt like a new BMW.  The
stereo sounded better, the engine has much more powerful and responsive
and the 6 speed tip tronic transmission gear changes were so much
smoother then mine.  Everything in this car felt like it worked better
than the 307.  The wipers cleaned the screen perfectly with no annoying
dirt patch along the side of the windscreen... but one thing it lacked
was compactness.  If they could channel the 407 comforts, features and
level of design and finish into a 307...then we would have the perfect
car.

Keith Holly mentioned that his 307 has poor reversing lights.  That's
because the car is meant to be a left hand drive, that's why the
reverse lamp is on the left side of the car.  Something that no car
manufacturing company has ever changed to my knowledge.  This is the
same for rear wipers...notice on European cars, the rear wiper rests on
the right.  In a left hand drive car, it rests on the passenger side.
You will also notice on the 307 the front wipers clean the screen
better on the left side.  The right side can leave a good 8cm from the
edge of uncleaned screen.  Very annoying when the car is dirty as you
can not see properly.  It has something to do with the way the wiper
arms fold on top of each other...they need to be the other way around
for right hand drive models.  Another thing you will notice is on the
tip tronic auto...the SNOW and SPORTS mode buttons are hard to
reach...this is because the buttons are on the wrong side.

If you're still thinking of buying a 307 Paul Griffiths, I can say the
307 petrol is "reasonable" when it comes to economy  My huge 4.0ltr
petrol engine I had used to clock up around 9.0ltr per 100kms on the
highway...this 2.0ltr petrol does about 7.5...not a huge difference
considering the Ford engine was literally double the size.  But, in the
city...the Ford clocked up around 14ltrs per 100kms...the 307, only 9
tp 10.  So clearly this is a good city car.  I'm not too sure about
diesel engines, I hear they're more economical when it comes to
litres per 100 kms...but I believe they are more expensive to service
and their service intervals are sooner.  Every 20K for petrol and every
15K for diesel.

If anyone has any more questions about my experiences, please email me.
I would love to hear from you.
Dan.