There’s a Peugeot 508 on test with PH at the moment. A Peugeot Sport Engineered wagon with 360hp, it’s a fine alternative to even the usual fast estate options, let alone the obvious SUV ones. But it might also serve as an even more significant car in Peugeot's current lineup - it could very well be the last performance-focused derivative of any kind. Oddly no other model has a PSE variant, and the £55k flagship 508 hasn't sold in huge numbers. Once it’s done, Peugeot shows little sign of wishing to inject its EVs with any performance pizzazz.
Hopefully, that will change. With any luck, Peugeot will take a leaf out of Alpine’s (i.e. Renault's) book and take electrification as an opportunity to pursue new enthusiast-focused ventures. Or perhaps not - we’ll have to wait and see. Until then, there’s the 508 to assess - more on that very soon - and the glory days to revisit. The 306 GTI-6 would have been a great hot hatch even in a crowded sector; with so few good ones around in the mid-to-late 1990s, it was a hero from the start. It looked fantastic (still does, more than 30 years after the standard car was launched), drove brilliantly thanks to Peugeot’s deft chassis tuning, and romped down the road thanks to having six gears, not much weight, and a rorty 2.0-litre 16-valve up front. It wasn’t a complex recipe, yet it was expertly brought together. The 306 was the class of the field for the entire time it was on sale, and that probably would have continued into the 21st century.
Accordingly, everything is in the GTI-6’s favour to have a chunky asking price now set against it. We’ve seen it with the smaller 106 GTI, the older Peugeots, racy Renaults and classic Citroens. The 306 Rallye tends to attract a premium, too, even with a negligible weight saving and the annoyance of having both air con and electric windows deleted. Surely as much is gained there as is lost - the GTI-6 still looks like the one to have, especially if that A/C is still working.
Yet this 82k-mile car is £5k - £4,950 to be exact. And that barely buys a rusty MX-5 from 1998 these days. This one has been with the owner for almost 20 years, which is an encouraging start, and has had the all-important cambelt, water pump and tensioner recently done at a main dealer. It even has three keys. The MOT is said to be free from advisories, all four tyres are matching Avons, and those fantastic Cyclone wheels still look good.
As a 1999 model, the GTI-6 will be 25 this year, and therefore isn’t quite perfect, with a tear to the driver’s seat and lacquer peel to the roof. But the seat must be fixable and you don’t see the roof much; we’d surely all rather prefer a mechanically sound example with some cosmetic imperfections than a car polished to an inch of its life that’s hiding mechanical maladies.
For a long time, it’s been suggested that the GTI-6 was a shoo-in for appreciation, and certainly there have been some big asking prices attached to very low mileage Rallyes in recent years. But perhaps they just won’t, and perhaps somewhere around £5k is where well-loved and enjoyed 306s will continue to trade for a little while yet. Which sounds like great news for those of us still keen to own and enjoy one of the undisputed greats. We should get someone important from Peugeot in one - perhaps it’ll change their mind on what the future of performance cars should look like…
SPECIFICATION | PEUGEOT 306 GTI-6
Engine: 1,998cc 4-cyl
Transmission: 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Power (hp): 170@6,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 142@5,500rpm
MPG: 30.1
CO2: 224g/km
First registered: 1999
Recorded mileage: 81,974
Price new: £17,258 (1996)
Yours for: £4,950
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