Peugeot 106 Rallye

Just under a year ago I succumbed to the idle, Friday- afternoon pleasure of surfing the online car classifieds. I suppose I did have a pressing reason to buy another car, but even so, the speed with which my brain accelerated from thinking ‘Ooh, I haven’t seen a 106 Rallye for ages’ to ‘Crikey, that looks like a good one’ and finally ‘You’ve got to have it! Call the bloke tonight. CALL HIM TONIGHT!’ still makes me think I’m slightly unhinged.

Anyway, I made the call, and went to look at it on the Sunday. Typically it rained just as I arrived, so it looked super-shiny, but it felt fresh on the test drive and my heart had bought it before we got back to the vendor’s house.

A fearsome bout of negotiating followed. Actually a miserable attempt at hardball deal-making ensued, but I didn’t hand over all my cash (a brace of £20 notes and a crumpled tenner remained in my envelope after I'd handed over £2700) and I left with a cracking, two-owner, 48,248-miles-from-new S2 106 Rallye.

Since then I’ve had a brilliant, terrible, cheap, costly, fantastic and frustrating time with the blue meanie, which makes mine the typical old-performance-Pug ownership experience. It got me home with no problems and ran fine for a while, but then a rear brake caliper seized and needed to be rebuilt, along with a new disc and pads. Then the engine decided to cut out randomly, usually at the most hair-raising moments. A new fuel pump cured that. Then came an oil leak, which I decided would be best cured with a fast road QEP head and Cat cam. Man Logic at its finest, I think you’ll agree.

On the plus side I’ve driven more than 4000 miles on back roads, A-roads and motorways, come rain, snow or sunshine, and I can honestly say the one thing that’s never failed is the smile that spreads across my face every time I drive it. You can find a more detailed breakdown of the, er, breakdowns, along with driving impressions, images and the extensive list of upgrades and refreshed parts in my blogs at evo.co.uk. Just go to the Community section, click on Evo Team, friend me up and have a read. Be warned, though: any resulting Friday afternoon impulse purchases may seriously damage your wealth…

Running Costs