Performance cars are usually a forbidden fruit for car buyers. There’s the old wives tale of cars being unreliable, a white elephant to maintain, and an avenue to all the vices in life. How times have changed.
Hot hatches of late have evolved into more practical and livable cars that can easily be used on a daily basis, without putting a hole in your wallet. Today give a brief overview on why the Peugeot 208 GTi is one of the best used performance car bargain in Malaysia for under RM80,000.
Thanks to owners upgrading to its bigger brother the 308 GTi by Peugeot Sport, some really good examples of the 208 GTi are up for sale, like the 2 you see here. These car’s, which are part of the dealers Approved pre-owned car’s list, have a full service history, recall checks and is accident free. So we have listed 10 reasons why you should get either one of them if you’re in the market for one!
200bhp turbo power
That is Mk5 Golf GTi output from a 1.6 liter engine. The THP200 engine seen in the pre facelift car has the highest torque output when compared to its rivals like the Renaulsport Clio RS and the Ford Fiesta ST. On touge runs it’s very obvious as the car pulls from very low. This, while still maintaining a decent consumption figure of up to 7.8 liters / 100km and only about RM96 in annual road tax.
Last of the manuals
One of the pleasures of the 208 GTi is its manual gearbox. Its very robust and has been fault free for almost all of the 208 GTi owners club members. Some cars have been tuned to put out a little more output and the gearbox usually coped with it fine. The most amazing part is the car is very easy to live with in daily traffic. Most 208 GTi owners use their cars daily for work and thanks to its light clutch and throw, the gearbox is very easy to live with.
Perfect handling for our roads
We have mentioned this before; this car has excellent handling thanks to its finely tuned dampers and ride height setting. The grips good, the balance is perfect for a front drive car, and it can easily be thrown around the corners with confidence. And unlike cars who depend on torque vectoring, this cars handling is good old classic hot hatch!
Aces of Space
Despite looking compact on the outside, the 208 GTi has got plenty of space on the inside. A six footer can easily sit in the back seat comfortably for a long period of time. Child seats get in and out of the car easily and the seats fold flat. The boot space is actually bigger than that of the Perodua Myvi by almost 40 liters. So it’s definitely practical.
Proven safety record
Unlike these accident free cars, some GTi owners have been unfortunate enough to be involved in some pretty harrowing road accidents, from a head on collision, from a highway sideswipe by an express bus and even going off the road. Thanks to largely the car and its safety systems, these guys walked away without any major injuries. The car was given an Euro NCAP Rating of 5 stars at the time of its launch and comes with ISOFIX child seat harnesses, and that is an invaluable benefit.
THAT pano roof
The ENORMOUS panoramic roof in this car makes it feel a lot more spacious than it is and at night truly makes the whole driving in the city experience magical. Panoramic roofs are a feature mostly reserved for car’s costing double what the Peugeot 208 GTi cost back when it was new, so this is a premium feature in a bargain performance car.
Extended warranty program
Both of these cars shown here enjoyed a 5 year warranty and are part of the extended warranty program which is honored by Peugeot Malaysia itself. These cars now come under the 7 year warranty program introduced by Peugeot last year and both cars have warranties up to December 2020 and June 2021 respectively.
For once, a reliable Peugeot?
Not that the warranty is a stern requirement, these cars are pretty reliable. We have listed our experience of maintaining our Peugeot 208 GTi in our 70,000km report which you can read here via this link:
https://routehunters.co/2018/06/18/the-peugeot-208-gti-70000km-later/
At the time of writing that piece the extended warranty program was not in effect but thanks to its rollout it’s a much needed peace of mind over an already reliable car.
Relatively low running cost
Also you can refer to the running cost in our earlier long term report on the Peugeot 208 GTi. The brakes last you for about 60,000km, the suspension system about 65,000-75,000km depending on your driving style. The parts cost of these items is not that expensive when compared to that of a Japanese performance car, as the prices are in the same ballpark.
Also being a 1.6 liter engine car running on 17 inch tyres, its also low in terms of fuel consumption and tyre replacement cost. You can get a set of 205/45/17 inch tyres for as low as RM300. Handy when you’re buying 2nd hand.
God bless depreciation
The final benefit of buying second hand is that you do not have to pay for the depreciation. Having said that, the car’s managed to hold more than half its value after all these years, which means the value of the car was pretty decent. Still since it was only RM140,000 brand new, either one of these cars can be your’s for under RM80,000.
These owners are not selling their cars because its riddled with problems or they are bored with the car. It’s because the 208 GTi’s big brother, the massively talented 308 GTi’s price has finally been revealed. For more information on these cars contact CS Euro’s Jerry at 016-5242479 for more info about the two cars.
Route Hunters will be coming up with a 130,000km report on these cars. What would you like to know about the Peugeot 208 GTi? Share with us in the comments below!
