Used Peugeot 207 2006 - 2012 reliability

The 207's diesel engines can sound rattly when cold, but this noise should disappear once they've reached operating temperature. Be suspicious if it doesn’t.

Also look out for electrical faults affecting the dashboard. In some cases, the LED dashboard display can fail completely and need replacing.

Early three-door cars sometimes had issues with the windscreen clips. Most will have been fixed by now, but it’s still worth making sure it’s secure.

Early examples of the 1.6-litre diesel engine (which is shared with Ford, Mini and Citroën) can suffer from turbo failure due to oil starvation. This is because the oil supply to the turbocharger can be blocked with carbon deposits. To fix the issue, you’ll need to replace the oil pump, pick-up pipes and turbo – an expensive job. Fortunately, 1.6-litre diesel engines built from 2008 onward use modified parts that prevent this problem from occurring.

Some 207s have been known to display a dashboard warning message about the anti-pollution system and the engine management light. This can cause the car’s electronics to limit performance and has been blamed on a physical engine fault and a software bug. Either way, Peugeot dealers are the only place you should take a car with this problem.

If the car’s electrical systems start to cut out, there's probably a problem with the alternator.

Wheel bearing and suspension damper failures have been reported. While these are far from common, you should specifically ask the seller if the car has experienced these issues. Of course, if the car has covered lots of miles, it could be due a new set of dampers anyway.

There have been no fewer than 18 recalls for the 207 during its life. They range from loose seatbelt mountings on early cars to chaffed brake hoses, loose battery earth cables and heated seats that might, ironically, overheat. If you’re in any doubt about whether your car might be affected, contact your local Peugeot dealer with the registration and VIN number to check if it has any outstanding recalls.

The 207 is quite an old car now and therefore didn’t feature in our latest What Car? Reliability Survey, so you should concentrate on the condition and service history of the car. Buy a well-looked-after example and it shouldn’t cause you too many problems or surprise you with any big bills. It should be no harder than its rivals on consumable items such as brakes, but headlight bulb replacement isn’t quite so easy, due to limited access.

Peugeot as a brand doesn’t have the best reputation for dependability, coming 24th out of 31 manufacturers in our latest Reliability Survey.

If you would like to see the full reliability list, head to the What Car? Reliability Survey pages for more information.