Let This 194bhp Peugeot 406 Coupe V6 Charm You For Just £1250

Peugeot was given a kicking in the early 2010s over its products' ability to alienate anyone who likes cars, but that's changing fast - so we've looked back almost 20 years to the last time we wanted a Peugeot just for its style...
Let This 194bhp Peugeot 406 Coupe V6 Charm You For Just £1250

This week we may have been drooling over a Peugeot, of all things, but it’s actually not the first time. We lusted after the French brand’s wares solely based on looks in the late 1990s; specifically the sleek and streamlined 406 Coupe.

Just look at it! The wheels are as dated as your grandma’s living room but that achingly cool Pininfarina-penned silhouette still does the business 20 years on. Rarely did the three-box shape ever reach such subtle heights of style and sophistication. Between this and the slightly brasher Vauxhall Calibra we were spoiled in the late ‘90s.

Let This 194bhp Peugeot 406 Coupe V6 Charm You For Just £1250

As you’d expect, a range of engines was offered, from four-cylinder petrols that couldn’t pull a nun off a chair to a creamy 3.0-litre V6 with 194-220bhp and plenty of Gallic charm. These days you can pick one up for not much money at all, and if you’d like one then you’d better get on it now – they’ve become surprisingly rare.

Did it drive well? No, not particularly, being just a 406 beneath the marriage-material shell. It had a level of dynamism that wouldn’t startle a sleeping meerkat. Instead, in V6 guise it was a comfortable and just-nicely-wafty cruiser that would always turn a few heads.

Let This 194bhp Peugeot 406 Coupe V6 Charm You For Just £1250

Just one is for sale on Auto Trader UK at the time of writing, with none on eBay Motors or Pistonheads and three on Gumtree. One has crept below £1000, but the rest hover between £1100 and £1800. For a car that looks more like £18,000 if it’s kept tidy, we admit we’re intrigued.

Our pick is this £1250 example from 1999, with 110,000 miles down and merely ‘average’ bodywork. As we all know, that basically means it’s a wreck on the outside. On the other hand, it has 12 months of MOT certificate. Not to be sniffed at.

Let This 194bhp Peugeot 406 Coupe V6 Charm You For Just £1250

Also good news is a set of leather seats, the fronts of which are heated and electric, for maximum bum comfort. They’re in amazingly good condition for the age, too. Ahead of them you’ll find a gear lever for the slushbox automatic and a cassette player. Younger readers will have to think of cassettes as kind of like music storage boxes that you pushed into a mechanical player to extract the tunes. They were all the rage once. Honest.

The seller claims the (budget) tyres have plenty of life left and that it drives ‘lovely’. With that fresh MOT and a fairly simple mechanical setup throughout, promising easy enough at-home maintenance, this could be an absolute gem of a runabout for at least the next year. As the French might say with a cheeky wink… tu sais que tu le veux.

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Comments

RWB Dude

I’d buy it… if i didnt live in the U.S. that is

06/08/2018 - 15:32 |
6 | 0

just 2 more years and you can import a early british 406

06/10/2018 - 14:08 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

This car is beautiful or a june se qua. As the french say

06/08/2018 - 15:33 |
4 | 2
HAYABUSA

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Jesus Christ 😂 that was quite “butcheré”

06/09/2018 - 12:59 |
0 | 0
Adrien Duval

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Took me a sec to understand😂

06/09/2018 - 13:02 |
0 | 0
Gabriel 7

(forget this comment)

06/09/2018 - 12:44 |
8 | 10

Best episode of Top Gear pause ever

06/09/2018 - 14:32 |
0 | 0

Thats from the crappy pugeot era

06/09/2018 - 18:24 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

My dad had a red one and its still one of the only cars that i can remember from my early childhood. Sad that they’re almost extinct.

06/09/2018 - 12:49 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

My dad bought one from a soldier. It was red and had a engine strut and everything. He bought it for £1250 sold it for £1500 and the guy who bought it sold it for £2000.

06/09/2018 - 12:51 |
2 | 0
CannedRex24

Me: hmmm what able great first car

Insurance ni🅱️🅱️as on realising it’s a V6: NOPE

06/09/2018 - 12:53 |
18 | 0

It also exists in 2.0 and 2.2L
There is even a 2.2 diesel engine

06/09/2018 - 21:42 |
2 | 0
Gabriel 7

it’s a nice car,
it’s almost like a Ferrari

06/09/2018 - 12:58 |
124 | 4

It looks way better than the Ferrari in that picture. How odd

06/09/2018 - 14:13 |
40 | 8

what ferrari is that?
im gotta say that the 406 looks better than the ferrari

06/09/2018 - 14:16 |
14 | 0
Anonymous

505 is the last good Peugeot.
This one isn’t bad, but not that good either.

06/09/2018 - 13:03 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

508?

06/10/2018 - 14:07 |
0 | 0