COAL: 1999 Peugeot 406 Coupe – Grand Touring, the French Way

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– Posted on August 27, 2023

You’re looking at probably the daftest purchase I’ve made thus far, and in the middle of an economic crisis no less. But the heart wants what it wants, and the 406 coupe is a car that I have adored since I first clapped eyes on one in a copy of CAR magazine in the late ’90s. It boggled my teenage mind that something so gorgeous and exotic-looking could be had for relatively sane money, and that it was entirely based on the mundane Peugeot 406 saloon. Ok, perhaps that’s not entirely fair as the 406 was actually a very accomplished car and I loved the one my mum had as a company car for a couple of years. Still, this was something that looked like it could be a Ferrari, and that was very cool. Sharing no exterior panels with the saloon, and being completely built by Pininfarina in Italy rather than by Peugeot in France, it actually is a pretty unique piece of work and is recognized as a fitting coda to a multi-decade-long relationship between Peugeot and Pininfarina. Why on earth the management of Peugeot thought they could do better than the Italians is a question that is best left for another day, ideally to be contemplated while gazing at the ugly mug of the 407 Coupe that replaced the 406.

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Surprisingly for the two-door allergic Sri Lankan market, half a dozen of them managed to turn up here, so occasionally seeing one on the road was always nice, which is when I realized that this car looks even better in the metal than it does in pictures, something to do with the surfacing and the details, I would guess. Anyway, despite the love I had for them, I didn’t really see myself getting one because I assumed there weren’t any good ones left, and anyway there were other cars higher on my bucket list. A friend of mine (Let’s call him J), was also a huge fan of the model and he had owned four of them over the years (two in the UK and two here), with this example being his latest purchase. I followed his cars with interest because he is a bit of a perfectionist and usually goes into great detail when sorting out his purchases (He keeps cars for even less time than I seem to).

This particular car actually was owned by the local agent for Peugeot and was driven by the chairman and a director for almost a decade, so it was pretty well cared for. It had then been purchased by someone who had barely any time to drive it, so the car had spent the past 7-8 years sitting still. J apparently got a very good deal on it and embarked on a recommissioning, which included a mechanical refresh and a respray of the original “Pulsar Yellow” paintwork. The major work was just getting wrapped up when J was suddenly informed that his residence visa to New Zealand, which had been in process for some time, had come through and he would need to get there by the end of 2022. Naturally, this meant he was looking to find a new keeper for the pug, in a bit of a hurry too.

Mid respray.

I had mentioned to him in passing that I might be interested when he was looking to move it on, so I was his first call on the subject. I wasn’t really considering taking on another car at that point, and said so to him. But he insisted that I at least drive the thing a bit, and even lent it to me for a weekend to use and see whether it would suit our requirements. It turned out to work well enough that my ambivalence turned into genuine interest, and we started talking numbers. He had originally planned to ask a very high price, and that was in fact the number that he indicated to other interested parties, but in the interests of wrapping things up, and because we were pretty good mates, he gave me a price that was significantly more reasonable and almost manageable. I countered with something a bit lower that I felt comfortable with and he accepted after a day of thinking it over. And with that, the Coupe came into my possession in November 2022. J had really done a pretty solid job with the sorting out, but a couple of issues did remain, which he disclosed prior to sale so that I was prepared.

Nice to look at from pretty much any angle.

The only somewhat major problem was the clutch, which was still the original and seemed to be on the way out. Early 406 models like this had a cable-operated clutch rather than a hydraulic one, and as the clutch wore out, the cable was put under increasing stress. Since there was no major drivability issue I figured that it would last a while, but of course, that came back to bite me in the rear end in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam at 8 pm one Saturday night a couple of months after getting the car. I had been crawling in a really bad jam for about 20 minutes and noticed that the effort needed for the clutch seemed to be slowly increasing. I was just making a mental note to have that checked when a thought flashed into my mind “I hope the clutch isn’t going to go out”. Not two seconds later, the clutch went to the floor and the car stalled out. I found out just how heavy a 406 coupe was while trying to push it to the side of the road (1315 Kg, if you’re wondering)!

Luckily for me, a couple of passersby helped out and I managed to get it into a parking lot. The most unfortunate part of this was that I was literally 10 minutes from home, after driving over 150 kilometers that day without any problems whatsoever. Oh well, at least it didn’t break down way out in the sticks. Anyway, a friend who is in the breakdown recovery business lived fairly nearby, so he came over and managed to drive the car without the clutch over to his place, where it sat for a few days while I figured the clutch out. After a bit of investigating, it turned out to be the cable that had failed, so it was rebuilt with some extra reinforcement (the stock cable is apparently not built very well), and I ended up replacing the clutch kit as well so that it was all done in one go. There’s TONS of space underhood, so doing any work on it is quite simple.

There really is a lot of space under here.

Speaking of underhood, motivating the coupe is Peugeot’s 2.0-liter “XU” series four-cylinder motor, which was the base engine for the model. The upgrade was a 3.0 Liter V6 that is said to turn this into a proper mini Ferrari, but we unfortunately only got the four in our market. Conventional wisdom writes this off as “old” and prefers the V6 or the later generation fours fitted from 2000 onwards, but I haven’t found anything to complain about. It’s a DOHC, 16 Valve unit, and as such revs eagerly and moves the car along pretty well. It even sounds quite decent when given the spurs, and doesn’t get harsh or thrashy at the top end of the rev range. On paper figures are 135 bhp and 137 lb/ft, which certainly doesn’t sound like a lot, but French horses must be well fed or something because the car doesn’t ever feel slow and moves briskly enough to be fun when you step on it. The five-speed manual box is well matched to the engine’s power delivery, and has relatively low gearing so accelerating through the gears is urgent. If I wanted to nit-pick, I would say the shift action could be better, because the throw is long, but at least it doesn’t feel vague. I think the Miata forever spoiled me for every other manual gearbox.

But the real star of the dynamic show is the chassis, without a doubt. The 406 comes from a time when Peugeot chassis engineers were at the very top of their game when it came to ride/handling balance and it definitely shows, especially on roads like ours. The coupe remains composed and comfortable no matter what the surface is, enabling you to make serious pace without worrying too much about what the road is like. The ride is quite as soft as, say, a 404 or 505, but I can live with that because in return you get handling that is very buttoned down with excellent body control. I have yet to find a corner that needed serious slowing down for, and the car just flows through at whatever pace takes your fancy. On paper, figures might not be remarkable, but on a real-world winding road, this car is capable of keeping up with much faster machinery.

A pleasant driving environment, with room for actual human beings!

Also, unlike most coupes, the 406 is a genuinely practical proposition. Although it looks small in pictures, this is actually a pretty sizable machine, being 182 inches long and 70 inches wide. It shares the same wheelbase as the saloon/sedan, so passenger space is very good indeed. Four adults can easily fit comfortably, and remain comfortable over any length of journey, because this is a true four-seater, not just a 2+2. Getting into the back requires a bit of flexibility, and I still haven’t gotten around to attempting to fit the car seat back there, but it’s a lot easier to live with than you’d imagine. Since the mechanicals are totally identical to the four-door, parts availability hasn’t been much of a problem so far, and even the parts that may not be available new are still easily sourced from breakers in the UK and mainland Europe. There are a couple of electrical niggles and a slow drip of power steering fluid that currently need looking into, but nothing too urgent for the moment. I’ve been fortunate to get to know an old ex-agent-employed Peugeot mechanic who knows these models pretty well, so he’s been very helpful at keeping the car functioning at its best.

Like most euro cars, it also seems to thrive on being used so I’m doing my best to see that it gets as much use as possible. After some discussion at home, we decided that we only really needed one daily driver and the Forester does that job well for the moment. So the “secondary daily driver” space is going to remain empty once the current incumbent departs, which means I’ll be forced to use the pug more. I have a feeling that this will prove to be a better choice than leaving it as a garage ornament!

Credits for the photos to OctaneHeads Sri Lanka.