Car reviews

Introduction

The 806 is a good family MPV. It was built as a part of the mega invasion of the Eurovans. The Eurovans was a truly Pan-European project involving French and Italian car manufacturers in what was probably one of the biggest badge-engineering coups to date. On a platform that was developed by Sevel for their light commercial vans, four similar passenger MPVs were built: Citroen Synergie, Peugeot 806, Fiat Ulysse and Lancia Zeta. The latter was the top-luxury model, the Fiat was the cheapest and the two French models lined up somewhere in between.

Exterior & Interior

The Eurovans features a simple yet well-grounded functional design. They are hardly beautiful or ultra-modern, but the Peugeot 806 is very comfortable and flexible. Our favourite feature must be the double sliding door making it very easy to load and unload. Large and unruly families prefer the sliding doors to the conventional ones because those cannot be swung open by kids. On the other hand, the sliders have a greater potential of harming someone's fingers (no pun intended). The car is available either as a 6, 7 or 8-seater. In the latter configuration, the rear row of seats is only really good for children.

The cabin of the 806 is very flexible and you can make all sorts of combinations from the seats. Take them all out and you will find an amazing 3300litre luggage compartment, an impressive feat when compared to the 2610litres on a more expensive Volkswagen Sharan!

What the car does lose out on when compared with the Sharans or Galaxy, is the quality of the interior. Although the seats are comfortable, the materials are lower quality and the driver's ergonomics are not as thought through as on the German competitors.

Drive

It may be less refined than Volkswagen Sharan and Ford Galaxy, but you have to ask yourself whether you want to pay extra money for the VW or Ford badge. There is very little that you can fault on a Peugeot 806. It's a solid car with good ride quality and to a certain extent, there is satisfaction to be had from a large practical car that won't break the bank and will keep all the family happy.

Faults & Repairs

It's not the best of the Peugeot's cars. The smaller passenger cars are much more reliable, but the major systems and parts of the 806 are still decent quality, but the owners of the popular MPV have to prepare themselves for a rather long to-do list.

The most common issues related to the 806 are to do with its electrical components. The air-conditioning is more likely to leak than it is to stay dry. More leaks are expected due to faulty tailgate. Those two are not even the main parts that can develop a leak. The last, but not the least, is the engine coolant system and that is a serious issue. You have to check the level of the coolant regularly - if the car loses too much liquid, its engine can pack up completely.

The immobilizer and central locking are also common areas of concern. Another common electric failure is related to the ECU. The clutches and gearboxes are not as reliable as on other Peugeot's cars.