My mum's tales of woes

[Captain Jack]

So my mum had a bit of bad luck with her C4 2.0 HDI - in one day 2 weeks ago, she managed to rear end someone at low speed and then my dad, reversing out of our drive, scraped the side of it on the low wall.

The damage, to be honest, was minimal, and unless you really look for it, you cannot see the damage resulting from rear ending. There were a couple of snapped lugs but that was about it - no panel damage and the plastic bumper just sprung back to its original shape. But my mum is never happy and wanted it repaired.

The result is obvious. Because the snapped lugs are attached to the headlights, the whole cluster has to be renewed. And because they are the fancy lights, which follow the steering (it's a fully loaded model apparently), they cost £lol money. Result: write off. Why they can't simply epoxy glue the plastic thing back on is beyond me.

Anyway, they offered her £1000, which, after a big of haggling, was raised to £1500 - minus the excess of £200. I still think it's too low, considering age (13 years old), mileage (~80k) and top level spec as I cannot find one at this price anywhere. Whether it's because they've all been written off, I don't know.

In true mum style, she wanted a new right RIGHT NOW - despite the fact that she could wait for as long as it took to find a good one. Obviously, like most women, she doesn't listen. So she went to our usual garage, that occasionally sells cars, and bought the first car she saw for £lol. The car in question is a "blue Peugeot 207 1.4L petrol, 9 years old, 50k". Feel free to guess how much she paid for it but I'll start the bidding at £2000....

I haven't actually seen the car as she doesn't have it yet, so I have no idea what flavour the engine is and what toys, if any (other than parking sensors), she has. Basically, all she cared about was parking sensors and a petrol engine (she does very short distances, which was part of her woes with the diseasel C4).

[Welly]

FFS

Are all Mums like this? mine is. Binning perfectly good stuff because she's made her mind up and that's THAT.

Sounds like she's paid full Shiny Tax on it, I dunno £2,750.00 ?

And let me guess...."there's been loads of interest in this 207 love, it's a good job you're here I've had 5 calls about it already this morning"

sh*t, just realised it'll probably need a Cambelt? just had all this with the Renner - the mileage said it didn't need replacing but the AGE did

[steve_earwig]

Can you buy back of the insurers and get busy with the epoxy? Either punt it on or swap it back for the 207 if that turns out to be a small citrous fruit...

[Captain Jack]

OK, so the situation might not be as dire as I first thought. Just had an in-depth chat with her about the deal.

So the car is a Peugeot 207 SW S, which is a 1.4 VTi petrol model with 95hp, which is substantially better than its 8v counterpart at 70-odd bhp. Still slow but she doesn't need speed. 08 plate (July), 55000 miles, parking sensors and er... that's it, as far as I know. I've no idea if it has panoramic roof or any kind of sat-nav, but she didn't mention either, so I guess not.

Prior to delivery, it will have a full service along with a new cambelt and an 18 month MOT. Que? So, apparently the existing MOT will run until October time, after which she will get a 12 month one with no cost to her for any work done. Never heard of that before... Not sure how long the general warranty is - I guess 3 months but I forgot to ask.

Oh yes, she paid £3700... which I thought was quite a lot. You can get a very decent 407 for that. Or any other car in fact. A 406 2.2L coupe, for example. Or even a 407 2.2L coupe. I don't mind the normal 207 but the SW is just ugly from its rear-end.

[Captain Jack]

Can you buy back of the insurers and get busy with the epoxy? Either punt it on or swap it back for the 207 if that turns out to be a small citrous fruit...

I thought about it but I think she just wanted a new car! And I don't have time to work on it. Heck, I don't have time to work on my own car! At least we all now have a Pug - mum 207, dad 106 and me with the 407... Just have to convert the wife.

[Welly]

£3,700.00 at that price they can afford to carry out ALL the MOT's for ever......

Make sure they replace the cambelt KIT. I've had a car supermarket replace the BELT as part of a great* deal only to see the original tensioner sh*t itself a year later leading to me having to have the Cambelt done properly again anyway

[Captain Jack]

We more or less trust this garage. It's a French car "specialist" where I had all of my Peugeots worked on. Even though I now live around 45 mins away from it, I still take it there for MOTs and servicing as I know they won't screw me over unlike KwikFit type places.

But yes, it's still very expensive for what it is Let's just hope she's happy with it...

[trufflehunt]

Think if you got £1300 net out of an insurance company for an early C4,
you're doing rather well.

[jasper5]

Make sure she uses premium fuel in the 207, using standard fuel will eventually lead to mega problems ...trust me, I know!!!!

Watch out for engine oil leaks from the cylinder head...front left corner!! (Timing belt side)

[Captain Jack]

Hi Jasper - what's the deal with the 'standard' fuel? Doubt I can convince her to use 'premium', unless I can give her horror stories!

Saw the car at the weekend - not too bad, pretty poverty spect with the exception of the engine, which is "VTI" giving it 95bhp(!), and the panoramic sunroof thing - which I thought was quite cool (and something she didn't know she had until I pressed the button!).

Is it worth £3700... hell, no!

[rwb]

Should I be putting premium in the 2.0 180?